General News

Tewkesbury Concert

Saturday June 22nd at the Roses Theatre Tewkesbury saw the repeat of last year's fund raiser for the Milestones special needs school that Oliver Wakeman’s daughter attends. The line-up was the same as last year with Carrie Martin, Oliver Wakeman, his son Arthur Wakeman and finally the legend that is of course Rick Wakeman.

Last year's concert was very special for personal reasons and was a great success and I didn't think that this year’s concert could possibly eclipse it but my goodness it did!

The evening was a fine mixture of musicians interacting with each other. For example, Oliver joined me on three of my pieces and brought back fond memories when we toured together in band and duo format supporting Barclay James Harvest. We did Isabella's Wedding, Roots and then a rousing rendition of Heartsong which brought the audience to its feet with a standing ovation.

The wonderful Carrie Martin was joined by Oliver in her opening set and in Oliver's set Carrie sang on his material.

Thanks to Bill Sandalls and Jeff Cooper for the photos.

For me the highlight of the evening was to hear Carrie sing Morning Has Broken whilst the great Rick Wakeman reminded us of his sublime piano arrangement that truly brought the Cat Stevens original to life back in the day.

The auction in the second half of the evening raised a goodly sum and the artist Rodney Matthews once again donated some of his superb, signed prints, also JHS the distributors of my GG guitar range donated a cracking high quality acoustic for the event.

The concert along with money raised from the raffle and auction was the princely sum of £16000. All in all a night to remember.

Oliver has added some footage on YouTube which you can view HERE

A look back

It's not often I revisit my past albums but since performing onstage at Tewkesbury recently with my old friend the brilliant Oliver Wakeman I thought I would listen to our Ravens and Lullabies album from 11 years ago.

It reminded me what a genius the man is and although it's a Giltrap Wakeman collaboration this really and truly is the great man's album. Without his overall vision, production and engineering skills let alone his outstanding songwriting and composing skills this album would never had happened and I'm proud to have been a part of it.

He singlehandedly found the studio, the sound engineer, the musicians and vocalists for the project, designed the album cover and secured the recording deal. On top of that he really brought out my electric playing and somehow made me sound like a proper electric player as opposed to an acoustic one attempting to sound convincing as an electric one.

I know some folks will disagree with that last statement, but I never felt comfortable playing electric and always felt "I got away with it."

I was 65 and struggled at times to keep up with Oliver's drive and astonishing energy but my goodness it was worth it.

If you have never heard this album do check it out, you won't be disappointed. It’s still available on Cherry Red records I believe and on the usual digital platforms.

Bath

On the 17th of last month Sue and I drove down to the wonderful town of Bath for a photo session and interview with my dear old friend David Mead of Guitarist magazine to chat in depth about the pre-Fylde guitar made by Roger Bucknall in 1972 for Bert Jansch. I say pre-Fylde because this magical instrument was made by the great Mr Bucknall before the formation of what was going to become Fylde guitars. (More pictures in last months news)

After having several pics taken of me with the guitar and standalone detailed shots of the instrument David I adjourned to the office for a chat. Whilst there our old friend Nev Marten dropped by to say hello. Both men were keen to play this special guitar, and both declared that it was indeed VERY special with its own Mojo.

I don't want to pre empt the interview but I'm really looking forward to seeing it when the magazine is published. By which time hopefully all I had to relate about it will be there in print accompanied by some cracking photos which hopefully will be kind to this ageing Troubadour.

I have no photographs from the photo session but just this one taken outside the famous cafe that was used as a dress shop for a number of episodes in the costume drama Bridgerton.

Vintage GG guitar

I know what you must be thinking..." Not another guitar" but I just couldn't resist buying this at a crazy knock down price on eBay. I bought the guitar from a lovely chap called Kevin Bill who very kindly delivered it to my home along with a very nice Crafter amp. Although this guitar has seen some action I'm pleased to report that it sounds fabulous and to my ears is one of the nicest sounding Vintage GG deluxe models I’ve ever played.

It was a pleasure meeting Kev and his brother. Kev is incidentally a fan which is always nice to know. I was so pleased with the deal that I gifted Kev with a nice old flamenco guitar once I had found out that all he plays is gut strung guitars. He appeared to be happy with the guitar and our time together.

Another guitar!

Yet again I couldn't resist buying this lovely old Canadian Norman guitar. It was a friend who saw it advertised on Facebook marketplace for silly money SO I drove into Warwick and bought it.

I like getting hold of nice instruments, giving them a bit of TLC and finding worthy players to give them to. One has just appeared so watch this space when it finds its new owner!

Jacket

I may have mentioned a while back that I have reconnected with my old record company boss Rob Ayling who is in the process of creating some amazing collectable limited edition GG box sets of CD and vinyl and never before released archive material. Believe me you will all know about it when these GG gems emerge.

There will be an online shop where whole a selection of GG product can be purchased. One of them is featured here in the form of a Varsity jacket with embroidered name in original font design from those heady days when I was a rock star!

Please forgive me posing but it had to be done.

Cloudburst pedal

I recently bought an amazing new fx pedal that has truly enhanced some of my more emotive and slow pieces like Loren and The Lords Seat.

It’s called CLOUDBURST by Strymon. The effect is so good it makes you sound like an orchestra...well violins and cellos really. I look forward to using it on stage.