Showfax playing the Esher Assembly Rooms, c1969.
Mick with his Futurama Coronado Automatic, playing through a Selmer PA 100 amplifier head.
The group was
called Shadowfax (we were all young once) and was formed at Tiffins
Boys school in Kingston-on-Thames from the ex-members of the short
lived but active Rail Freight Blues Band (see what I mean).
The personnel were :
My guitar was my second
electric after a Futurama II, and was bought for a fiver including hard
case, but no tremolo bar, from a pawnshop in Brighton Rd. Surbiton. It
had the lowest, sweetest action I have ever experienced, bar none - a
true slippery dick feel and a joy to play (although it was originally
supplied with a heavyish set of tape wound strings). The guitar itself
was in beautiful condition except for a substantial gash in the centre
of the back, which showed the excellent quality of the wood in all its
natural glory, so I didn't mind this (ahem). It was eventually stolen
by a thieving bastard of our acquaintance (but that's another story),
which I bitterly regret, and was later replaced by a beautiful Custom
Whorl guitar made for me by a Luthier in Hook (near Tolworth, Surrey)
called Peter Redding, which I don’t regret at all –
I still play this one today.
The Selmer PA amp came from another of the multiple mobile pawn shops
in London Road. Kingston and was used in parallel with a
Selmer/Futurama Bassist Major head. (I still use this today for piezo
acoustic bridges on the Redding and various Arias with a wide band cab,
at which it excels.) The original cab went to a bass playing
mate in London and eventually expired of the damp in his garage.
The PA wasn't really voiced for guitar, above all with two 15" single
closed cabs and was, at best, rather brutal with the Range Master
treble booster, but OKish with a 3 piece, as we played more or less
flat out all the time and gave a tone very much in keeping with the
Beano Album. (And it also kept up with the bass player’s
Marshall stack – no wimpy wibbling here!)
"The pensive look
on my face in one of the pix is because we were playing a number that
Rory Gallagher's Taste used to do called "Same Old Story". It has a
step up for the second solo, and neither myself nor the bassist could
ever remember if it was a tone or a semitone step - a tone for this
gig, so no worries eh?"
("PS if anyone
knows the whereabouts of this guitar, I cheerfully renounce all claim
to it but would love to have some pix!!")