This weekend sees the Guitar Show return to Bingley Hall in Birmingham, one of the natural British homes of UK guitar rock. The huge line up of 200 or so exhibitors makes this almost like a mini Birming-namm.
The show is open from 10am-5pm on Saturday and Sunday, Feb 29th and March 1st.
One of the joys of the Guitar Show is of course getting an up close look and new but also vintage gear, and vendors large and small. We're looking forward to seeing Jon at Brelliot Amps - he's helped to make the OUTSIDELEFT Nights Out such a success. It'll be great to see him. Chickenbone John will be there too, with his cigar box guitars.
One of the highlights will be Dan and Mick taking the stage on Sunday for a live version of their incredibly popular Youtube hit, The Pedal Show. One for pedalheads obvs.
All this guitar stuff got me thinking. Sonny Pine, who plays his exceptionally notable, Gibson 120, so very notably, on There Was No One Else I Could Tell, and the forthcoming Jason Lewis/Ancient Champion piece, The Kingfisher... When Sonny Pine was talking about vintage guitars and sort of overall usability if you're limited on space, don't have a rack of guitars behind you... What would you use? What would be great on the couch, the studio and stage, in a small home? And he was talking about maybe a vintage Fender Mustang. And then we got to talking about his brother Theo, from Monroe Moon, and his 355, and SG and then, the rabbit hole opened and down through Reverb we both went... and we ended up here... Which if you're in Michigan or wherever Monroe Moon are - a reasonable reason for not making the Guitar Show, yeah, we ended up here, with Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and her early years custom SG, in 63 on a Manchester railway line, it's as good a place as any for someone who loves guitars to be.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Essential Info
The Guitar Show, Birmingham
Sister Rosetta Tharpe in Reverb