Mick's Musings (the blog)

Sat 31 October 2009

L.A. Music club

A lot's been happening over the past couple of months. In September we had a visit from ALBERT LEE who put on a great "an audience with" style evening at the Roundhouse theatre. Albert talked about his career, showed some of the secrets of his playing style and performed a few numbers. We can't wait to get him back next year!

I first played alongside Albert around 40 years ago - and unlike me he just gets better and better!

Monday 03 August 2009

Dock Rock 2009

Monday 29 June 2009

Django Reinhardt Festival – Samois sur Seine, France

My pal Roger and I just got back from the annual four-day event commemorating the life and influence of the master of gypsy jazz guitar, the late great Django Reinhardt. Considering how long I've loved his music I can't believe I've never made the effort to go to the festival before – but I'm sure I'll be going again!

For those who haven't yet been, let me just say that it's an amazing experience. Hundreds of musicians, mostly guitar players, descend on the pretty little town of Samois sur Seine at this time each year. For a week, the local camp sites are bursting at the seams and pulsating to the rhythms of manouche jazz for twenty hours out of each twenty-four – so don't plan on getting much in the way of sleep! Everywhere, on the campsites, in the cafe's and bars, groups of musicians spontaneously form and re-form and all are welcome to join in. As a minimum, all that's needed is to be able to play the chord rhythms to a few of Django's tunes. Having said this, the overall standard is pretty good – most of these guys obviously work hard at their craft all year round – and a few of them could give the pros a run for their money. Talking of which, the evening concerts which take place in an idyllic setting on the little island (Isle de Berceau) in the Seine raise the musical stakes a good deal further. The organisers clearly book only the cream of gypsy jazz performers for these events and some of the playing is jaw droppingly superb.

The players come from just about everywhere and we made dozens of new friends during our few days in Samois. More than anything perhaps, I was struck by the friendliness, hospitality and generosity of everyone we met. Almost on arrival Roger and I were invited to join Geraldo and his family on the verandah of their caravan for an evening sesssion of music. At nine o'clock the following morning on my way back from the shower block I stopped, mesmerised by the sounds of a 'breakfast session' taking place nearby. Francois beckoned me to join them and passed me a beautiful Kahl guitar to play later telling me it had belonged to his friend the great Dorado Schmitt!

On the campsite, we were flanked on one side by Micky and George, two thirds of 'Nouveau Django' a trio of exellent musicians from Liverpool who are deservedly making a big splash in their neck of the woods and on the other by young French guitarist Nico Mouton who had travelled from Marseilles for the event. Talk about enthusiasm and dedication - I don't think Nico stopped playing all week except to grab a few hours sleep!

Other 'Brits' we met included bass player Clive from England who was in great demand everywhere and young guitarist Sam who not only played beautifully but put many of us to shame by appearing to have memorised every tune in Django's extensive repertoire!

Apologies to those whose names I didn't jot down – the superb clarinettist from New York, the young Italian guitarist I played with in the 'Bar le Merigny' in Samois and who came 'from a small island in the bay of Naples'. Forget Esperanto, gypsy jazz is the true international language and I hope to see you all again next year.

Thursday 18 June 2009

Richard Smith at the Quarterhouse, Folkestone

It was a real treat to see Richard delighting the audience at Folkestone's newest music venue. Richard has got to be one of the finest players on the scene at the moment. Without taking anything away from his originality, I'm sure he wouldn't mind me describing his style as reminiscent of Wes Montgomery and George Benson with some Steve Lukather and Jeff Beck thrown in for good measure. Stunning stuff. Accompanied by the superb LA CHILLHARMONIC.

A mention too for the excellent Raphael Mead who opened the proceedings. Accompanied by his bassist and the versatile Geoff Richardson on mandolin and viola, Raphael treated us to thirty minutes or so of haunting original compositions.

Friday 29 May 2009

Albert Lee at the Westcoast Bar, Margate

The usual impeccable performance from Albert, all the more amaziing in view of his recent run of bad luck. You'll remember he broke his arm in Paris a few months back so I was astonished when he showed me the huge plaster literally holding him together after having had his appendix removed just a day or so before the gig - what a trouper!

Tuesday 21 April 2009

Sunday's LA Music Club event at the Louis Armstrong pub in Dover was a huge success! Nearly twenty young musicians performed during the afternoon to a packed and appreciative audience. Acts taking the stage included The Psychedelic Monks, DNA, Skinny Jeans, Yer Blues and duo Rachel Robson & Tom Kent. Further events are planned and details will appear on these pages as well as on the club's own website (see links).

An open day is to be held at the KINGS HALL, Dover on Tuesday 26 May which will include workshops as well as perfomances. I'll be there with club founder Bert Osborne and other committee members to meet and talk to prospective new members. All are welcome - bring your instruments (see LA Music Club website for full details of the club's aims and activities)

Friday 17 April 2009

Good news this morning - just heard that THE LA MUSIC CLUB is going to be sponsored by STRUMMERVILLE the foundation created in memory of the late Joe Strummer of the Clash. It's a perfect match - Strummerville aims to give opportunities to new artistes and the LA Music Club, the brainchild of my old friend Bert Osborne has been set up to give young musicians experience in performing.

Wednesday 8 April 2009

Just back from Tenerife. Good to see that some people are making a real effort to support live music out there. Top marks to Raffles in Los Cristianos where regular jam sessions are attracting musicians from all across the island. Special thanks too to my new pal STEVE ANDREWS aka Greenbeard who through his work as a journalist as well as singer-songwriter is doing all he can to encourage the trend.

I sat in with the house band last Sunday (see pic on right) using a nice B C Rich Mockingbird courtesy of excellent Tenerife-based musician Gav Cantrell - cheers Gav!

Wednesday 18 March 2009

Two great Irish gigs this week - The Beauty of Bath, Sittingbourne, Kent and The Barstable Club in Basildon, Essex.

Monday 9 February 2009

Apologies for having been 'off air' for a while - we've got some catching up to do!

What's new?

- link to my pal BARRY GOSS. Barry's got himself a nice new site designed by my mate Roger Betts (see links page)

- been trying to restore an old live recording of TAKE FIVE from 1967, with very limited success. - if you squint hard you can just about make out what we're singing! I'm still thinking about whether to put any of these old live recordings on site bearing in mind the dreadful sound quality - just leave it with me for a bit longer.

- great gig with FAIRISLE at Dover beer festival last week

- thanks to all of you who have bought REFLECTIONS. We're getting a good response and it should be available soon as an Amazon download.

- have written about half the songs for SOONER OR LATER cd due to be released later this year. Will start recording demos in a few weeks time.

Monday 29 September 2008

First, an apology to my friend Tosh Marshall for failing to mention that he was the main organiser of the recent Mick Fox tribute sessions as well as for many other get-togethers over the past few years.

More links - but only for the nice guys!

I don’t know whether I’ve ever told you, but all the best guitarists I’ve ever met have been really nice ordinary guys - polite, friendly, modest, always up for a chat about guitars and playing and always willing to show you how they do something - in fact, just like you and me! Conversely, on the rare occasions when you encounter some condescending, unpleasant twerp with a guitar you can be pretty sure he’s gonna be a rubbish player!

And the funny thing is it doesn’t make any difference whether they’re famous or not. I remember once trying to strike up a conversation with Ike Turner - what a waste of breath and what a waste of a good guitar! And not so long ago when I was struggling to get up to speed on my newly acquired Irish banjo, I tried to engage a guy in conversation at a local folk club. Looking down his nose, he informed me that he couldn’t help as he ‘only played a real banjo’ (meaning a 5-string bluegrass instrument!) I stayed to hear him play and what do you think his playing was like? Yeah - you got it in one!

Anyway, that’s enough ranting for now. Here are four more of my favourite nice guys for the links page - all guitar players, all very different from each other but all great and all grossly under-recognised - well I think so anyway! Use the links to visit their sites, have a listen and let me know what you think.

First up, Argentinian guitarist Luis D’Agostino who I rate as one of the greatest living jazz guitarists. For me, Luis manages to come close to capturing the spirit of the great Jim Hall without ever trying to sound like him. Luis’ playing clearly shows his Latin origins and his most recent solo album, ‘In Between’ has become one of the most played in my collection.

Another guitarist for whose playing I have a huge regard is David Doruzka, a young virtuoso from the Czech Republic. I was lucky enough to get to see David and his trio in Prague in 2004 when he had just returned home from a spell as a student of music in the USA and his playing just blew me away. Much of David’s work has a kind of European ‘classical jazz’ feel. Great technique and a tone that Jim H himself would be proud of. And surprise, surprise - what a nice guy - he gave me a signed copy of his ‘Hidden Paths’ CD and even let me play his guitar!

I can’t praise the work of Tim Renwick too highly. A superb British guitar player whose unselfishness and versatility has contributed hugely to the success of countless major artistes. Tim’s done so much good stuff over the years that it’s hard to pick a favourite recording but his recent solo album ‘Privateer’ has become another of my great favourites.

Finally, what can I say about Dave Arcari. Dave himself describes his music as ‘uncompromising alternative blues’ which is one way of putting it! Whatever, he’s completely original and you won’t be disappointed. I also guarantee you won’t have seen or heard the blues quite like this before!

More photos added

They keep turning up! In the past couple of weeks I’ve been presented with some new (to me!) old photos of Spectrum and Sprinter. As usual with most of these old pics the quality is poor but you know how I feel about that - when they’re all you’ve got etc.

Mick Fox Tribute night at the Louis Armstrong

Last weekend saw musicians gather to pay tribute to the late Mick Fox whose untimely death three months ago came as a shock to us all. Mick was a great blues harp player and a good friend for many years. The gig was arranged by Mick's long time pal and fellow harp player 'Doctor' Dave Fairfoul. Sadly because of long standing dates I wasn't able to join in so I hope there'll be another opportunity soon to add my musical respects to a much missed friend and fellow musician. Mick had sat in with many of the bands I've played with, stretching right back to the Mirkwood days and only a few weeks before he became ill he had agreed to play harp on a couple of tracks on the 'Reflections' CD.

Easy Action live tapes

Seems that there are more live recordings of Easy Action around than we'd realised. Has the following message the other day from Tosh Marshall a drummer friend who now lives and plays in London. I'm looking forward to hearing them!

"Hi Mick,

Just been to your site, it’s really good. I am glad you are writing a book, I think it is an excellent idea especially with all your experience and knowledge. The thing is don’t forget to mention about the ‘exploding’ drummer!!!!! The one who could only last two minutes before exploding because he couldn’t play and breathe at the same time hahahahah.....I’ll never forget that as long as I live.....

Mick, I just remembered, I have some tapes of Easy Action down the Louis that I recorded on my ghetto blaster. Don’t know if I copied them for you at the time? Let me know. Anyway keep up the good work, somebody has to!!!!!!!!

Barry is lounging in his hammock having not worked for 30 years!!!!! He considers a gig work!"

Tosh

Want to improve your guitar playing? - just copy the sax player!

Many thanks to Art Culley for unearthing some old photos of Tony Coe and me which stirred a few memories. They are from a jazz club gig and he tells me were taken in September 1980.

For those of you who don’t know about Tony, he has been described as ‘one of the most remarkable and brilliant musicians in the world’ and I for one certainly wouldn’t argue with that. I think it was Richie Blackmore who advocated copying phrases from a sax player as being a great way to improve your guitar playing. Good advice but easier said than done when you’re playing with a musician of Tony’s calibre!

Tony started his career playing for Humphrey Littleton and Johnny Dankworth before making his name in the US playing with, among others, Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz and being head hunted by Count Basie. Some pedigree! And as I recall, when we did that gig Tony told me he was back in the UK taking a break from working with Henry Mancini (He played the lead solo sax for the ‘Pink Panther’ movies‘ theme music). A few years later he became the first non-American to win the prestigious ‘Jazzpar’ award.

If you look carefully you can also see Steve Barnacle (Rick Wakeman, Spear of Destiny, Queen etc. etc.) behind me on bass. Can’t remember the exact line up that day but I think it also included Steve’s dad Bill (cornet), Robin Basford (piano) and Jim Tagford (drums). What a session!

It's been a busy week. Following straight on from last weekend's re-union festivities we've had several days of music-related activity.

 

Monday. Jack Castle has stayed on since the weekend and today we also had a visit from Max Hoad, bass player with ICEBREAKER. These days Max is living and working in London so we don't see a lot of him and it was good to catch up. Derek Bowley joins us in the evening and Max forces us all to go for a curry and a few beers.

 

Tuesday. Working in studio in the morning. Max is still with us so we adjourn to my local at lunchtime. In the evening we all join Chris Ashman from Red Admiral Records. Jack pressurises us all into going for an Italian meal.

 

Wednesday. Local newspaper interview and photo session a.m. but Max still here so another serious lunchtime meeting at the local is called for afterwards.

 

Thursday. Back in studio a.m. Max going back to London today. Jack and Derek Bowley taking part in local radio programme to play and talk about MIRKWOOD's music. I'm not able to join in owing to a long standing gig so I've sent a recorded contribution but most of it doesn't get used owing to a computer malfunction in the studio. And I thought it was just me that sort of thing happened to!

 

Friday. Wonder of wonders - I've got a day off! Take myself off to Broadstairs for the last day of the Folk Music week. This event really is a delight each year. For one week each year (always the same week in August) the place is teeming with musicians, They're playing in the pubs, gardens, harbour, bandstand in fact just about anywhere you can set up and get an audience. Shared a pint and a ukulele with Les Black of the excellent Charlie Boot and the Footsloggers in the Barnaby Rudge and watched my pal Kevin 'The Fling' Smith whose virtuoso violin work just gets better and better in the Dolphin. Do yourself a favour and make a note for next year!

Re-union weekend etc.

 

My old friend and ex-bandmate Dave English organised a whole two days of fun for us last weekend. It was great to see so many of our old band members together again and particularly nice to see some of those who no longer live in our neck of the woods - like Jack Castle who travelled down from west Wales and Bob Hopkins who made it all the way from Perth, Australia.

 

Perhaps not surprisingly, we found that the years had taken their toll on our vocal chords but, after an intensive session of 'lubrication therapy'. we managed to negotiate our way around a couple of Beach Boys' numbers (I think someone captured our performance on DVD but it may need some serious editing before it can be released to an unsuspecting public!)

 

 

Message from Terry Prior (drummer with Mirkwood 1974-75)

 

Dear Mick

 

Just a big thank you for the cd of Mirkwood playing live - I had forgotten this recording was made - it was great to hear something from the time I was with the band - and I thought the quality was ok from this type of recording. It brings back memories of the time I spent at your house & the HI-HAT quip you tried to teach me & I just could not get at the time. You will be pleased to know that I use the quip a lot nowadays in the band I'm in now ('Contraband') and that's thanks to you! You can hear us on www.contrabanduk.co.uk

 

Best wishes

 

Terry

The Bill Barnacle Jazz Band

 

Did a gig the other night with my old friend Bill and someone took a photo of Bill, me, Colin Hodges and Mike Marsh together. The last time the four of us were pictured together at a gig had been in 1975. As the two photos show, we're all much better looking now!

 

'Live' recordings

 

Over the past few months, quite a few people have asked whether there are any live recordings of any of the old groups - foolishly it seems they'd like to hear what we sounded like 'in the flesh' so to speak. Some of you have even said you actually remember being at gigs and would love to hear again what they were like.

 

Well yes, there are a few but those of you who've been in a group yourselves will probably have some idea what they sound like i.e. absolutely dreadful! You'll know what used to happen in years gone by - somebody would turn up at a pub gig armed with a cassette tape recorder they'd got for Christmas, switch it on, stand it on the bar and hope for the best (eat your heart out George Martin!) - need I say more!

 

Of course, bad as they inevitably always are, you don't throw them away - in fact they're cherished like a crumpled photo of a family member when it's all you've got to remember them by. In the privacy of your own home, you put up with the distorted, out of balance sound, the fluffed notes etc. and, for the sake of nostalgia, occasionally even treat your friends to an evening listening to the musical monaural equivalent of an old and dog-eared black and white photo album!

 

It's a difficult one this and as you can imagine - I've given it a lot of thought. Finally, I've come to the conclusion that on balance it can't do any harm after all these years so as an experiment I'm arranging for a few clips of old MIRKWOOD live recordings to be put on site soon. Keep your eyes (but not necessarily your ears) open!

 

 

'Reflections' CD - progress report

 

Thanks for asking - we were hoping all would be finished by now but we've had the usual unforseen things cropping up and holding things back. Drum and bass tracks completed and about 2/3 of the mixing done. Just a few acoustic guitar parts to re-record and then we'll be on to the final mix. Famous last words I know but hopefully not too much longer!

 

MM - 24 July 2008

Reflections CD

We’ve had a bit of a hold up due to essential building work being done in the studio. This has delayed things by three or four weeks but we are back on track and just in the process of re-arranging dates to go in and complete the drum and bass tracks.

Mirkwood

Unbelievably, the MIRKWOOD album continues to arouse interest some 35 years after it was recorded. It has just been released again this time on CD by Red Admiral Records in the UK and by German company Garden of Delights in the rest of Europe and the world and is also available for the first time as a download.

The CD has also just been reviewed by The Classic Rock Society who said some very nice things about our efforts, describing it as a ‘……. fine piece of work’ showing ‘…. imaginative composition and arrangements’. ‘… centred around the guitar virtuosity of (Jack) Castle and Mick Morris’ and Derek Bowley’s ‘strong vocals’, the music ‘…. stands up alongside the classics from that time’. Praise indeed - thanks guys!

The MIRKWOOD CD is available from info@redadmiralrecords.com

The demos of the tunes for the new CD (tentatively called 'REFLECTIONS') are now finished. We'll be adding the 'real' drum and bass parts shortly before mastering everything. In the meantime we've produced some clips of the demos as promised.

 

Some of you have also been asking about the 'historic' stuff listed under 'recordings' - well some of it does still exist although as you can probably imagine it hasn't worn very well with the passage of time - BUT (if you promise not to die laughing) we'll try to put some of them on line soon for your amusement!

Albert Lee...

Best wishes for a speedy recovery to Albert a true British guitar hero. Got a message from Albert last week to say he’s had to cancel quite a few dates due to having had an accident. He tripped and broke his arm in two places while in Paris recently and reckons he’ll be out of action for six weeks or more. Hope to see you back in action soon Albert.

New CD of instrumentals

I hope you’re sitting down to read this but I finally got around to making a start on the new CD when I got back from holiday last month and, wonder of wonders, it’s going well so far. We’ve already got eight out of the planned twelve tracks demo’d and will be starting on the mastering next month. In case I haven’t told you before, it’s going to be a real rag bag of sounds, styles and genres. No covers but one or two unashamed ‘homages’. I’ve asked Scott Perry to produce a few short clips for the web site - they’re only rough demos but at least you’ll be able to get a flavour of the material

Sorry to have been out of touch for a couple of weeks or so but, holidays over and computer problems sorted, we’re back in business!

Yamaha RGX 612A

I’ve had a couple more e-mails concerning this instrument - this time about setting the bridge/springs etc. to get the right action. I’m going to be honest right from the beginning. This is not an easy job unless you’ve done it before.

But before I say anything else let me offer you my sympathies! Floating bridges (and particularly double-locking ones) can be a nightmare and one that I once had myself.

On the day that I bought my Yamaha RGX back in the late 80’s I took it to a gig and left my trusty strat at home. Big mistake. Third number into the set I broke a string. No problem - just do a number without me and I’ll be back. After struggling for several minutes I still hadn’t got either the intonation or the action back to where they’d been and was forced to return to the stage and finish the set with acoustic material. I don’t need to be told how stupid it was to have relied on an instrument whose hardware was so different to ‘traditional’ designs and especially not to have taken a back up instrument. Believe me I’ve never made that mistake again. The following day I took all the strings off and spent several hours practising putting them back on and making the necessary adjustments until I felt confident I could do it in my sleep!

That’s the confession out of the way - now to the problem in hand.

**************************

The advice usually given is to get it done professionally but on the other hand I can understand that you don’t want to have to take it to your guitar technician every time you want to change the strings - so - on the clear understanding that a) you don’t sue me and b) don’t cite my name in your suicide note, I’ll do my best to explain things!

Here goes.

What you’re trying to achieve is getting the bridge to lay more or less parallel to the body (as in the photo of my Yamaha RGX below). Once you’ve done that you can adjust the bridge height to get the action you want. Sounds easy doesn’t it?

The basic problem though is that with any ‘floating’ bridge, tightening the strings to tune them pulls the bridge down at the front. This makes the strings lay closer to the fingerboard (often too close) and also slightly shortens the length of the string between the nut and the bridge which (apart from affecting the intonation) lowers the note again. Worse yet - sharpening one string will flatten the others. And so it goes on until the bridge can’t go any lower at the front at which point you haven’t effectively got a floating bridge any more and the strings are probably touching the fingerboard. That why you have springs under the bridge - to pull it the opposite way (down at the back) and level things up again. So put simply, it’s a question of balancing the tension in the strings with the tension in the springs until you get your bridge levelled up. The tightness of the springs will depend on the string guage you use. Thicker strings will be tighter and therefore need more spring tension to pull the bridge back.

A few more tips.

- Make sure you’ve got the right size keys for the nut and bridge saddles and screwdriver for the bridge height adjustment screws..

- It‘s best to change the strings one at a time

- Before you start adjusting anything, remember to unlock the nut so you can use the tuners on the head before locking the nut again - those on the bridge are only for fine tuning afterwards

- Don’t forget to check the intonation (by comparing 12th fret note with 12th fret harmonic) and adjust if necessary. If it does need adjustment you need to unlock and move the bridge saddles then lock them again.

- If it helps, you can prevent the bridge from pulling down at the back by adjusting the locking wheel by the bottom E string saddle (most floating bridges don’t have this useful little refinement)

Best of luck and please let me know how you get on!

PS - Issue 293 (summer 2007) of GUITARIST magazine featured a good article on the subject of adjustments on double-locking bridges - worth reading if you can get hold of it.

Live music in Tenerife

One of the problems I’ve always had while being away on holiday is finding enough live music venues to sustain me until I get home! So I was delighted to find one or two signs that live music may be making a bit of a comeback on the island so I’d like to give a plug to a few of the venues that continue to support live music. First up is the recently re-opened Claddagh in Los Cristianos where resident singer-guitarist Gerry welcomes guest singers and musicians each night. Gerry is a fine guitarist, singer and banjo player and whilst as you’d imagine the music at The Claddagh is mostly Irish, its appeal as well as the audience itself is truly international. The night I sat in with Gerry we were accompanied on bongos and congas by two somewhat ‘tired and emotional’ Spanish lads and had a group of Norwegians singing along to The Irish Rover!

The second venue is the Café De Paris in Playa Las Americas where my mate Ian Rockliffe plays every night. Ian is a superb guitarist and a night at one of his gigs is always a highlight of my trips to the island. He has been there for a good few years now, resident at the Sax Bar until it changed hands a few months ago and now playing in the faded splendour of the Café de Paris. Among my personal favourites from Ian’s repertoire are his versions of ‘Free Bird’, ‘Hotel California’ (on which he uses his Gibson double-neck SG just visible behind him in the photo ) and his arrangement of Bach’s ‘Toccata and Fugue in D minor‘. Ian plays this last piece in A minor which is better suited to his treatment of the piece. On the night I was there Ian asked for requests and I shouted for the Toccata in D minor. As a joke I added, ‘but could you play it in A minor instead’. That night Ian was being accompanied by a keyboard player who didn’t know me from Adam. He heard my request and turning to Ian said in a slightly too loud whisper, ‘F*** me, it’s coming to something when the audience tell us what f***ing key to play in!’

Finally, just time to mention briefly the newly appointed resident band at The Bulls Head in Playa Las Americas. They’re called ‘Aftershock’ and apparently hail from Bulgaria (sorry - no photo). They’re a four-piece playing covers from The Beatles to Snow Patrol and most things in between and are absolutely superb. All four of them are really good but I was particularly impressed by their lead guitarist and also the girl lead singer-guitarist. I hope they make it to the UK some time.

Preston Reed

A couple of months back my friend Stuart Honey alerted me to a U tube clip of Preston demonstrating his unique playing style so when we found out he was due to tour the UK this month we just had to see the guy in action. For those of you who haven‘t yet seen Preston doing his stuff let me start by saying that he has developed a style which is anything but conventional. Personally I don’t know of anyone else playing quite this way but no doubt someone will tell me if I’m wrong! During the course of the evening he featured jazz compositions, country flavoured numbers, bluesy tunes, haunting mini-symphonies and much more. Played on guitars representing almost every genre from his favourite Ovation to a pointy-headstock Yamaha with an Archtop, 12-string and strat thrown in for good measure he showed that he is perfectly at ease with some relatively ‘normal’ right hand techniques i.e. mostly using fingers and thumb pick. Less common but still not unique is his extensive use of multi-finger ‘tapping’. The most distinctive features of Preston’s style however derive from the two final ingredients. Hopefully you’ll be able to see from the picture that his left hand chording, ‘hammer-ons’ and ‘pull-offs’ are mostly done from over rather than under the neck! What the picture can‘t show (so go and look at the U tube clips) is his astonishing percussive skill. Using both the fretboard and the body of the guitar like drums he wrings an amazing range of sounds and rhythms from the instrument without ever interrupting the flow of notes. Absolutely astonishing! Needless to say he utilises a lot of different tunings in the course of his act mostly involving ‘detuned’ lower strings which add a huge depth to his sound. To summarise, the techniques Preston has developed enable him to create the most complete sound I’ve ever heard from one man and one guitar.

All in the fingers - Jeff Beck at Ronnie‘s

Jeff has always been one of my favourite players. He recently played a stint at Ronnie Scott’s in London and Phil Hilborne wrote a glowing account of his performance in this month’s ‘Guitarist’ magazine. One of the things Phil commented on was the sparsity, by modern standards, of his effects. He concluded that the secret of Jeff’s sound was ‘all in the fingers’.

Phil’s comment reminded me of an occasion, back in the seventies I think, when I saw Jeff playing solo and live on TV. He stood there in the studio with just his Les Paul and amp producing an amazing array of different sounds. Like Phil, I found myself automatically looking down at the floor by his feet to see what he was using - and there was nothing there! He scarcely touched the Les Paul’s controls either so the changes in tone, attack, volume, distortion, sustain etc. were being achieved almost entirely through variations in his playing technique. All in all, an object lesson in using the instrument which I’ve tried never to forget.

Burns’ night and banjos!

I just realised I haven’t got around yet to putting anything on the site about banjos. I’m no expert on these instruments but over the past couple of years I’ve found myself enjoying playing them more and more and I plan soon to share some of the things I‘ve learned (shouldn’t take very long!)

My most recent banjo outing was last Friday when FAIRISLE were booked to play at a British Legion club where we found ourselves playing mostly Irish music to a mostly Scottish audience! Somehow it all worked out fine and we had a great gig.

Guitars and More...

Scott D Seymour tells me he has a Yamaha RGX612A similar to mine and needs to reconnect some wiring which has been damaged. His dilemma highligths one of the few potential problems with instruments with ‘active electronics’. Here’s my reply with pictures of the internal wiring!

*********************

Hi Scott,

I can quite believe you had trouble finding someone with an RGX612A! I don't think they sold in huge quantities back then so there probably aren't many still around!

I'm attaching a couple of photos but there's a real maze of wiring in there so if they don't help let me know and I'll try to get shots of any specific connections. Mine's only being used in the studio at the moment so it's no problem to leave the plate off for a while.

Replacing the broken toggle switches should be straightforward enough - one of mine has been replaced with an off the shelf switch.

Incidentally don't take any notice of the metal jack socket plate in the photo - the wood is a bit thin at that point and was beginning to break with constant use so I had the plate fitted to strengthen the area around the socket.

Best of luck - let me know how you get on!

MM

28/01/08

Post Christmas Blues

Sometimes things can get depressingly quiet during that period between Christmas and New Year so it’s great when something comes along that you can really look forward to. One of the things that cheers me up around that time of year and which has become an annual event is my old friend Roger Betts’ annual appearance at a local pub with one or two of his students and/or other pals. For the past couple of years it’s taken place at the Boars Head in Dover. This year Rog was accompanied on 5-string bass by the excellent Baz from Mac’s Diner and the evening also featured a virtuoso performance of a Mozart Rondo from talented young guitarist Chris Honey (see photo).

Once again thanks to Rog’s efforts a great time was had by all. The other photo shows Rog and me (with the microphone sticking out of my head!) with a brace of ancient Les Pauls. By the way, if there’s anybody out there who isn’t familiar with Rog’s work let me just say that he’s got to be the best exponent of electric blues around our neck of the woods by miles. Take my advice - go and see him sometime - and don‘t wait until next Christmas!

(You’ll find Roger’s gigs listed on his website at www.rogerbetts.com)

MM

10/01/08

REUNIONS

Just before Christmas we had a couple of reunions. Four of the old Rolling Stones got together for a chat and a few pints for the first time in years! The photo (see photo gallery) shows (l to r) me, Ronnie Hambrook, Pete Piddock and Brian Scotcher and as you can see from the photo we’ve hardly changed over the last forty years! And not a zimmer frame in sight (we left them in the car park). Bob Hopkins couldn’t make it from Australia where he lives now but he tells me he’s aged even less! Bob is about to join an Irish folk group in Perth and Pete is now living on the isle of Skye where he fronts his own blues group as well as playing at the occasional Ceilidh.

A couple of weeks later we had to force down a few more drinks at a Playboys/Take 5 reunion. Dave English, Pete Inwood, Mike Tracey and Brian Scotcher turned up and a good time was had by all. No photo of this one so you’ll just have to take my word for it how good everybody looks!

MM

03/01/08

BLAME IT ON THE BEATLES #1 - THE DEATH OF THE INSTRUMENTAL

The impact of The Beatles on pop music in general has been documented ad nauseam. Mostly, it concerns image rather than substance i.e. suddenly groups were in and solo artists out, mop tops in - short back and sides out etc. To be fair, there was plenty of substance too and in most respects, I don’t doubt that they were an influence for the good. They drew attention to some little known artists who well deserved the belated recognition, they made pop music more of a team effort than perhaps it had ever been and they brought back some of the excitement of the rock and roll era which by 1963 was well and truly over. They even managed to persuade us to believe we could all be independent of the tin pan alley establishment when it came to song writing (although that was a mixed blessing if ever there was one!). Summing it up, they took pop away from adults and gave it back to the teenagers to whom it rightly belonged. Not a bad legacy.

But what I have never seen laid at their door in any of the countless articles and books chronicling their influence on the music scene is the effect that their arrival had on one particular area of pop music viz. the near total destruction of the ‘instrumental’ in pop.

Instrumentals were nothing new. They had been very much a part of the music lives of young people as far back as the thirties and forties and the advent of pop/rock music in the late fifties had not killed them off. They had simply been played by small groups instead of orchestras with the guitar generally taking the place of the trumpets, clarinets and trombones of that earlier era. In the seven years from 1957 - 1963, more than one-hundred and twenty ‘vocal less’ offerings got into the UK charts, twelve of them reaching the top spot. Six of the twelve number ones were guitar features and five of those came from The Shadows. The same proportion of those reaching other positions were also guitar features including an astonishing twenty-one entries from Duane Eddy alone. Instrumentals were also so popular with dancers that it would have been unthinkable that any local covers band of that period would have been allowed to play all evening without including a generous sprinkling of popular instrumentals.

And then it all stopped.

Instrumentals had died out.

Not organically, as the result of changing taste leading to declining demand but suddenly and completely. No, not gradually at all. In fact so completely dominating was the influence of The Beatles’ that no more instrumentals reached the number one spot for six years - and then it was just the one - Fleetwood Macs’ superb ‘Albatross’. And it never happened again. Ever. Altogether, in the next seven-year period 1964 - 1970 just twenty-five instrumentals got into the UK charts, little more than a fifth of the number in the previous period. As before, more than half of them were guitar features but now nearly half of them came from established instrumental acts like The Shadows whose total share of the instrumental market rose from 11% to 43% and for the guitar features from 22% to 67%! Whereas before there had been a constant stream of new names reaching the charts via instrumentals now there were just a handful. Apart from Fleetwood Macs’ contribution, only Mason Williams, Jeff Beck, Dave Edmunds and Mark Knofler had any success with guitar based tunes in the entire seven-year period.

It’s true that among the instrumentals reaching the charts there had always been a fair number of ‘novelty’ hits - records which were unrepresentative of the direction in which pop music was travelling. There were left-overs from the days when the piano rather than the guitar had been numero uno among instruments - Winifred Atwell being briefly replaced by the likes of Russ Conway, the occasional film or TV theme and so on. But by 1970 pretty much all instrumentals had (with very few exceptions - notably The Average White Band’s excellent ‘Pick up the pieces‘) come to be regarded as un-sexy, old fashioned, ‘novelty’ numbers - that is of course unless you are a serious devotee of The Band of The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards or Jive Bunny!

Did it matter? Well maybe it didn’t or maybe like me you feel that in relegating the instruments to a solely accompanying role we gave up the quest for instrumental excellence. Either way if you’re a guitar player it’s very sad - and you can take that whichever way you want!

MAM 28/12/07