This Blog ...Guitars....and me!

I suppose this could be construed as a mid life crisis thing , Mrs Modern Guitars certainly perceives it that way! This "guitar thing" as she politely puts it, (she will never call it a hobby or a business start up) represents both my current interest and lifelong passion. I have been around guitars for most of my teenage and all of my adult life apart from one strange period of mental aberration when I had decided to become a hot shot advertising executive, I kid you not! and my guitar languished under the bed for around five years! Apart from that I have always been around guitars whether buying or selling them, attending gigs and concerts and frequenting guitar shows and guitar shops for more time than I care to admit or own up to. In answer to the three questions that seem to stalk the life of anyone who has ever picked up a guitar ; Q: "Do you play?" A: Yes I do but not as well as I would like! Q: "Have you ever been in a band"? At this point I am usually tempted to say something like "Yes Led Zeppelin! Have you heard of them? I played on their long lost 1980's comeback album, I was filling in for Jimmy Page you know!" But mostly I allude to being a group made up of 1980's poseurs with bad haircuts who almost very nearly coulda woulda shoulda had a single out on Factory Records had Tony Wilson (God Bless Him!) and company not spent all of their and quite a bit of New Order's money on the Hacienda nightclub. Ah well kid such are the breaks! The last question I often get asked is what sort of music do you play or like. The truth is that since the Punk Rock Wars of the 1970's when everyone was in musical ghettos such as Punk, New Wave Post Punk, Metal, Prog Rock or Funk this question now I feel gets harder to answer every year. I try to be electic in my listening and am mainly drawn to anything which has great guitar playing on it and especially rate Vini Reilly of the Durutti Column for being so very unique but other than that can't say I tend towards any one style. I remain in awe of anyone who is sticking to one way of playing and really working hard at their craft to be say a top Jazz Player, a great Metal guitarist or a really hot Shredder Respect is due!....in the words of Spinal Tap Rockumentary Director Marti Di Bergi however, "But hey enough of my yakkin. Whaddya say! Lets Boogie...."