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Last Concerts of 2023

The end of this year has seen me attending several very different concerts in a range of genres. These are my highlights:

  • Blue Rose Code @ The Stables, MK: My first time discovering this really exceptional Scottish band, led by Ross Wilson. This was a stripped down set of really powerful music and lyrics – two acoustic guitars, Ross on vocals, and an Electro Harmonix Freeze pedal. Incredibly powerful stuff.
  • Europe @ De Montfort Hall, Leicester: Still going strong and sounding absolutely fantastic live on this, their ‘Time Capsule’ 40th anniversary tour. The highlight for me was seeing John Norum ripping out the Superstitious solo; super nostalgic!
  • Damian Lewis @ The Stables, MK: Bit of an odd one. The famous actor, Damian Lewis (of Homeland fame) brought his blues/rock/jazz band to The Stables to promote his new album “Mission Creep”. The best feature of the show was Giacomo Smith’s performance on clarinet. Otherwise, unfortunately, it was quite an average show. Happily, I did meet him afterwards and get my album signed.
  • Guy Barker’s Big Band Christmas @ Royal Albert Hall, London: My first visit to the Albert Hall – an absolutely spectacular venue, and I had a great view from the third row of the stalls. It was an extravaganza of festive tunes, performed by some immense musicians: Giacomo Smith on clarinet (barely a month since I saw him last!), Vanessa Haynes, and Clare Teal. The big band was of course, also immense 🙂
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Only You

I was inspired to record this one as this Christmas marks the 20th anniversary of The Office Christmas Special, in which this song features during the most important scene!

This was a one take thing, no edits, so it’s far from perfect! Hopefully it’s an enjoyable listening experience nonetheless 🙂

Best wishes for 2024. -Matt

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A Childhood Dream: Finally Seeing Yngwie Play Live!

Like many fledgling guitarists, my young teenage self was obsessed with the lightning-fast neoclassical stylings of Swedish guitar virtuoso, Yngwie Malmsteen. I fondly remember watching (and re-watching!) the VHS tape of Trial by Fire: Live in Leningrad, which my uncle lent me as inspiration for my guitar playing aspirations.

Over the past couple of decades, my musical priorities and preferences have largely shifted away from the speed, shredding, and relentless arpeggios. However, if for no other reason than nostalgia, I simply couldn’t pass up an opportunity to see Yngwie in my neck of the woods, and so I bought tickets to see him at KK’s Steel Mill in Wolverhampton

What a show.

It took me right back. The Strats. The ridiculous wall of Marshalls. The familiar solos, played even faster than on the record. The vocals, whilst not up to Joe Lynn Turner’s standards, were certainly good enough to bring back the magic of that old Leningrad record.

10/10 for nostalgia (and shred).

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Meeting Rabea Massaad

I’ve been very fortunate in meeting some of my music heroes, and today was no exception. I went to Rabea Massaad’s guitar clinic at guitarguitar in Birmingham. His playing was – perhaps unsurprisingly – precise, soulful and full of really tasteful ideas that just make you want to go home and write new music.

Afterwards he stayed to chat with us, and I was privileged enough to bend the man’s ear for a few minutes. He’s just an incredibly friendly and approachable person, and seemed really interested in meeting and chatting with his fans. He really is proof that (whilst apparently rare) it is possible to be a genuinely decent person in the music business. Goodonya, Rabea!

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Look Mum, no computer!

I met Sam Battle, AKA “Look Mum No Computer” at Maker’s Central in Birmingham, and it was brilliant! He turned up with a collection of some of his weird and wonderful creations. The Tellytubby Tidal Wave was my favourite, closely followed by the Furby synthesizer module.

He’s a really lovely guy. Expect no showbiz polish; he’s just someone who clearly enjoys tinkering and sharing that enjoyment. Watching him play, you could tell he cares about both the sound and the engineering behind it. Sam’s truly the best of British: boundless creativity, a talent for engineering, and a great sense of humour. I challenge anybody to meet Sam and his creations and walk away without a smile.

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New track on Youtube: “Anna ni Issho Datta no ni”

Hi all, I hope you’re safe and well. Here’s something I’ve been working on for the last day or so, while sitting at home basking in this glorious UK sunshine

I’ve had the melody of this tune playing in my head for the last 18 years or so (it’s very catchy!), and I’ve always thought it’d work well as a piano piece. It’s the ending music from a TV show I watched as a kid, and this is my interpretation.

I hope you enjoy the piece.
-Matt

This track was originally recorded by the Japanese artist See-Saw, and featured during the end credits on the anime series Gundam SEED.

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Improving a £15 Guitar Pedal Board with simple DIY tools and two bolts!

**Disclaimer: Don’t attempt this yourself unless you are confident using power tools and handling sharp metal. I take no responsibility for people who somehow manage to hurt themselves undertaking DIY tasks.**

I picked up this cheap guitar pedal board from *a popular Internet auction site* for a mere £15, and as one might expect – the build quality is very poor.

It’s not flat, it rattles, and the flat board configuration (i.e. no raised back or two tiers) makes controlling the pedals at the back more difficult (if you want to avoid mashing the controls on the front-row pedals).

In this video I’ll address these issues – by drilling two sets of large holes for some M8 bolts I can shake out the metal swarf that’s rattling around in there, attach some simple height-adjustable legs, and correct the warped geometry by setting one leg ever so slightly different to the other. This will also give me room to attach a pedal power supply underneath, but I won’t do that in this video.

The board came with some hook and loop tape, so I’ll apply that, and then throw on a few pedals to show you how it looks and how many pedals you can expect to reasonably fit on one of these boards.

My recommendation, if you have the cash, is to just buy a good quality board and spare yourself the trouble of messing around with this. In all likelihood the bolts would give way if you started stomping heavily on this thing…

Note the inclusion of some random royalty-free music at the end to cover the high pitched breathing noises caused by speeding up the video so much 🙂

I hope you enjoy the video and that it gives you some inspiration for improving your own boards.

-Matt

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Happy 2019!

Happy New Year all!

I recently acquired a beautiful Washburn Maverick BT-9, a fairly rare model unique to the UK market around the turn of the millennium.

At the bottom of this post is a short clip demonstrating its wonderful single-coil tones on a suitably seasonal tune!

Washburn support were quite enthusiastic and helpful in identifying the age and country of manufacture. Here’s a reply I got from Dave Steffen:

The BT9 shows that the Brits were more on the ball than we were! The BT9 was only offered in the UK….ordered with a special maple neck, and a swamp ash body! These were made sometime between 2001 and 2005…the neck plates do not have the origin date. Looks to be Korean….the hardware leads us there and it fits into that 2001 to 2005 timetable. We really like this guitar…..designed by William T Atkins….Billy T….thus the BT designation.

Interestingly enough, the seller told me that he purchased the guitar in around 1998/1999, so we have a bit of a mystery on our hands as to its true age. Based on Washburn’s reply, and the various information I’ve found on the Internet, the guitar certainly does seem to have been made by the Samick factory in South Korea – in my opinion the quality of the build seems to agree with this notion.

I hope that 2019 proves to be a great year for you.
–Matt