Viva Lewes Issue #161 February 2020

FEATURE
Reid Savage
Lewes Guitar Teacher
“I’ve been surrounded by music all my life. My
father was a big-band arranger”, says Reid Savage,
Lewes resident and guitar teacher who currently
teaches pupils aged seven to 70. Reid recorded his
first album, aged 17, as guitarist in a band called
Sore Throat “in Studio 2, Abbey Road. It was
almost too good to be true,” he says, looking back
now. “I see all the photos of the Beatles working
on those same orchestral chairs…”
Sore Throat were a regular Camden Town band;
his next, called Way of the West “sold records”. It
also did brilliantly in America, and Reid remembers
fondly a tour of Europe and the States, when
he was 23. “For years, this became my life. I was
in and out of studios, supporting other bands –
The Stranglers, Madness, The Pretenders, The
Jam – then doing session work. I’ve jammed with
Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Eric Clapton!”
He’s also worked as a producer, among others for
Carole King’s daughter, Louise Goffin, and Pink
Floyd’s David Gilmour. Today he still offers a
production service – “people bring a song, and I
arrange it for them” – as well as songwriting and
production classes.
The music world has changed beyond recognition,
he says, due to the “technological revolution”.
Today “my production studio is here” – indicating
his laptop. “In the mid-90s people started
being able to make their own records. The first
people who went out of the window were session
drummers: laying a good track of drumming cost
serious money. But it’s been the end of an era. A
return to democracy – which is great; anyone can
record their own music – but it’s a double-edged
sword. It became harder to stay in business.”
Reinventing himself as a guitar teacher has been
great for Reid, though, he says. “I’ve been unbelievably
lucky. Kids come to me who are really
serious about their music. And adults, sometimes,
who say I love guitar and always meant to learn
to play: now I have some time, can you help me?
I’ve developed a USP: when people come to me,
whatever stage, whatever age, I ask them to name
some songs they love. We then work together on
learning how to play these – and I mean, really
play them. So they sound like they do on the
record. Together we listen hard: notice the connecting
notes. This makes all the difference.
“I’m so happy I’ve found a way of sharing my love
of music with others who love it too. Teaching
guitar has proved more of a blast than I hardly
dared imagine possible.”
Reid is also just now launching his own, first
solo album – called Response. “It’s my response
to flying solo,” he says, “without the safety net
of a band. It features some great guest vocalists
– Grace Harwood, for instance, is really, really
good…”
So who, I ask, is his all-time favourite guitarist?
“Jimi Hendrix. You only get a human like that
landing on the planet once in a lifetime.”
Charlotte Gann
guitarteacherlewes.com; reidsavagemusic.com
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