Why 'Explorer'?

Why not? You've got to call your blog something, after all...

Actually, it's because a) I have a Gibson Explorer guitar (you can see it in the sidebar), and b) I was once in a band called 'Explorers' (named after the guitar!), which played a few gigs consisting of cover versions of songs by Metallica, Judas Priest and the like in the Bedford area in the early 90s.

Explorers was originally a four-piece band, but our vocalist Jamie quit after a couple of gigs - I forget the exact circumstances. After that, I took over vocal duties as well as guitar, and we remained a three-piece. Mark Lawson was a constant on bass, and we alternated between two excellent drummers as their other commitments allowed (tarts!): Alan Brackley, and Chandi Hubert.

Here's a photo of us playing in Danny's Bar at 'Esquires' (which will be the subject of a whole other post!), with Al hitting the skins:



I can even tell what song we are playing from the chord shapes and poses! ('For Whom the Bell Tolls' by Metallica).

Although I'd never claim to be much of a vocalist or lead player (rhythym suits me just fine), the best thing about being a three piece was that we got more beer per head than larger bands. Danny always gave a box of Beck's (24 bottles) to the bar band, no matter how many members...do the math!

We didn't play many gigs, but we did have a great time. Someone* thought we were quite good, too!:



(*June 2009: I've since confirmed it was Karen Spicer)

The biggest gig we played was on the upstairs stage at Esquires (PA, monitors, lights and everything!), supporting local punk rockers 'The Tendons' on the night of their infamous 'pigs heads' gig. 

This led to the now classic 'PIG SICK!' headline in the Bedford Citizen the next week. It's right up there with 'The Filth And the Fury':



If only I had the Citizen article as well.

UPDATE June 2009:
And now, courtesy of Tendons drummer Charly Codrington, here it is:

Interesting guitars...

My Gibson Q100 is officially 'interesting'!

I've never come across another Q100, but Jon Piercy pointed me in the direction of this website, on which a guy describes his Q4000 and asks for more information. I wrote a couple of paragraphs on mine, which you can read here.

I also wrote to the Gibson historian, John Ellis. He was very helpful, but unfortunately couldn't tell me much more than I already knew:

"The Q-100 was produced 1985-86. I have no specs on body wood, however, the fingerboard is ebony, pickup-Dirty Fingers,there was a case made for it then; we do not release production totals.

"I have no records pertaining to how "Q" was decided upon. I don't have the US MSRP here, however, I believe it was in the $1299 range. Your serial number does indicate a 1985 model, I have no literature or photos of this model available; as I recall, the case was not internally form-fitted.

"Also, your Explorer serial number indicates a 1987 model."

Still nice to get a reply from a big company though!

Gaz Boogie

I recorded a song using RiffTracker and posted it here.

I played all the guitar and bass parts; the drums are from SessionLoops and are by Simon Phillips (he played on Judas Priest's 'Sin After Sin' album, you know!).

Unfortunately, as some guy pointed out in the comments, it's out of tune!! I think it's just the bass actually, which was brand new and still 'settling in'.

I might get around to re-recording it properly sometime...

Where Did It All Go Right?

Here's something I wrote a couple of years ago now, inspired by Andrew Collins's excellent book WDIAGR? about growing up in the 1970s. He was kind enough to post it on his website of the same name...

Thunderbirds teasers

I'm keen on digital video editing, as you may know. I've also been a fan of 'Thunderbirds' since I was a child. One particular aspect of the show that I always found very exciting was the 20 second pre-credits 'teaser' sequence, in which highlights of that week's episode were rapidly cut together to match Barry Gray's exciting score. This kind of fast cutting is obviously very commonplace in feature films and music videos nowadays, but back in 1965 I'd imagine it was pretty sensational - compare it to the leaden editing pace of other contemporary programmes. Thunderbirds certainly seemed much more exciting to me than other kids' programmes of the time, and I think the editing was one reason why.

I always thought the teasers from all 32 episodes would look great back-to-back, so I put them together:



Yes I know it is copyright material, but hopefully Gerry Anderson will forgive me!

Dan Takes Five

Dan Baird is one of my rock heroes. He's a great songwriter, singer and guitar player in the country/blues/southern rock tradition, but often overlooked by the rock cognoscenti in my opinion. He achieved some fame in the 1980s as a member of The Georgia Satellites, whom I was lucky enough to see live several times. After releasing three albums, the Satellites split and Dan went on to release some excellent solo material including 'Love Songs for the Hearing Impaired' and 'Buffalo Nickel'. For the last few years he's been touring with his band 'Homemade Sin', playing Satellites and Dan stuff, plus classics by the likes of ZZ Top and Neil Young.

Jose, Paul, Andy and I saw Homemade Sin at the Robin 2 club in October 2006. A criminally poor turnout (it was a Monday night - that's all I can think!), but another storming set. Jose took some stills, which I had the intention of turning into a movie, courtesy of some Ken Burns transitions. There weren't really enough photos to fill a 3-minute song unfortunately, so I cheated and mashed in some footage from an earlier gig.

I'm quite pleased with the result though!