Guitars and Life

Dear all readers... It is nearly Christmas - must be I've seen reindeer at the shopping centre.  Now some people are not having a good time Kenward Trust helps alcoholics and addicts to begin and sustain their recovery - they helped over 150 people last year in their residential rehab in Kent. So listen to my new Christmas Single "On Christmas Day" here - then go straight to JustGiving and donate £2 - just £2 please to go to this worthy charity Thank You

...thankfully. I got right back into Jimi Hendrix after watching that documentary I blogged about the other week.  So I have a Strat (my venerable old 1962 JV series Squier which is over 30 years old now) but seeing Jimi at the Isle Of Wight with the Flying Vee got me slight Vee obsessed for a few days. I ended up searching for a viable "copy" option.  I came across the Vintage V60 - which is an excellent take on the Vee but with an interesting twist.  See the photo below.  Note that the bottom bout is a bit shorter, similar to the Randy Rhodes signature model that has spawned many modern copies. Also note the little lump to help it stay on your leg - actually that reminds me a bit of the Burns Flyte.  However it still retains very classic hardware set up.  I've seen variants of this model (black V60) as low as £135 - which strikes me as a bargain real bargain. My Vintage acoustics are both super instruments. However fatally whilst trawling on eBay I ...

I've been thinking on GREAT ALBUMS recently.  This has been due to me pulling out of the CD cupboard Steve Earl Copperhead Road - now that is just a blinding album. no duff tracks, Steve at his best songwriting and singing and playing.  Others... Living Colour - Time's Up Fleetwood Mac - Rumours Paul Simon - Graceland Supertramp - Crime of the Century Rush - Moving Pictures Joe Satriani - Flying with the Alien UFO - Strangers in the Night U2 - The Joshua Tree John Martyn - Grace & Danger Yes - Relayer Marillion - Season's End All these albums - there are more out there too, but these come to mind are ones that when I dropped then on the turntable for the first time (apart from Time's Up which arrived on CD probably... Season's End was a cassette as was Crime of the Century possibly) and they just blew me away and I had to put them back on straight away. If you don't know these do yourself a favour and try them out... also what are your list...

Found this on the Gordon Smith web site. Not only do you get to hear the very brilliant Steve Fairclough play you get to see his absolutely gorgeous 1981 Gemini - which he has had recently upgraded with the latest gizmo from Gordon Smith. Enjoy... Now I'm wondering about a retro fit to my Graduate!!!

I have more than a touch of admiration for Dario Franchitti.  He without a doubt in the top 5 drivers to come out of Britain since the likes of Damon Hill etc.  Probably in the top 3 actually.  Now it is difficult to do a straight comparison as the people I'd put him up there with are Lewis Hamilton (1 F1 world championship), Jenson Button (1 F1 world championship), Dan Wheldon RIP (1 IndyCar title, two Indy 500 wins) and Alan McNish (3 Le Mans 24 hours, 3 ALMS series championships). Alan McNish had a brief F1 career with Toyota which whilst the biggest budget possibly in the paddock never seemed to have a car and engine that could be regular podium let alone winner material.  But you could say Lewis and Jenson are better than him as they succeeded where he didn't maybe.  Dan sadly never really got an F1 break and did turn down a chance to be a test driver however Dario's record arguably puts him ahead of Dan as they fought side by side in IndyCar for a while....

I'm revisiting this book having finished reading it yesterday. I was really, really impressed with it.  It is a super read, challenging at times and not a light hearted jovial read but I thoroughly recommend it. The scenario is two boys born on the same day in 1920. The same day the Nazi party was founded.  One was born a jew, but his twin brother was still born.  The hospital ask the Jewish mother if she would raise the second boy who is an orphan his mother having died in childbirth.  Two boys, one Jewish, one not but both being brought up in a Jewish family in the 1920s and 30s in Berlin.  Some of the book is written as a retrospective from the point of view of one of the brothers, the one that survives WWII in 1956. Cleverly written which plenty of twists, some of which I did suss out but the book is no worse for that.  However being put into the shoes of these boys and their family and friends during those times has brought alive to me some of th...

Steve Rothery - guitarist with Marillion is auctioning off a Squier Strat to raise money for a friend who has a brain tumour. NOT the very famous black SQ series one with the large headstock and Kahler trem as used for many many years up to around Anorak etc. but an E series model with some mods on it.  But it is one Steve has used as a backup on tours etc. Here is a video of Steve Demoing it.  As I write this the bidding has got up to £1,120.

Re my Jimi Hendrix post - the same documentary is available in the USA via PBS .

There was quite a good Jimi Hendrix on the BBC the other night that I recorded and got around to watching. It did a good job of showing a little bit behind the image - the flamboyant showman on stage grinding his guitar into the Marshall stack or smashing it up after setting fire to it.  The famous scene from Monterey where he did just that with his psychedelic painted Strat was shown again for the millionth time.  But one good thing was showing the reaction of some in the crowd - he really shocked a lot of Americans that day.  I suppose from England where The Who and others had made obliterating your gear a bit of a angry young man statement a few years before it wasn't so shocking, in mainstream America then I guess it was. Like I say though a few glimpses of the shy quiet man behind the image.  Also some great bits with Eddie Kramer talking about some of the recordings he did with the man.  Of course the legend lives on due to his untimely death due to a...