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4.52am Issue: 008 13th November 2016

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WELCOME<br />

Welcome to <strong>Issue</strong> <strong>008</strong><br />

Blimey is that really another week gone? Not<br />

that we haven’t been trying to bring some<br />

great things together for issue <strong>008</strong>, and I hope<br />

you will agree we got somewhere close.<br />

First up we have the Sharks, with an interview<br />

that reads like a history of modern Rock music.<br />

Then the wonderful Sue Foley allows us to<br />

follow her through a Kickstarter campaign to<br />

record her first solo album in 8 years. This is<br />

something we will be following as-it-happens<br />

over the next few weeks and I’m sure will give<br />

us all plenty to think about.<br />

On the guitar front, Andy Manson brings a<br />

touch of class whilst Don Ricci scares me to<br />

death in a restaurant as we discuss his Hot<br />

Rod Projects, and then there is so much more.<br />

Again, many thanks to everybody that is<br />

reading this each week, it has been a trip<br />

already, and so many people along for the ride<br />

is always cool and sometimes even groovy.<br />

Enjoy<br />

Mark


CONTENTS<br />

FEATURES<br />

Sharks<br />

Killers On The Loose Again<br />

Sue Foley<br />

This Ice Queen Cometh<br />

Hotei & Iggy Pop<br />

Walking Through The Night<br />

Hot Rod Projects<br />

Mean, Green, Killing Machine<br />

Andy Manson<br />

A Bouzouki for Andy Lambert<br />

Rift Amps<br />

Vibro ‘63<br />

Nine Of Swords<br />

Burial At Sea<br />

REVIEWS<br />

Doomsquad<br />

Total Time<br />

Menace Beach<br />

Lemon Memory<br />

Moreland & Arbuckle<br />

Promised Land or Bust<br />

My Only<br />

This Room & You<br />

Sleigh Bells<br />

Jessica Rabbit<br />

The Wharves<br />

Electa<br />

KILL YOUR TELEVISION<br />

Sunday: Bob Dylan<br />

Like a Rolling Stone<br />

Monday: Neil Young<br />

Rockin' In The Free World<br />

Tuesday: BB King<br />

Thrill Has Gone<br />

Wednesday: Oasis<br />

Live Forever<br />

Thursday: Pink Floyd<br />

Wish You Were Here<br />

Friday: Undertones<br />

Teenage Kicks<br />

Saturday: PJ Harvey<br />

O Stella<br />

Credits & Thanks


FEATURES


SHARKS<br />

Killers On The Loose Again<br />

The story of the Sharks is one of classic<br />

Rock & Roll, it has everything – a 1970s<br />

Supergroup, a killer lead guitarist, an<br />

awesome singer, a car with a fin on top and<br />

teeth in the grill, broken promises, jealously<br />

and a world of potential before it all failed<br />

spectacularly.<br />

And the Sharks really were the supergroup<br />

that should have been household names,<br />

but ultimately weren’t, and although they<br />

say there are no second chances in life, 40<br />

years later the Sharks have reformed to find<br />

out whether there are and whether they can<br />

still cut it.<br />

That is the key though, they are too good to<br />

be anybody’s heritage act, with a London<br />

date and a new album in January they want<br />

to show that they are still vital and to find<br />

out whether their time is now after all.<br />

I was really pleased to talk to singer<br />

Stephen ‘Snips’ Parsons and guitarist Chris<br />

Spedding about what happened with the<br />

Sharks and what comes next.<br />

It is 1972, Andy Fraser has left Free and<br />

along with Chris Spedding they are intent on<br />

following the likes of Cream and Led<br />

Zeppelin, and forming a supergroup of their<br />

own, and we find Fraser and Spedding<br />

auditioning for a singer. I asked Steve<br />

Parsons to talk us through how he came to<br />

be involved.<br />

“I have to admit, with looking at the<br />

documentary we are making about the<br />

Sharks, I can remember the early days a<br />

lot better than I could as we have spent<br />

so much time thinking about them and<br />

then talking it all through. I was living in<br />

Hull where there was a thriving garage<br />

band scene at the time. Some top-quality<br />

bands were playing and all the local<br />

towns seemed to have their own bands<br />

and we all played everywhere up there.<br />

The standard was so good that you had<br />

to make sure you were up to it or you<br />

wouldn’t get a look in.<br />

There were people like Robert Palmer and<br />

Mick Ronson and Rod Temperton all<br />

playing in bands at the time, but London<br />

was always the target. We all knew we<br />

had to go to London because that was<br />

where all the management companies,<br />

recording studios and everything were, it<br />

was just the way it was then, so that was<br />

what we all did. We’d travel down to<br />

London, looking and acting the part, and<br />

trying to get gigs down there before<br />

coming back home afterwards. We did<br />

this for a few years and I finally started to<br />

get offers to sing with a few London<br />

Bands, which was good.<br />

It was after doing a gig at a Folk Club,<br />

that Muff Winwood, who was Steve’s<br />

brother and had been the bass player in


the Spencer Davis Group but by then was<br />

working as an A&R guy for Island Records,<br />

came and said hello and that he was sorry,<br />

as he wouldn’t be signing the band, but<br />

that he would have something for me in a<br />

couple of months. I didn’t really believe it,<br />

but he was as good as his word and two<br />

months later I got a Telegram from Muff<br />

asking me to get in touch. That was pretty<br />

flash, you only got them for bad news<br />

normally. Anyway, I rang his office and he<br />

invited me to the audition with Andy and<br />

Chris, for the Sharks’.”<br />

How did the audition itself go?<br />

“I knew I wasn’t first choice, the word was<br />

that both Leo Sayer and Robert Palmer had<br />

auditioned, but I don’t think it got that far<br />

as they both had other things they were<br />

waiting on, or had said ‘no’, but it went<br />

really well.”<br />

Was it true that Andy Fraser wanted to sing<br />

in the band?<br />

“People said that, and it was definitely the<br />

rumour, but Chris says he definitely didn’t<br />

want to, so there it is.”<br />

What happened at the audition, where was<br />

it?<br />

“It was at Island Records, and the<br />

drummer asked if I had any of my own<br />

songs, and I had loads, so I ended-up just<br />

playing lots of them. I don’t think they had<br />

many songs at that point, and their faces<br />

all lit up, apart from Andy’s. Don’t get me<br />

wrong, Andy was a brilliant musician and<br />

arranger, and we kept waiting for him to<br />

come-up with something special for the<br />

first album First Water - he had written All<br />

Right Now so he had it in him, but it just<br />

never happened, he didn’t bring anything.<br />

We were playing a lot of my songs and I<br />

don’t think Andy liked it over much, I don’t<br />

think he liked the competition in a funny<br />

way.”<br />

So you were in the band and recording First<br />

Water what was that like?<br />

“Overall it was great to be playing with<br />

them, but Andy was odd. I’ll give you an<br />

example, he would make me sing the same<br />

parts over and over up until the point where<br />

it wrecked my voice, which didn’t make a lot<br />

of sense when you are trying to make the<br />

best record you can. But I think that was<br />

just Andy not liking the competition, it was<br />

something in him. Brilliant but flawed in<br />

other ways.”<br />

With the album complete, Sharks went off<br />

on a UK tour for publicity, travelling in Chris<br />

Spedding’s Pontiac Le Mans, which he had<br />

augmented with a fin on top and a set of<br />

teeth in the grill. Which was great until an<br />

accident saw the car hit a tree and Andy<br />

Fraser sustain an injury to his wrist.<br />

After a short break the band went off on<br />

tour, supporting Roxy Music until the album<br />

was released. In April. Andy chose at this<br />

point to leave the band, suggesting that he<br />

saw the car crash as a bad omen, but Steve<br />

wasn’t so sure,<br />

“I just don’t think the band had gone the<br />

way he wanted it to. I think he saw himself<br />

as band leader and that he would give<br />

everybody their parts and they would play<br />

them as he wanted, but the Sharks were<br />

never like that. It was always freeform<br />

songwriting, letting things develop then<br />

choose what to keep, which arrangements<br />

later on. I mean, you don’t give Chris<br />

Spedding guitar parts, he is a genius, you<br />

just give him the space and ask him to do


what he does. I think Andy had the same<br />

problem with Free and the Andy Fraser<br />

Band and that was why he left them too.<br />

But he got there in the end so maybe it<br />

was the right thing for him.”<br />

It did leave you with an album out and the<br />

band light – how do you go about replacing<br />

Andy Fraser?<br />

“Andy was a brilliant player so it was a real<br />

problem, but we started auditioning and<br />

had some good people – Boz Borrell from<br />

King Crimson and later Bad Company and<br />

then there was Tom Robinson. Tom was<br />

really funny, he came along for an audition<br />

and from the start you could see that he<br />

wasn’t on the same level, and at the end<br />

he said that he knew he wouldn’t get the<br />

gig, but he couldn’t miss the chance to play<br />

with us guys. You just had to laugh at that.<br />

In the end Mick Jagger recommended<br />

Busta Cherry Jones, who was a serious<br />

player and we knew from his time with<br />

Albert King and Ike Turner and he joined<br />

along with Nick Judd on keyboards.”<br />

Listening to the Sharks now, you didn’t<br />

sound like the usual Supergroup,<br />

“Sharks were definitely more of a groove<br />

band rather than the long guitar solos and<br />

huge arrangements of Led Zeppelin say.<br />

We weren’t into rock at all, although we<br />

loved the Doors and the Velvet<br />

Underground – that whole garage thing. It<br />

surprised Busta as deep down I think he<br />

wanted to join Deep Purple!”<br />

From there you were off and touring again,<br />

until you stopped to record Jab It in Yore<br />

Eye – how did the new line-up work out?<br />

“Busta we knew what we were getting, but<br />

I was never sure how Nick came to join the<br />

band. It’s odd, but he just seemed to arrive<br />

and be playing with us. Its only now that<br />

I’m realising how much a part of the sound<br />

Nick brought with him.”<br />

What about the album, how did you feel<br />

about that?<br />

“Chris produced it and to be honest I like it<br />

rather than love it. It was a very plain<br />

production, which was fine but like I say, I<br />

like it rather than love it.”<br />

After the album you went to the U.S on tour<br />

again, how did that go?<br />

“By this time, we were a total failure. We<br />

had been sold as another Led Zeppelin,<br />

you’ve got to remember, when Led Zepp<br />

went massive over there, everybody was<br />

looking for the next big supergroup who<br />

were going to go and do the same thing,<br />

and then it was meant to be us and it just<br />

didn’t happen. I think the record companies<br />

didn’t look at what Jimmy (Page) had done,<br />

how special it was, they just saw it as<br />

pushing buttons, which showed what they<br />

knew. But the U.S tour kept the band alive<br />

for four months before it finally just clicked.<br />

Everything came together. I think a lot of<br />

the problems were with Busta, he just<br />

wasn’t quick enough, but it wasn’t going to<br />

last there was too much strife.”<br />

Returning to the UK after the tour which<br />

saw them heralded by Cream magazine as<br />

‘The funkiest Supergroup on the planet’ the<br />

band started to work on their third album<br />

Music Breakdown . Drummer Marty Simon<br />

wasn’t pleased with the album so he left to<br />

be replaced by Stuart Francis, and Busta<br />

stole one of Chris’ guitars to pay for a flight<br />

back to the U.S.<br />

What was it like at this point?


“Half the problem was that there wasn’t<br />

any money. Chris Blackwell had managed<br />

us and was also the owner of the record<br />

company, and we never seemed to see a<br />

penny which is hard enough, but there was<br />

nobody to complain to. To make it worse,<br />

Island sold the worldwide rights to the<br />

albums to MCA for a load of money, which<br />

again we never saw anything of. So it<br />

wasn’t a lot of fun, and of course when we<br />

delivered the album to Island they refused<br />

to sign off on it, and effectively pulled the<br />

plug on the band. We had nowhere to go. I<br />

think that once Island sold the U.S rights,<br />

they lost interest in us and of course MCA<br />

didn’t know us at all. Oddly, listening to the<br />

album now it is really good, but there we<br />

are.”<br />

We have a special on Chris Spedding in a<br />

few weeks time, and of course he went on<br />

to have a fantastic session career, playing<br />

with just about everybody , and Steve went<br />

to play with Ginger Baker in the Baker<br />

Gurvitz Army before spreading his wings<br />

and moving into Film and TV composing,<br />

running his own studio.<br />

Moving forward to 1993, you decided to do<br />

the classic “Get The Band Back Together,”<br />

how did that happen?<br />

“I had been working in film and TV and<br />

was running a studio, and had started to<br />

work with a lot of U.S advert agencies, so I<br />

started working long-distance with Chris<br />

again, hiring him as a guitar player really.<br />

This was until 1983 and then in 1989 he<br />

moved to the U.S and we hooked up<br />

properly. I don’t know why, but meeting up<br />

with Chris again I started to write songs,<br />

and we talked about it until we thought –<br />

why not make another Sharks album?<br />

So, it was really for fun, no big plan, it just<br />

seemed a good idea and we got Pete<br />

Thomas on drums and my missus played<br />

the bass. We did the recording in a week<br />

and decided to do one show.<br />

That was Like a Black Van Parked on a Dark<br />

Curve and it came out in 1995.<br />

It’s funny but watching the film we made of<br />

the gig, at the end somebody says ‘See you<br />

in 20 years’ and that is exactly what has<br />

happened now.”<br />

Which of course brings us to <strong>2016</strong> and the<br />

third incarnation of the Sharks, with the<br />

band looking to see whether they can<br />

pickup where they left off forty years ago<br />

(with a mid-period oddity).<br />

And I have to say having listened to the<br />

new album, it is seriously raw sounding and<br />

vibrant, a quite awesome performance from<br />

a band of any age.<br />

Can you tell us about the album’s recording,<br />

how did it go?<br />

“We really wanted to first of all see whether<br />

we still had it. Whether we could produce<br />

the goods, I mean, let’s be honest I’m 65<br />

and Chris is 72 and we aren’t going to be<br />

doing this forever so there was always<br />

something to be proved. Other than that<br />

though we just wanted it to be five guys<br />

playing together, so we decided that the<br />

recording had to be as live as possible, we<br />

wanted the absolute minimum of overdubs,<br />

we didn’t want to take forever over<br />

everything and lose that freshness.<br />

That is how it went too, none of the tracks<br />

had more than four takes with the first<br />

being a ‘sighter’, two and three all about<br />

getting focussed and then the fourth would<br />

be the one, the devil. It was brilliant really, I


don’t think people realise just how good<br />

Chris is, he has this absolute mastery of<br />

the big stuff, he can just play anything,<br />

come up with any sound that you want, but<br />

he also can do that tiny thing that just<br />

makes a track. He does it over and over,<br />

you’ll be in there thinking that nothing<br />

much is happening and then he does the<br />

tiniest little thing and the track is made. He<br />

really is a genius. Nobody has the breadth<br />

of ability on a guitar that Chris Spedding<br />

has.”<br />

So what is the plan going forward?<br />

“We played a one-off show at the<br />

Borderline in London in September, which<br />

went so much better than I hoped. It was a<br />

mix of old stuff and new songs from the<br />

album and it all went down really well.<br />

I think the big question we have to face is<br />

how do we make it viable? Because there is<br />

no point doing it, there is no chance that<br />

we can do it just for fun. So we decided to<br />

come at it from a lot of different angles<br />

which is where the movie comes into it.”<br />

What will the movie cover and who are you<br />

working with on that?<br />

“I’m not sure if you know Tim Pope?”<br />

He did all the brilliant Cure videos years<br />

ago?<br />

“Yes, well I’ve worked on adverts with him<br />

and other things for years, so we’re really<br />

hoping it all comes together so that Tim<br />

can do it and we want it to be pretty much<br />

‘One Last Thrill – Everything you ever<br />

wanted to know about the Sharks.’<br />

Kind of, what happens when a failed<br />

supergroup comes back if that makes any<br />

sense. We wanted it to be the real story, of<br />

record company greed. I said before about<br />

Led Zeppelin being number one in the UK<br />

and the U.S and that set expectations for<br />

the record companies, had them thinking<br />

they were going to be making a lot of<br />

money, but Jimmy had the goods and we<br />

needed time to grow. Instead we were<br />

thrust straight into it and didn’t have the<br />

chance to find our feet.”<br />

When is the film likely to be released?<br />

“It won’t be until 2018 at the earliest, and it<br />

all depends on how it comes together, how<br />

things go.”<br />

What is the difference between recording<br />

the album now on your own, and doing it<br />

forty years ago with a record company?<br />

“It is quite different. Back then you had the<br />

expensive hotels and the cars, but you had<br />

no control at all. Now it is the opposite, you<br />

don’t have the money for all the fancy stuff,<br />

and years in the studio and all that, but you<br />

have control of what you are doing, who<br />

you play with and where you want to take<br />

it. We like it, it is all about being the real<br />

deal now, no compromise.<br />

It reminds me of when we released Jab It In<br />

Yore Eye in the U.S. They wanted a<br />

different album cover so we went along to<br />

this launch where they have this 12 foot tall<br />

cover, with an eye and some fingers jabbing<br />

into it. It was just awful, hilariously bad. It<br />

summed Chris up for me, we’re all standing<br />

there trying not to laugh, and he says,<br />

totally deadpan ‘Mmm, eye-catching.’<br />

Brilliant but understated, that’s Chris.”<br />

There is a reason the Clash and the Pistols<br />

both loved them, there are a lot of reasons<br />

you will too – check them out.<br />

Find out more about the Sharks, Here and<br />

pre-order their awesome new album Here.


SUE FOLEY<br />

This Ice Queen Cometh<br />

One thing I’ve wanted us to do since we<br />

launched <strong>4.52am</strong> all those weeks ago, is to<br />

have a look at Crowdfunding and how it<br />

affects artists and bands who are trying to<br />

get their work out to as wide an audience as<br />

possible.<br />

Is it the obvious answer in these days where<br />

record companies aren’t throwing money at<br />

bands, or is it just another clever way for<br />

companies to take a cut out of an artist’s<br />

earnings without taking a risk on them?<br />

I’ve spent a lot of time watching campaigns<br />

founder, and more often than not it seems<br />

that a lot of musicians are doing it without<br />

really planning properly or even at times,<br />

knowing what it is they are looking for.<br />

There seem to be dozens of bands asking<br />

for thousands to record in some top-notch<br />

studio, without any justification in terms of<br />

preparation, experience or more worrying<br />

any kind of following.<br />

Where once all you used to hear was a<br />

vague ‘Get a deal’, these days it seems to<br />

be an equally misconceived ‘Do a Kickstarter<br />

and record something’ - as though it is<br />

some sort of answer in itself, instead of a<br />

business decision and a sales opportunity, a<br />

way of guaranteeing sales before you start<br />

with all the benefits that offers. But on the<br />

other side, something you are paying the<br />

Crowdfunding company to manage.<br />

And that is something to be remembered,<br />

you pay the company a percentage of<br />

whatever you raise, and if you are an<br />

artist with a following, you may want to<br />

ask yourself why you don’t simply go to<br />

them directly and offer to record an<br />

album by subscription, cutting out the<br />

middleman. It works and as a business,<br />

as surely every artist sees themselves<br />

these days, why give the money away if<br />

you don’t need to?<br />

Of course the counter argument is that<br />

the whole crowdfunding process is in<br />

itself a marketing exercise that will spread<br />

the word about your work, about you and<br />

for the clued-in it certainly can be, for<br />

those that know how to use it, they can<br />

reap great rewards.<br />

You pay your money and make the<br />

choice, but an informed decision would<br />

seem to be key, like anything, you need<br />

to work out what is best for you and the<br />

more information you can find about what<br />

works and what people have done (or not<br />

done) and then failed, is all knowledge<br />

worth having.<br />

It seemed to me that it would be great to<br />

follow a campaign that has been put<br />

together properly, by a credible artist who<br />

knows exactly what is needed not only to<br />

write and record an album, but to get it<br />

released and publicised effectively.


Ideally, an artist with a following built the<br />

old way via plenty of gigs who has also<br />

embraced the on-line experience and built<br />

in that direction too.<br />

And for me there was quite an obvious<br />

choice once I saw that she was about to<br />

run a Kickstarter campaign to fund her first<br />

solo album in 8 years, and so I asked the<br />

question, crossed my fingers and hoped<br />

she’d agree.<br />

And I’m pleased to say that over the next<br />

few weeks we will be doing a little<br />

experiment and (as a weekly guitarish<br />

magazine, no doubt for the first time)<br />

following a Kickstarter campaign as it<br />

happens to see how the rather brilliant Sue<br />

Foley builds her campaign to raise the<br />

funds to both record and promote her new<br />

album The Ice Queen.<br />

I was rather chuffed to get the chance to<br />

ask Sue a few questions about it,<br />

Is this your first crowdfunding<br />

experience and how do you like it so<br />

far?<br />

“This is my first crowdfunding experience<br />

and I'm starting to enjoy it. Honestly, I was<br />

really nervous to undertake this for many<br />

reasons. I'm basically a shy reserved<br />

person who's been used to going about my<br />

business on my own, with a small team and<br />

record company. I didn't know what<br />

crowdfunding was before this and I<br />

certainly didn't imagine I would ever do it.<br />

It's been revelatory to think that you would<br />

include your friends, family and fan base in<br />

the creation of your CD and that they<br />

would get on board to support you the way<br />

they have with me. It's really a beautiful<br />

concept.”<br />

It strikes me (looking at loads of others that<br />

aren't) that your campaign is really<br />

professional - great videos, photography,<br />

friendly message.<br />

How long did you spend planning your<br />

campaign?<br />

“I really appreciate your saying that. I had a<br />

lot of help with my campaign getting advice<br />

on how to create something that was clean<br />

and clear. My friend and soon to be album<br />

producer, Mike 'the Drifter' Flanigin from<br />

Austin was the one who encouraged me to<br />

run this campaign in the first place. He's<br />

been really instrumental in the whole<br />

journey, as a cheer leader and in helping<br />

me to design the campaign so it was user<br />

(or pledger) friendly. He's done his own<br />

successful Kickstarter for his album, The<br />

Drifter and knows the landscape. We spent<br />

a few weeks beforehand preparing, making<br />

the video and looking at other campaigns.”<br />

Did you plan it all yourself, or did you<br />

use agencies/PR people?<br />

“I did not use agencies, only friends who<br />

believe in my work. I could not do this and<br />

sell it to my people without full belief in<br />

what I'm creating and doing. I'm really<br />

ready to make this album, I know it will be<br />

killer. I've managed the budget realistically.<br />

And I'm offering great rewards that have<br />

real value. Plus I have a proven track<br />

record of releasing quality music and of<br />

touring to support it. I really think that's the<br />

guts of all this.”<br />

Obviously, the world has changed and you<br />

can record a song in front of your computer<br />

and have it available around the world in a<br />

day - do you see these changes (along with<br />

Crowdfunding) as a positive for an artist or<br />

is the lack of money behind you/new artists<br />

a heavy price to pay?


“What strikes me from this process of<br />

crowdfunding is the game has changed. I<br />

have been fortunate to be able to see the<br />

music business be completely turned on its<br />

ear, for better or worse. I don't feel good<br />

about music losing its monetary value.<br />

That's a really scary concept for musicians<br />

and I don't know how this next generation<br />

is going to adequately get paid for their<br />

work. I am lucky because I have a fan base<br />

and there's still an infrastructure in blues<br />

music and in guitar culture. My people<br />

don't mind paying for music. That's a really<br />

good thing. They also don't mind<br />

supporting live shows and as far as I can<br />

see from the momentum of my Kickstarter,<br />

they are really supportive of helping to<br />

create good music. I'm feeling very<br />

fortunate.”<br />

I must admit I always read the<br />

rewards first as quite often they seem<br />

like really bad ideas. Glad to see you<br />

aren't offering to pop around and<br />

cook anybody tea, but are there any<br />

that you are secretly hoping nobody<br />

pledges for?<br />

“I really hope people pledge for everything<br />

that I'm offering. I feel very strongly in<br />

what I'm doing and I know we're going to<br />

make a great album. I only wish I could<br />

offer people more. And we may keep<br />

upping our game as far as pledges go. I've<br />

got some surprises in store.”<br />

Looking at Sue’s campaign, you can see<br />

that she has definitely got a lot of things<br />

right straight from the start.<br />

Launching on the 2 nd of <strong>November</strong>, Sue’s<br />

campaign aimed to raise a total of $27,500.<br />

Clearly, she has a fan base that is keen to<br />

be supportive, and had already raised 11%<br />

of the target amount on the first day.<br />

This is a really important lesson for anybody<br />

planning a campaign to learn – it is all about<br />

momentum, and if you can make sure that<br />

you publicise it before it starts and have<br />

anybody that is predisposed to take part<br />

pledging early, this creates interest in itself<br />

and the more people who pledge, the more<br />

people there are that want to join in and<br />

pledge too.<br />

The next thing we notice is that Sue has a<br />

professional quality video, which clearly and<br />

concisely tells you who she is, what she<br />

does, her experience – so that you know<br />

that she is likely to actually do what she<br />

says – and what she is asking you to do.<br />

Marketing people call it a ‘Call to Action’ and<br />

without being cynical, she makes sure that<br />

you want to join her on what is an exciting<br />

journey (I hate that phrase).<br />

Similarly, there is enough text on the<br />

campaign page to tell you everything you<br />

need to know, and to excite you about her<br />

album, without disappearing into a dark and<br />

dank place too many artists seem to want to<br />

occupy. She remembers she is marketing<br />

herself and her work, and she does an<br />

excellent job.<br />

From there it is easy, she is one of the<br />

best, has worked with the best, quality in all<br />

cases is displayed and guaranteed.<br />

I can’t imagine anybody would read her<br />

campaign page and come away thinking<br />

that Sue is anything other than a<br />

consummate professional.


The fun part of these campaigns is always<br />

the rewards, and again Sue has pitched<br />

these perfectly. There are many options<br />

that offer the fan something unique, and<br />

the casual supporter an early release of the<br />

record, as well as an opportunity to take<br />

part in something.<br />

And I think that is one of the things Sue in<br />

particular, and good crowdfunding<br />

campaigns generally do well – they create<br />

something that people value and want to<br />

be part of, which is a special thing when<br />

you come to think about it. Fans have<br />

always invested their time and energy in<br />

the artists they believe in, and whether it is<br />

seeing their name in the cover of a CD, or<br />

a special message over Skype or whatever,<br />

for the first time fans are gaining access to<br />

their ‘heroes’ at some level that previously<br />

wasn’t possible, whilst the artists are<br />

forging stronger bonds – or can be if they<br />

do it right and treat their supporters<br />

properly – that could pay off forever more.<br />

In a lot of ways it is a far more traditional<br />

model than the record company ever was,<br />

and whilst it puts the power back in the<br />

artist’s hands, they really do only have<br />

themselves to blame if it doesn’t work for<br />

them.<br />

As I write this, Sue’s campaign has 23 days<br />

to go and has already raised $11,360 – so<br />

things are looking good.<br />

Next week we will see how things have<br />

gone, and what Sue has done to continue to<br />

push the campaign, and how successful she<br />

feels it has been.<br />

You can check out Sue Foley’s Campaign on<br />

Kickstarter Here and it is well worth<br />

pledging a few bob to see this quite brilliant<br />

songwriter and musician do something<br />

special. I’m happy to say I have, can’t wait<br />

to hear the album and in summary - the<br />

lady is class, end of story.


HOTEI & IGGY POP<br />

Walking Through The Night<br />

Selling over 40 Million Records in his<br />

homeland of Japan, Hotei is the very<br />

definition of a superstar, and after a career<br />

spanning 35 years, and with Time Out<br />

calling him ‘Iconic’ it would be easy for him<br />

to rest on his laurels and keep mining that<br />

familiar seam.<br />

Like Messrs Emmanuel, Santana and Di<br />

Meola who we’ve looked at in recent weeks,<br />

Hotei is much better than that and like any<br />

true artist still has plenty to give, and places<br />

to go.<br />

If you haven’t heard of him or are perhaps<br />

unsure why you have, his Battle Without<br />

Honor or Humanity provided an epic theme<br />

to Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill or perhaps<br />

you saw him join Zucchero on his album and<br />

on-stage at the Albert Hall earlier this year,<br />

or if you are on the other side of that pond,<br />

perhaps you caught his headline spots at<br />

the legendary LA Troubadour or New York’s<br />

Highline Ballroom.<br />

You get the picture.<br />

Walking Through The Night is taken from<br />

Hotei’s first international album which<br />

features a selection of artists including<br />

Richard Z. Kruspe, Bullet For My Valentine’s<br />

Matt Tuck, Noko from Apollo 440, and the<br />

rather brilliant Shea Seger.<br />

Oh and the genius incarnate that is Iggy<br />

Pop, but you knew that already, it says so<br />

at the top of the page.<br />

As for the song, it is stunning, Iggy Pop’s<br />

vocals are back to his greasy coiled best,<br />

and Hotei’s music is compelling.<br />

Iggy explained his motivation and<br />

inspiration for the track as,<br />

“I tried to put myself on a late night<br />

brightly lit Shinjuku street, feeling alone,<br />

sexually vulnerable and a little bit angry…<br />

a little bit horny…”<br />

The video follows a man’s nocturnal<br />

journey through the seedy back streets of<br />

Tokyo, lured by the bright lights of<br />

temptation. Stunningly filmed and<br />

featuring shots of Iggy Pop and footage<br />

of Hotei, the video is a gloriously<br />

evocative taste of Hotei’s homeland that<br />

chimes with the snarling lyrics.<br />

In simple terms Hotei is the genuine<br />

article, he creates music like nobody else<br />

out there and his collaborations with Iggy<br />

and the others are something different<br />

from anything you have seen these chaps<br />

do before. Well worth checking out Here.


HOT ROD PROJECTS<br />

Mean, Green, Killing Machine<br />

Over the last few issues we have looked at a<br />

number of UK based Luthiers, and will<br />

continue to do so as we move forward and<br />

if one thing is becoming quickly apparent it<br />

is that there are many routes to the same<br />

place, and as long as the end-result is a<br />

guitar of stupendous quality that meets the<br />

player’s needs, it really doesn’t matter how<br />

we get there.<br />

A modern take on the whole luthier question<br />

is something I was keen to explore with a<br />

time-served yet bluntly pragmatic builder of<br />

some of the UK’s most outrageously cool<br />

guitars, the principal of Glasgow-based Hot<br />

Rod Projects, Roberto Gilberto Luigi Ricci, or<br />

as he is known with a mixture of both awe<br />

and respect, Don Ricci.<br />

I caught up with Don Ricci in a favoured<br />

restaurant with exceptionally attentive<br />

waiters, aiming to find out more about both<br />

Hot Rod Projects and the Hot Rodded Green<br />

Strat, you’ll see in the photos alongside this<br />

article.<br />

Don Ricci, may I ask where Hot Rod<br />

Guitars fits in your portfolio and what<br />

else do you have planned?<br />

“It's actually Hot Rod Projects which is the<br />

parent company to a number of sub<br />

divisions including the "Cheeseboard<br />

Pedalboards" concept which I'll be bringing<br />

to market early next year. I've also got an<br />

idea for a car company called Baby Blue<br />

Racing with the thinking there being<br />

taking older, less loved cars and outfitting<br />

them for the Urban Grand Prix.”<br />

At this point he stands and looks into the<br />

middle-distance, into destiny,<br />

“I'm thinking old shape Fiat Pandas with<br />

rollbars huge mudflaps and full sized roof<br />

racks full of spare wheels and tanks of<br />

petrol, that kind of thing.<br />

I was also thinking about a single-make<br />

race series using Bedford Rascals. I<br />

thought we could do a riff on the<br />

motorbike and sidecar idea where you<br />

have a guy in the back swinging his<br />

weight about to try and keep it upright in<br />

corners. It would be cheap and you could<br />

probably run it in car parks, but I suspect<br />

that the safety element might prove<br />

problematic.<br />

The limiting factors there are that I don’t<br />

even have space to build guitars from<br />

scratch so cars, even small ones are a bit<br />

of a problem.<br />

I also know next to nothing about<br />

mechanics so I may need to find an<br />

accomplice for that one...<br />

As for the guitars I'm pondering a switch<br />

to using "Ricci" as the brand name for the<br />

guitars with "A Division Of Hot Rod<br />

Projects" in small type like the


"Synchronised Tremolo' or "Comfort<br />

Contours" bit on Fenders.<br />

This particular guitar is the 'Sunset Strip'<br />

because that’s where the faux back story of<br />

this one places it, one of the first of the<br />

'Superstrats' back before you could just go<br />

and buy a fully loaded Kramer or Charvel,<br />

something concocted on the workbench of<br />

a guitar shop using bits from the Dimarzio<br />

or Schecter catalouges.”<br />

What was your motivation for building<br />

this guitar?<br />

“Ah well, you see the thing here is that I'm<br />

a bit nostalgic and I like each guitar to<br />

have an inspiration, a 'back story' if you<br />

will.<br />

This one takes me back to when me and all<br />

my friends got our first electric guitars.<br />

Generally it would've been a gift from your<br />

parents, often from Argos, Currys or Dixons<br />

so if you were lucky you'd get a Squier but<br />

often as not you'd find yourself toting a<br />

Marlin or a Hohner or a Sunn, Jeez do you<br />

remember those ?<br />

Anyway, you'd get your first guitar and it<br />

was great but then the initial excitement<br />

would wear off and you'd realise that the<br />

thin plinky single coil sound of your plywood<br />

Strat wasn’t quite what you needed for the<br />

monster rock sounds you were after but you<br />

were stuck with the guitar as there was no<br />

way you could afford a 'real one'. But then<br />

we would read Guitar World or some other<br />

impossibly glamorous looking US guitar mag<br />

(that was never the same physical size as<br />

the UK ones) and we'd see stuff about EVH<br />

and the like who were all modding guitars to<br />

get what they wanted out of them and it<br />

was like a light coming on. Except we didn’t<br />

have access to stuff in the UK in the same<br />

way so there were a whole raft of friend’s


guitars with stuff like a single pickup plate<br />

made out of sheets of thick perspex in the<br />

workshop at school, woeful paintjobs<br />

carried out in the shed, that sort of thing.<br />

And of course we all wanted Floyd Roses<br />

but none of us had anything like the right<br />

tools to fit one.<br />

So yeah, this is kind of a homage to those<br />

early days of pulling guitars apart and<br />

remaking them, except of course done a bit<br />

better !”<br />

In terms of the Sunset Strip, can you<br />

tell me about the specification – is<br />

that a DiMarzio Super Distortion?<br />

“Yep Super Distortion, God I wanted one of<br />

those back when I was 15, although iirc<br />

most of us ended up with whatever we<br />

could get from the local, provincial music<br />

shop or one of those odd Kent Armstrong<br />

pickups with the fluted covers, wow<br />

remember those ?<br />

Other than the pickup, the tremolo is a<br />

beautiful Gotoh unit, although I am a little<br />

disappointed that the Powder Pink tip for<br />

the tremolo arm hadn’t arrived in time for<br />

the photographs. The Pink Sperzels are<br />

brilliant machine heads and were something<br />

we had to import especially, these are great<br />

for the builder as you no longer need to drill<br />

the holes for the alignment pins, it just<br />

bores it’s own. As for imports, we did the<br />

same with the coloured Strap Pins and<br />

knob, which are exquisitely engineered by a<br />

company called Guique in France and are of<br />

exceptional quality.”


May I ask when the body and neck<br />

come from?<br />

“Of course, I have no problem admitting<br />

that I outsource the woodwork and indeed<br />

the spraying.<br />

I know that a lot of builders tend to fudge<br />

the issue of whether they actually start<br />

with the raw wood and actually 'carve' the<br />

guitar. I think it's important to be upfront<br />

about it. I do have a background in guitar<br />

building, I actually trained in the guitar<br />

workshop of the (now defunct) London<br />

College Of Furniture under Dave Whyteman<br />

and even then I couldn’t see a viable way<br />

of setting up as a guitar builder in the<br />

conventional sense. The amount of<br />

investment involved along with the need<br />

for a full workshop with extraction & heavy<br />

woodworking machinery kind of closed that<br />

door for me for a number of years.<br />

You could always buy in necks and bodies<br />

but back when I started I didn’t have the<br />

connections here in the UK and assumed<br />

that everything would have to come in from<br />

the US which would make things a bit<br />

pricey.<br />

However, over the last couple of years I've<br />

found that the quality of off-the-shelf stuff<br />

available in the UK has risen dramatically so<br />

its relatively easy to furnish a more generic<br />

build with stock components. In the<br />

instance of this guitar the body is from<br />

Guitarbuild and the neck is actually a repurposed<br />

Squier Classic Vibe Strat neck. But<br />

further to that I've had the good fortune to


make contact with a couple of very very<br />

good UK-based 'Ghostbuilders'. These are<br />

guys that can deliver custom shop quality<br />

necks & bodies to my exact specs for sub<br />

Warmoth money so I'm increasingly looking<br />

to them. I know there's an argument that<br />

says I'm essentially just 'bolting them<br />

together' but I see it as being analogous to<br />

the racing car scene in the late 60s, you'd<br />

go to Lola because they made the best<br />

chassis, you'd go and see Ford for a DFV<br />

engine etc etc. You find the best bits and<br />

you bring them together into a cohesive<br />

whole. And then you send it to a very very<br />

clever man in Wales who does an amazing<br />

job of painting it !<br />

So yeah, not a luthier in the traditional<br />

sense by any means.<br />

But then who says it has to be done the<br />

same way it always has ?”<br />

Can you explain how Hot Rod Projects<br />

works as a company?<br />

“I'm a one-man band and the guitars are<br />

something that I have to fit in around other


work. I don’t think you'll ever see a<br />

standard line of guitars from me.”<br />

He starts pacing at this point, waiters,<br />

bodyguards and myself only following him<br />

with our eyes,<br />

“I tend to be inspired as with the Sunset<br />

Strip, either by a memory or maybe I'll see<br />

a neck or a body and that will set my<br />

thought process off, for instance my next<br />

build has been brought about by a<br />

particular type of neck becoming available<br />

and in that moment, a Telemaster body<br />

I've had on the bench for a while, not really<br />

knowing where to go with has come into<br />

focus. I'm a bit worried that one will turn<br />

out a bit 'Hipster' but we'll see.”<br />

May I ask about the White Esquire?<br />

“That was a special I built for 'Sony<br />

Recording Artist and Guest Vocalist on the<br />

last Chase & Status single Tom Grennan. He<br />

is an amazing musician and I was really<br />

pleased to be see something I had built in<br />

such talented hands. It is these little things,<br />

that make the…”<br />

At this point, outside of the restaurant, a car<br />

backfired and within a second I found<br />

myself facedown on the floor with twenty<br />

stone of bodyguard sat on my back.<br />

By the time I regained my feet Don Ricci<br />

had been smuggled out of a rear exit.<br />

Hot Rod Projects have no web presence and<br />

may only be contacted at this time via<br />

acknowledged intermediaries.


ANDY MANSON<br />

A Bouzouki for Andy Lambert<br />

I hate to start an article by suggesting that<br />

we are moving from the ridiculous to the<br />

sublime, but in terms of approach to guitar<br />

making, I think we can safely say that Andy<br />

Manson comes from a more traditional<br />

direction.<br />

I’m genuinely pleased to say that Guitar<br />

Quarterly will have a full feature on Andy’s<br />

work in January, which is rightly regarded as<br />

some of the finest in the world, but I didn’t<br />

want too many issues of <strong>4.52am</strong> to pass<br />

without having at least a little look at one of<br />

his builds.<br />

As you would imagine, Andy Manson makes<br />

all his guitars, mandolins and in the case of<br />

today’s example, bouzoukis entirely by<br />

hand, as he has done for over 40 years. To<br />

date he has made more than a thousand<br />

instruments and is still taking the finest of<br />

woods and discovering the beauty within<br />

both aesthetically and tonally.<br />

I asked him about his approach to<br />

tonewoods and whether he thought that<br />

there is really any merit in the idea?<br />

“I use most of the classic timbers for guitar<br />

and mandolin construction. Rosewood,<br />

spruce, mahogany, cedar, ebony, maple. I<br />

like to use locallysourced woods as well,<br />

when possible. A particular favourite is<br />

English and European cherry.<br />

The maple I use is grown in Europe, as is<br />

most of the<br />

spruce. I like to use some of the other<br />

traditional instrument making woods that<br />

have not been so common in modern<br />

instruments, such as boxwood, pear,<br />

apple, yew. I have laburnum, plum,<br />

sycamore, walnut, strawberry wood, olive.<br />

The particular sound of the instrument is<br />

created by the interaction of the strings<br />

and what they are attached to. The<br />

variables apart from string characteristics<br />

are weight, density, stiffness, size and<br />

shape. Different woods have different<br />

degrees of weight, density and stiffness.<br />

In 1967 I built my first instrument, from<br />

necessity. It was a teardrop shaped body<br />

with a long neck and 30” scale. I don't<br />

remember what inspired the long scale,<br />

though I remember measuring strings to<br />

see how long I could make it. I think I<br />

hoped for a more strident sound with a<br />

long string.<br />

The body had plywood sides with oak top<br />

and back and an African mahogany neck<br />

with teak fingerboard. Not traditional, just<br />

what happened to be lying around in my<br />

Father's garage.<br />

The thing could deliver a tune though and<br />

I played it all over London, Paris, the Cote<br />

D'Azur and anywhere else I landed. Then<br />

there was a car crash, the guitar's top was<br />

smashed in.


I found a piece of walnut faced plywood in<br />

a skip, “that looks nice!” and then,<br />

“...hmmm...sounds different!<br />

Well, forty plus years later I'm still<br />

wondering, though now I tend to use the<br />

traditional luthier's materials, the classic<br />

tonewoods.<br />

Most of the science in my luthiery is that of<br />

experience and intuition. I gaze at classic<br />

work, in any kind of artefact, and I try to<br />

absorb the configurations of nature.<br />

I've built many guitars, lutes, mandolins,<br />

dulcimers, and a variety of multi necked<br />

and multi stringed instruments over the<br />

years. I have learnt a lot and been able to<br />

pass on some knowledge. My brother Hugh<br />

and later the fellows at Brook Guitars<br />

started under my guidance. I feel heartened<br />

and rewarded at their achievements. One<br />

of the things I enjoy most about being a<br />

luthier is the willingness to share ideas with<br />

other makers. It's a very supportive<br />

community.”<br />

Looking in particular at the Bouzouki Andy<br />

has made for Andy Lambert, you can see<br />

that every millimetre has been shaped<br />

perfectly. The choice of woods used again is<br />

testimony to his experience,<br />

“The bouzouki built for Andy Lambert, has<br />

English sycamore for the back and sides,<br />

European spruce for the top, mahogany<br />

neck and an ebony fretboard.<br />

The bridge, truss rod cover and head piece<br />

are also ebony. Binding is from the<br />

strawberry tree, Arbutus, so called because<br />

the fruit looks rather like wild strawberries.<br />

So also the arm rest.


The pickup is made by Highlander and is<br />

under the saddle, with discrete tone and<br />

volume thumbwheel controls.<br />

The tuners are Gotoh 510 Delta Series,<br />

gold plated with black plastic handles.<br />

The tailpiece is mine, cast manganese<br />

bronze. Frets are EVO gold. The bouzouki<br />

is finished in Tuf Wood Oil from Nutshell<br />

Natural Paints, whilst the top is French<br />

polished.”<br />

So all in all, a beautiful instrument made to<br />

the highest standards using the best of<br />

everything.<br />

You can follow Andy’s work on his<br />

Facebook page which is humbling for<br />

anybody who has thought to put a musical<br />

instrument together, this really is what it is<br />

all about.<br />

Visit Andy on Facebook Here and at his web<br />

site There.


RIFT AMPS<br />

Vibro ‘63<br />

Back in <strong>Issue</strong> 002 we had a longing lok at<br />

Rift Amps’ Brownie 5, Chris’ imagined<br />

version of a classic Fender amp that never<br />

was but probably should have been.<br />

Despite the fact I’m pretty sure that Santa<br />

won’t be delivering on that wish, I couldn’t<br />

help this week but to torture myself further<br />

with the ghost of a Xmas never to come and<br />

look at his Vibro ’63.<br />

I asked Chris to explain where he was<br />

coming from with this, yet again,<br />

extraordinarily beautiful build,<br />

“The 1963 Vibroverb (model 6G16) was the<br />

first amplifier from Fender to feature<br />

onboard Reverb, up to that point Leo was<br />

only selling the external reverb unit that<br />

plugged inbetween your guitar and amplifier.<br />

This was the first time that Reverb was<br />

incorporated as an onboard effect and set<br />

the trend for many amplifiers to come. There<br />

were less than 600 units built in ’63 before<br />

Fender introduced the blackface 1x15” 45w<br />

Vibroverb.<br />

It was a 2x10”, two-channel 35w combo,<br />

housed in a solid pine cabinet with a fixed<br />

birch-ply speaker baffle, covered in roughbrown<br />

tolex and wheat grille cloth. The<br />

speakers were 8ohm ceramic Oxford 10K6s,<br />

run in parallel for a total load of 4ohms. Both<br />

the bias-tremolo and reverb were valve<br />

driven and could be operated using a twobutton<br />

footswitch. I first came across this<br />

amplifier on YouTube, watching the German<br />

guitarist and dealer Gregor Hilden<br />

demonstrating his stock of both vintage<br />

and modern guitars through his original<br />

1963, and was instantly hooked on that<br />

deep, warm, and 3D tone that truly<br />

epitomised the phrase ‘touch response’. I<br />

set about finding a way to manufacture<br />

this amplifier and after a few months of<br />

prototyping, the Vibro ’63 was born.”<br />

As you would expect the specification<br />

shows it to be top quality in every way:<br />

1. 35w Power<br />

2. Preamp valves: 6 x 12AX7<br />

3. Power valves: 2 x 6L6GC<br />

4. Rectification: 1 x GZ34<br />

5. 'Rough Brown' Tolex w/Wheat<br />

Grille Cloth<br />

6. Reverb and Tremolo<br />

7. Custom Wound Transformers<br />

8. Jupiter Yellow Vintage Tone<br />

Capacitors<br />

9. Handwired Circuitry<br />

10. High quality valve sockets, no<br />

rattling like the NOS ones<br />

11. WGS G10C speakers<br />

12. Footswitch for Reverb + Tremolo<br />

13. 18-5/8" x 24" x 9-1/2" HxWxD<br />

14. 22kgs Approx<br />

You can find out more Here


NINE OF SWORDS<br />

Burial At Sea<br />

I have to admit, that for a chap who rarely<br />

used effect pedals – my lack of tone was<br />

always in my fingers, it has to be said –<br />

getting a somewhat bland amplifier and also<br />

trying my best to think of things to cover in<br />

this wee magazine of ours, I seem to be<br />

spending a lot of time fiddling with patch<br />

leads and generally making weird noises.<br />

With a guitar, I should clarify.<br />

And at the moment fuzz is where my brain<br />

is at, and so this week I gathered a few<br />

armfuls of a friend’s collection of fuzz<br />

pedals, all manner of vintage and boutique<br />

they were too, and generally got about it.<br />

As I said the other week when I did<br />

something similar looking at overdrives, I<br />

am not especially interested in something<br />

that sounds exactly like Hendrix or Gilmour<br />

or any other artist or song (though we all<br />

know that the original theme tune for<br />

Rhubarb and Custard is the best fuzz sound<br />

ever, we’ve already covered that I’m sure)<br />

instead I want a fuzz tone that sounds like<br />

me.<br />

Dodgy tonal fingers and all.<br />

By that I mean, I’ve never been interested<br />

in playing covers in the same way I don’t do<br />

paint by numbers, I’d rather be me, for<br />

better or worse. Always poorer.<br />

Starting with 44 different fuzz pedals, we<br />

set about it, I had no preconceived idea<br />

about what I was looking for, just that I<br />

would know it when I got there. I didn’t<br />

mind if the fuzz only did one good thing<br />

or whether it covered everything known<br />

to guitardom, and with a total lack of<br />

direction, off we went.<br />

In terms of the approach, it was<br />

simplistic, we’d play the same thing<br />

through two of the fuzzes. Try a few<br />

settings to find a sweet spot, and then<br />

put the best to the left, the worst to the<br />

right.<br />

Quickly 44 fuzz boxes became 22, 22<br />

became 11, things got confused for a<br />

while as we clearly hadn’t thought it<br />

through until a ruling indicated that 11<br />

should become 6.<br />

A bit wiser now, 6 became 4, and this is<br />

where it got complicated, as they all<br />

sounded rather brilliant and either my<br />

hearing had gone by this point or I had<br />

drunk too much coffee as I was really<br />

struggling.<br />

However, a quick walk on the beach with<br />

a stop for a genuine Gelato sorted my<br />

head out and within the hour we were<br />

back at it, and with new found vigour we<br />

realised that we had reached the final,<br />

there were only two left.<br />

This is of course the part where I should<br />

dim the lights and try and build a little<br />

tension, maybe do a voiceover or invest in<br />

a strobe.


Unfortunately, given the nature of the<br />

magazine format, you have already read<br />

the title of the piece and so you know who<br />

won. There really isn’t too much I can do<br />

about that other than lie early on and<br />

apologise later, which would be silly and<br />

beneath us all.<br />

Ignoring that, with a little bit of tension<br />

instilled we were down to the last two, and<br />

instead of sticking with my Jazzmaster/Vox<br />

V15 Bland-o-Amp, I thought this should be<br />

the point we try something different so<br />

instead I used it as a good excuse to rifle<br />

somebody else’s guitar and amp collection<br />

and switched to a Mojo P90 Loaded 2015<br />

Gibson Les Paul Jr running into a not very<br />

traditional looking Fender Twin – the one<br />

with the red knobs, I can never remember<br />

the name of them.<br />

Either way it has a massive sound and is<br />

very, very loud..<br />

Now I won’t name the other fuzz at this<br />

point as it hardly seems fair to brand it a<br />

loser when it was anything but, but at full<br />

pelt, the Junior screaming and the fuzz and<br />

everything else maxed out, there really was<br />

only one winner, it was the Mammoth<br />

sounding Nine of Swords Burial at Sea.<br />

Whatever ‘it’ is, it had ‘it’ in spades and<br />

could cover just about any and every tone I<br />

wanted to hear and the sustain alone just<br />

made me smile, you really didn’t have to do<br />

a thing other than to stand there and sound<br />

amazing. Which to be quite frank, suits me<br />

just diddly.<br />

As for the controls, seriously, watch the<br />

video to have a grown-up explanation, but<br />

from my perspective they all let you carve<br />

chunks out of a fuzz that is like a giant<br />

marshmallow that goes on as far as you can<br />

see. It is like moulding clouds to your will,<br />

OK, deep, dangerously, darkness-infused<br />

clouds and the type of marshmallow weird<br />

people hand out at Halloween with used<br />

needles embedded, but you know what I<br />

mean.<br />

And looking back now, a few days later, I<br />

think the really impressive thing was that<br />

not only does it do the one, dark, rat<br />

infested thing amazingly well, but there are<br />

such levels of control at your fingertips that<br />

you can play just about anything at all if you<br />

stop looking at yourself in the mirror long<br />

enough.<br />

Seriously, this is top banana, check it out<br />

Here


REVIEWS


DOOMSQUAD<br />

Total Time<br />

Doomsquad are a family affair, and yet from<br />

Canada rather than Wolverhampton, so that<br />

is perplexing for a start. Nonetheless, three<br />

siblings Trevor, Jaclyn, and Allie Bluma<br />

initially started working together as a folk<br />

band before quickly finding their feet and<br />

moving in a far more interesting trance and<br />

electronic direction that has paid off<br />

massively. And in truth theirs is more of an<br />

art project, routed very much in Toronto’s<br />

art scene, with music being only a single<br />

part of the picture.<br />

The album itself is extremely innovative<br />

without ever getting into the cheesy or the<br />

naff as it tries to be ‘original’ at any cost and<br />

there is a class that runs through everything<br />

they do which becomes quickly apparent.<br />

Some of the bass is astonishingly cool<br />

though a personal highlight is that they<br />

have got the rather wonderful Mary<br />

Margaret O’Hara to provide some ethereal<br />

other-worldly vocals on The Very Large<br />

Array, which is absolutely breath-taking in<br />

its beauty and soul-destracting in its<br />

ability to make you lose time.<br />

In fact the album as a whole is a constant<br />

surprise and without a doubt the best,<br />

most perfectly beautiful come-down music<br />

I have heard in years., although putting it<br />

in such a pigeon-shaped-hole is<br />

underselling the quality and breadth, as<br />

well as depth of everything they are<br />

doing. Quite simply, if you only buy one<br />

trance album in your life, this is the one<br />

as simply put, it is the best that there is,<br />

was or ever will be. Incredibly perfect.<br />

Find out more about Doomsquad Here.


MENACE BEACH<br />

Lemon Memory<br />

I have to say from the start that Menace<br />

Beach have got my Unofficial Album of the<br />

Week Award, as well as my Unofficial Song<br />

of the Week Award with their new single<br />

Maybe We’ll Drown.<br />

In fact perhaps I should make these things<br />

Official and do a list each week or<br />

something, maybe buy a trophy, but either<br />

way the album Lemon Memory which is<br />

released in January is the one that has been<br />

on constant rotation, and one that seems to<br />

make me form oddly shaped hand<br />

silhouettes whenever I listen to it whilst<br />

looking somewhat other-worldly.<br />

Although thankfully, I have learned my<br />

lesson and not put it on when I am driving.<br />

As for the music, compared to their debut<br />

album, they seem to have turned the fuzz<br />

down a little and varied the mix, in fact it is<br />

quite deliberate with Liza explaining,<br />

“The one ‘rule’ we went into the album<br />

session with was to keep in mind that<br />

sometimes doing The Opposite is much<br />

more interesting.”<br />

Something that has made for a more<br />

varied and deeper album. This does see<br />

Liza more at the forefront compared to<br />

Ratworld and Ryan explains,<br />

“Liza got that look in the eye and a headdown-blinkers-on<br />

thing, and only a moron<br />

would try and get in the way of that. It’s<br />

all about keeping those ideas in their<br />

purest form and diluting as little as<br />

possible.”<br />

Whatever they did, this is an awesome<br />

single with a brilliant album to come, both<br />

of which you need in your life. Need, I<br />

say.<br />

Go visit them Here and see for yourself.


MORELAND & ARBUCKLE<br />

Promised Land or Bust<br />

I’ve said it many times now, but Alligator<br />

Records are, quite simply put, the defacto<br />

home for authentic, soul-tearing blues music<br />

in the world today. There are many great<br />

bands out there, some awesome guitarists,<br />

but in terms of a label that is consistently<br />

producing the goods – Alligator are wiping<br />

the floor with everybody else. And this is the<br />

sentiment I had in the front of my mind as I<br />

listened to Moreland & Arbuckle’s album for<br />

the first time – which for them I guess was<br />

a dangerous moment, as the bar was set so<br />

high – but if they worried, I know I didn’t<br />

and so it proved, because in Promised Land<br />

or Bus the chaps have blown the lid off it.<br />

This is an awesome album of the dirtiest,<br />

most scuzzy blues I have heard in years,<br />

and I am loving every minute of it.<br />

The trio of guitarist Aaron Moreland,<br />

singerist and harmonica strangler Dustin<br />

Arbuckle and the quite brilliant drummer<br />

(who should renegotiate over not having<br />

his name in the group’s moniker) Kendall<br />

Newby, bring the energy of punk to the<br />

proceedings but never stray far from a<br />

country flavoured blues that is heading<br />

straight out of the Delta and into your<br />

guts. Their music genuinely chews you up<br />

and leaves you battered in the corner<br />

stinking of cheap whiskey (if such a thing<br />

exists anymore.)<br />

This is heart-ringing stuff, full of the pain<br />

of everyday living and all the things we do<br />

to each other, but there is always an<br />

element of beauty in the mix that true<br />

blues must have. This is the human<br />

condition in 40-odd minutes, a brilliant<br />

album by a quite awesome band.<br />

Check them out Here, but be prepared to<br />

feel some beautiful pain.


MY ONLY<br />

This Room & You<br />

I love the fact that My Only are doing<br />

something new, it is such a rarity these days<br />

for anybody to take chances, especially with<br />

a debut E.P. and you can only applaud<br />

them their cojones. Not that that has<br />

anything at all to do with my loving this E.P,<br />

that is entirely down to their mixture of an<br />

Emo Punk with raw vocals, and a battering<br />

ram of drums and bass that seem to want<br />

to push you through the floor and make<br />

your ears bleed. And then of course they do<br />

something different, and a quieter passage<br />

makes you think rather than just try to<br />

survive, and the tortured sounding vocals of<br />

a moment ago are suddenly tender, or at<br />

least tenderised, beautiful and yet primal<br />

too.<br />

This is something hard to pull-off with such<br />

a deftness of touch and you really do have<br />

to remind yourself just how early in their<br />

game they are.<br />

And then you hear Saboteur and the<br />

world changes with a shredded passion<br />

sitting on top of Billy Bragg meets<br />

Smashing Pumpkins delicacy, building and<br />

building into some crashing, trashing<br />

monster of a tear jerking horror-filled,<br />

pain-drenched movie of a life you really<br />

don’t want to live, and then it ends. And<br />

you mourn it immediately, hating yourself<br />

for falling for such an easy self-loathing.<br />

This is heady stuff, and one day we’ll all<br />

look back and claim we always knew just<br />

how big they could be. This is a prequel<br />

to their Gish or Ritual De Lo Habitual, this<br />

is a special moment you really need to<br />

discover before it is too late.<br />

Find them Here now, or feel silly later.


SLEIGH BELLS<br />

Jessica Rabbit<br />

The rather brilliant Sleigh Bells quite simply<br />

have too many ideas fizzing around their<br />

heads for their own good. Not that that is a<br />

bad thing as such, but it means that as a<br />

lowly listener, you really don’t know what<br />

the hell is going to happen next. Musically, it<br />

could be anything from raw clanging<br />

guitars, mellow synths, lovely chugging<br />

beats or verse and chorus structures that<br />

Blondie would have proud of back when<br />

Debbie was in her suicide blonde pomp.<br />

And I have to say that singer Alexis Krauss<br />

has everything to be seen as a top-class<br />

front-girl for any band, without suffering<br />

from the doubt that makes too many singers<br />

feel they have to play it cool – there is no<br />

fear of failure here, and that is a wonderful<br />

thing.<br />

One special mention for the guitar-toting<br />

Derek Miller – in among some lovely ‘80s<br />

synth and everything else, we have a<br />

living, breathing rock god – some of the<br />

riffs and lines are awesome, and tonewise<br />

this could keep the forums burning<br />

late into the night trying to decipher what<br />

is going on. He would be welcome along<br />

to one of my Nerds R Us guitar evenings<br />

any time.<br />

In summary this is a brilliant pop record<br />

of the oldest school – great music,<br />

individual touches of brilliance and a<br />

singer that can belt it out like a Pat<br />

Benatar. Brilliant album, fantastic<br />

musicians. Love it.<br />

Find them Here and enjoy


THE WHARVES<br />

Electa<br />

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always<br />

wondered about things. Sometimes I<br />

wonder what would have happened if<br />

Atkinson has stayed at West Brom and kept<br />

Robson and Moses too. Other times I<br />

wonder whether I dreamt the Cadbury’s<br />

Star Bar when it was effectively a Mars Bar<br />

copy with a star-spangled ‘70s wrapper. I<br />

may have. However, the fondest of<br />

ponderings I generally go with was what<br />

would have happened if the Throwing<br />

Muses, and the Pixies, The Breeders and<br />

Belly had been brought up in a religious<br />

commune who based their studies on both<br />

the Bothy Band and Planxty, Fairport<br />

Convention and Miranda Sex Garden. It has<br />

kept me awake on many a long night.<br />

However, having listened to the joyous,<br />

epically beautiful sounds The Wharves have<br />

made on their brilliant album, I’ve come<br />

to realise that, in the words of another<br />

miner of the folk-rock lode, whilst I saw<br />

the crescent they indeed have seen the<br />

whole of the moon. For Electa is simply<br />

put a wonderful mix of all that is great of<br />

those beatified 4AD bands of old, mixed<br />

with something much more ancient and<br />

wiser, deeper and very much part of our<br />

marrow. The Wharves are a wonderful<br />

three piece from Ireland, England and<br />

France have one of the brightest, most<br />

beautifully measured guitarists, a<br />

wonderful singer who spills love and<br />

shadow like rose petals and a drummer<br />

who writes quite incredible songs.<br />

Please do check them out, it is something<br />

to be beholden by. They can be found<br />

Here and everywhere music lives.


Kill Your Television<br />

Seven Songs in Seven Days<br />

Sometimes we all get in a rut with our guitar playing, and no matter how many scales you<br />

can play in however many positions, or the number of original compositions you have<br />

under your belt, nobody apart from other guitarists are impressed. Actually, they will think<br />

they can do it better anyway, so forget them.<br />

Nope, we all need to be able to play that-one-with-the-jingly-bit-off-the-Royale-Family, so<br />

we thought a few suggestions wouldn’t hurt.<br />

So for the sake of sanity and fairness, we came up with a crazy long list and randomly<br />

selected the first seven for your delectation.<br />

Nothing too taxing, just a case of Why Don’t You Turn Off Your Television Set And Go And<br />

Do Something Less Boring Instead.<br />

So this week we have:<br />

Sunday: Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone<br />

Monday: Neil Young - Rockin' In The Free World<br />

Tuesday: BB King - Thrill Has Gone<br />

Wednesday: Oasis - Live Forever<br />

Thursday: Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here<br />

Friday: Undertones - Teenage Kicks<br />

Saturday: PJ Harvey - O Stella


CREDITS & THANKS<br />

Contacts:<br />

Editorial:<br />

editor@guitarquarterly.co.uk<br />

tel. 07413 359347<br />

Advertising:<br />

ads@guitarquarterly.co.uk<br />

Corrections:<br />

iyd@guitarquarterly.co.uk<br />

Readers Guitars:<br />

readers@guitarquarterly.co.uk<br />

Web. www.guitarquarterly.co.uk<br />

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Twitter. www.twitter.com/guitarquarterly<br />

Photo Credits:<br />

Sharks: Ross Halfin<br />

Sue Foley: Alan Messer<br />

Hot Rod Projects:<br />

Fiona Jordan (Strat)<br />

Rob Ricci (Esquire)<br />

Andy Manson: Andy Manson<br />

Rift Amps: Chris Fantana<br />

Nine of Swords: Nine of Swords<br />

Doomsquad: Brad Casey<br />

Menace Beach: Menace Beach<br />

Moreland and Arbuckle: Gavin Peters<br />

Sleigh Bells: Sleigh Bells<br />

The Wharves: The Wharves<br />

All content © Guitar Quarterly <strong>2016</strong>. No parts may<br />

be reproduced or stored in any format without the<br />

express written permission of the publisher<br />

ISSN 2399-3537<br />

Articles/Reviews: MD, NJ, LP, FM, TJ & RT<br />

Artwork: MD, FJ<br />

Design: MD, JM & TJ

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