General News

The Pete Townshend Studio

On the 10th of last month Sue and I were invited to attend the opening of The Pete Townshend Studio at UWL (The University of West London). It had been many a year since I attended that venue as a visiting clinician under the banner of RGT (Registry of Guitar Teachers) of which I was a patron now under the banner of The London College of Music.

This time it was to share in this special evening where my legendary friend Pete was officially opening the above-named studio. What Pete has kindly done was to loan the faculty all his classic vintage, rare and legendary keyboards and synths many of which can be heard on many of the Who's classic album tracks including 'Won't Get Fooled Again' and 'Baba O’Riley'. Pete has an historical connection with the University being a past Alumni from his art student days.

All the instruments are housed in a spacious area, they are there for the students to use and hopefully create.

Pete has an honorary doctorate from UWL and is now a visiting professor. What a privilege it must be to have such an incredible and world-famous connection with one of THE greatest rock musicians and creative forces in the history of popular music in the 20th century.

There were many legendary record producers and engineers in attendance including my old friend the record producer Sir Robin Millar. I hadn't seen Robin for over eight years although we had stayed in touch by email. After saying hello, he introduced me to his friend Chris Kimsey, who's name rang a bell and he revealed that he used to produce the Rolling Stones and Marillion plus many more.

Many old school musicians will remember Olympic Studios where many legendary musicians recorded their albums including the Stones and the Who. The studio closed its doors a while back, but Chris has acquired it and is currently restoring it and hoping to reopen in the new year. What an amazing thing to do bearing in mind that many studios have closed over the years because most musicians are producing their albums at home, such is the way that technology has developed.

Here's a pic of Sir Robin and I taken on the evening.

With Suzy Wall

On the 20th of September the wonderful Suzy Wall launched her new album at a delightful venue in Stourbridge. I was invited to join her on the song "Woman" on which I played second guitar.

Three days later found us on a narrow boat on a Welsh border canal performing three songs for the now famous Narrow Boat Sessions run by the delightful Mark in aid of charity. Suzy and I performed 'Woman' and another song from her album entitled 'Safe Harbour.' Both songs are profoundly beautiful.

We completed this trio of songs by performing a version of a brand-new GG piece entitled 'The Fox at Dawn' originally an instrumental piece but Suzy had written a melodic vocal section and added a piano to what is quite basically a simple repeated verse/ chorus type construction.

There is a video on YouTube HERE. Plans are afoot to do a proper studio recording for a collaborative album that Suzy has plans for at a later date. Check out her website for more information on the wonderful songwriter. Susy Wall Music

Two more significant dates from September

Friday the 13th saw the official online release of 'Chair on the Porch' with Julia Fordham along with the video and on following day the wonderful Carrie Martin played at Temperance in Leamington Spa the venue I played earlier this year.

As per usual Carrie did an outstanding show and as I currently stay just up the road in Stratford upon Avon with my dear friend Susan it made sense to drop by and do 'Time after Time' with her. It was a nice weekend and Carrie was able to stay over at Sue's place.

Carrie's playing and creativity continues to go from strength to strength!

Fixing Damaged Guitars

I don't know why but I just love getting hold of guitars that need a bit of TLC. I have a in my possession probably the finest guitars money can buy, a beautiful Gibson J200, my stunning Fylde's etc, including of course my signature Vintage brand acoustics which are just astonishing sounding guitars at affordable prices.

Anyway, I digress. Very recently I acquired two sad acoustics that I thought I could breathe life into, one being a Gear for Music budget Ovation copy that had been "stored" in a shed and the other a Valencia electro classical bought from Facebook marketplace for £20 that after committing to buy it unseen upon collection had totally damaged and missing tuning pegs!

Anyway, the first one belonged to a friend's son who no longer played it. I took it home, thoroughly cleaned it, re strung it and low and behold it sounded really sweet and played well! I exchanged the original covers on the twin sound holes and that was it. The built in preamp wasn't great but with a bit of tweaking works pretty well. You can still buy similar models from Thomann for just over a hundred quid, but these budget guitars are just great value starter instruments. Obviously both instruments needed new strings.

The Valencia needed a bit more work. I purchased new tuning pegs from eBay for £25 (more than the cost of the guitar) and with a few hours sorting out the frets and trying to find a way of securing the preamp battery it works pretty well, again the preamp left a lot to be desired but works perfectly well.

What do I do with these guitars? I keep them for a while and then gift them to someone who lacks funds for something better but in the process will have a little something of me in the vibe of the guitar.

Enjoy the photos.

Another Guitar

Yet another guitar but not one of mine this time but one built by my friend Paul White from just a body and pickups I gave him. Paul replaced the scratch plate and bridge added a neck and tuners and the end result is this sweet little Strat style guitar.

Paul had already played a gig with it and declared it "sweet and bright sounding."

Julia Fordham in Nantwich

On Sunday the 20th of October in Nantwich, I was scheduled to play an opening set at the start of Julia Fordham's UK tour, I was then going to join her in her set to perform our song ‘Chair on the Porch’. Sadly Julia was struck down the day before with the dreaded COVID but the date has been re scheduled for November 25th at Nantwich Civic Centre.

Other gigs

My last gig of October was at The Ropewalk in Barton upon Humber. I shall report back next month along with my Temperance gig on November 1st.

In the meantime,

Be well my friends.