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11.10 tonight programme all about vox amps on bbc4

neil

An excellent programme, glad to see it got national broadcast.

The best bit was the look on Iain Lee's face as he was obviously overcome with boyish excitement at standing in front of Brian May making "that" sound (as opposed to "that sound" of course...)

A very interesting and enlightening documentary.

A couple of things occur to me.

All these groups such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Moody Blues and Queen obviously used the Vox AC30 because it was an amazing amp. It was also an amp which probably would never have existed had it not have been for the Shadows.

It also occurs to me that, for this reason, maybe guitarists like George Harrison, Keith Richards, Justin Hayward and Brian May, to name but a few, used the AC30 partly because they were seeking the elusive Shadows/Hank Marvin sound.

And there are still people out there who think that the Shads were not that important!


HAH!



George Harrison once said "No Shadows = No Beatles". It would be equally true to say "No Shadows = No Vox AC30".

And that, I think, says it all...

Brian Epstien said to Vox that as long as he is their manager they will always use Vox but notice after he died they went over to Fender amps as can be seen in Let It Be.

The Beatles also deliberately DIDN'T use Fender guitars because they did not want to be compared to or be anbything like The Shadows !

Of course in later years they did use them ................

It was mentioned in the Fender documentary Curves Contours & Bodyhorns from years back that Brian Epstein said 'No' to offers from Fender and George said he didn't know anything about it at the time.
Apart from the two Strats that John & George had for Rubber Soul they used Fender guitars a lot and amps after Brian Epstein died.

It's on the BBC iPlayer well worth watching.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... Beat_Boom/

Phil

I watched it last night and it is a bit disappointing I think.

There is a good programme to be made on this subject but this was not it.

Very disjointed, introduced by a complete twerp who seemed to be enamoured / totally star struck with Brian May, etc.

The only clip of The Shadows they had was of them playing Burns guitars and likewise the same old clip of The Stones playing Around and Around, likewise The Beatles......... Bruce Welch must have spoken for all of 20 / 30 seconds.

A few more detailed interviews focusing on the early 60s and all the other artists who also used Vox AC30s (as well as The Shadows of course) would have put things in perspective a bit more.

A wasted opportunity (imho)

I watched it and really enjoyed it! Us guitar enthusiasts get to see so little of the stuff we enjoy on TV, that I'm loathe to be overly critical of the little bit that does come our way. Let's not forget that producers have to make programmes that appeal to a majority/mainstream audience and not just us minority 'guitar geeks', otherwise they just wouldn't get the funding and go-ahead to make them in the first place. The presenter didn't make too bad a job of it either.To be frank, who wouldn't have been thrilled with Brian May treating them to a bit of Bohemian Rhapsody, standing mere feet in front of an AC30? I'm no great fan of Queen's music, apart from acknowledging their not inconsequential place in contemporary music, but I'm a great admirer of Brian May. An all-round nice guy, a man of strong principles and little ego......not a bad guitarist and academic either! Much similar can be said of David Gilmour..................but then I've always liked Pink Floyd.
I suppose that there could have been more emphasis on the Shadows, as they were the first group to showcase Vox amplifiers to the general public. However, it can't be disputed that it was The Beatles that first gave the brand world-wide exposure & prominence. It was also The Beatles that heralded the so-called 'Beat Boom' of the 1960's, that prompted so many youngsters to form groups, buy AC30's and try and emulate them. I don't remember the Shadows having that same effect, a few years earlier, but that was the late 1950's and that might have been down to timing and the type of music. Hank Marvin is quite justifiably credited with bringing the Fender Stratocaster to our attention here in the UK and that fact has been extensively acknowledged on many fronts. Maybe that might be the subject of a future programme..............let's hope so.