MusicRadar

I absolutely LOVE guitars. I started playing in 1980 thanks to Paul Weller in The Jam. I ALWAYS wanted a black Rickenbacker 330 but they were way out of my reach when I was 11. I got my first electric guitar from ABC Music in Kingston in 1980 - it was a Westone Thunder 1A. No matter how hard I tried I could never get it to sound like Paul's Rick.... So then: 1981 and learning to play everything The Jam had ever written... SWITCH ...leaving school in '85, discovering punk and playing bass with Anathema for two weeks and getting sacked for being crap... SWITCH ...going to see Siouxsie at the Hammersmith Odeon with Anna (oh Anna!)... SWITCH ...forming The Risk with John, Gary, and Sharon and playing Conflict covers at The Swan... SWITCH ...joining Compassion with Lawrance, James, and Lee... SWITCH ...Cherry Orchard studios... SWITCH ...The William Morris Club and the glue sniffers... SWITCH ...amazing gigs at the Wellington Crescent squats... SWITCH ...hearing Ride The Lightning by Metallica... SWITCH ...long hair and tight black jeans in '87 and listening to Yngwie in James' bedroom... SWITCH ...that purple guitar and that Marshall 2204 Master Volume head... SWITCH ...that Yngwie gig in Cambridge and drinking James' car radiator water... SWITCH ...headbanging to Creeping Death in the kitchen with James, high on frozen pizza... SWITCH ..."WE MET THE MET!"... SWITCH ...practising my arse off for 10 hours a day with a metronome... SWITCH ...joining Maniac and having the time of my life... SWITCH ..."Maniac to support Kreator at the Hammersmith Odeon" - never happened!... SWITCH ...Metallica at the 100 Club and on stage with Kirk Hammett looking worried... SWITCH ...snogging Sarah and nearly dying at the shock of it... SWITCH ...the pink Shovel, the ADA MP-1, and hearing Joe Satriani and Steve Vai... SWITCH ...hey, Becci! :¬)... SWITCH ...the 'orrible SWLV years - I was a decade too early... SWITCH ...the stunning Ibanez Jem77GMC and the Rickenbacker 330... SWITCH ...playing with Brian Doerksen and getting some creativity back... SWITCH ...the Candy Apple 60s strat and the amazing red PRS McCarty and that Boogie Heartbreaker... SWITCH ...seeing Paul Gilbert and being stunned into silence... SWITCH ...fast picking & string skipping... SWITCH ...the Taylor 714CE... SWITCH ...Maniac playing with Spudbaby at Kingsmeadow Stadium - £5000 for Shooting Star Children's Hospice - GOOD TIMES!... SWITCH ...David Gilmour... SWITCH ...the Candy Tangerine American Deluxe Strat... SWITCH ...Andy Timmons... SWITCH ...Steve & James together again... SWITCH ...Guthrie Govan... SWITCH ...the 52 Vintage HotRod Tele... SWITCH ...the Mesa Stiletto Deuce & Robert Keeley pedals... SWITCH... Maniac together again? ...SWITCH... the Ibanez RGA321F ...SWITCH... what have I learned? ...belief is everything!...