Re: Early equipment that I used and wished I kept
Posted: 05 Nov 2014, 16:16
Billyboygretsch wrote:Who carried the amp home and who the bass. Did your dad make you carry the gear back or give you a lift. What did you eventually spend the £500 on. This would make a good story !
Luke and I took turns at holding the bass in our free hand(s) as the other gripped the side handles on the Vox as we struggled the half-mile, with many 'rest/recovery' stops (I think) to the underground. On reaching the Birkenhead side, I somewhat royally hailed a cab to take Luke home, then to Dave's house with my secret stash. From there, I got the bus to my house claiming that I was late due to a detention! Oh, and on the day of my forced, walk-of-shame back in Hessy's, Captain Davies transported myself & gear in his pale blue, two-tone Singer Gazelle. He replaced this with a new green one the following year.
What did I do with that £500 in the end?
Well Captain Davies had ensured that I wouldn't have access to it until I was 21 (in those days, the age of majority). It so happened that a few months before that birthday, I'd managed to escape from fortress Davies and get my first flat over in Liverpool where I worked as a photographer in Littlewoods/John Moores studio and I remember exactly what I spent the money on when I was disdainfully handed that savings book...........
Two stylish, foam 3 seater sofa units from the then fairly new & trendy Habitat; circular dining table & chairs from George Henry Lee (now John Lewis); a snazzy all-white, 2-speaker Dynatron stereo system and finally, fulfilling a small part of my ongoing James Bond fantasy, a second-hand but mint, Rolex GMT Master Chronometer from Watches of Switzerland in Bold Street! At the time I paid £120 for a watch that currently retails for around £6k. How prices of some things have really shot up. Mind you, my 60's vintage one would probably be worth more than that today .Strangely, no thoughts of buying a guitar again entered my head until a couple of years later. Idly glancing through the classifieds section of the Liverpool Echo, I happened upon an ad. for a Hofner Verithin and Watkins Dominator amp complete for £35. On an impulse I bought it, had it for a few months before deciding that I'd only done so because I'd been thwarted by my dad previously, but now didn't really have an interest so I re-sold it without any regrets.
I remained disinterested until my 40th birthday. Coming out of an Indian restaurant after a celebratory lunch, I was idly looking in the window of a music shop to kill time whilst my wife was buying some dress material next door. My eyes fell upon a used Hohner Arbor strat copy in a natural finish and for some reason those teenage aspirations came flooding back. My wife (who knew my dreadful secret) emerged and encouraged me to buy it along with a little Fame 15w amp. And that, dear reader is that! Some 25 years on I type this surrounded by a lovely selection of guitars on the wall and I am content. No great player to be sure, but I do so love all things guitar'y.
Someone mentioned cars they'd wished they'd never parted with..............I've also got a little story in that vein.
It was 1975 and I'd already had a couple of Triumph Spitfires and was a bit into cars at the time. I used to drive past this car showroom on the Wirral called Two Mills and often stopped to have a look at their interesting stock. One day they had a couple of Lotus Europa Twin-Cams and a Ferrari Dino 246GT for sale. Both 2 year old Lotus' were priced at £1,750 and the 2 year old Ferrari was only £1,995! I'd had my wife's permission to buy one of them and ultimately 'rejected' the Ferrari in favour of the black Lotus with the gold pin-striping in the then current ,John Player Special Lotus F1 livery.
At the time, I wish I'd known that people in the know car-wise said that Lotus was an acronym for Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious, as I certainly had my share.
It was a frosty November and I was due to start a new job some 30 miles away and my Lotus stood in the road, un-garaged. The bloody thing just wouldn't start on those icy mornings and the only way I could coax it into life was to remove the spark plugs, heat them under the grill and replace them hot! Additionally, I had the gear stick linkage break off leaving me in 2nd gear to embarrassingly limp to the garage for repair. Investigating a chronic misfire/lack of power, I discovered oil had pooled level with the tops of the twin cam covers and was fouling the plugs! I was late or absent so many times at this new job that my boss gave me the ultimatum that either the car went or me. Sadly, it had to be bye-bye Lotus Europa.............
Have any of you seen a Europa in recent years? I certainly haven't, so how much would one of those be worth today? As for the Dino at £1,995 in '75. What an investment they turned out to be. I think you have to be a Chris Evans to get your hands on one of those these days.
Hope the foregoing hasn't bored you too much.............
Stephen.