That Was The Year... 1975
Margaret, Rembrandt & Gabriel
FENDER DISCONTINUES ITS JAGUAR
guitar. Introduced in 1962 the Jaguar is finally dropped from the production schedule in its unlucky 13th year due to disappointing sales compared to the cheaper Stratocasters and Telecasters. With its twin single-coil pickups and offset body shape (as first used on the Jazzmaster) it’s a sad loss but inevitably it will rise again in the hands of new-wave players.
HANDSHAKES ALL ROUND AS AN AMERICAN APOLLO
spacecraft docks with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in orbit for the first time; NASA launches Viking 1 as part of its Mars Mission; Rembrandt’s The Night Watch painting is slashed while on show in Amsterdam; and the Space Mountain attraction opens at Walt Disney World in Florida.
GUILD INTRODUCES THE D-40C BLUEGRASS
Jubilee Cutaway adding a sharp Florentine cutaway to allow easy access to the upper frets on the popular model. This dreadnought sports a solid spruce top, mahogany back and sides, bound body and a solid one-piece Honduras mahogany neck. It has a rosewood fretboard and the natural finish body is bestowed with a tortoiseshell pickguard.
MICROSOFT IS FOUNDED BY
Bill Gates and Paul Allen; Japanese mountain climber Junko Tabei is the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest; oceanic explorer Jacques Cousteau finds the wreck of HMHS Britannic which sank in 1916; and VHS and Betamax systems compete to become the accepted video recorder standard.
NEW MUSICAL RECRUITS INCLUDE JACK WHITE,
KT Tunstall, Michael Bublé, Enrique Iglesias, Natalie Imbruglia, Jack Johnson, Tom Delonge and Spice Girl Mel B. Demobilised are T-Bone Walker, Tim Buckley and Pete Ham of Badfinger. Ronnie Wood joins The Rolling Stones; bassist Steve Harris forms Iron Maiden; Led Zeppelin sell out three concerts at Madison Square Garden, New York, in four hours; Ritchie Blackmore leaves Deep Purple and forms Rainbow; Peter Gabriel
leaves Genesis and drummer Phil Collins takes on lead vocals.
FOLLOWING A REFERENDUM THE UK VOTES
to stay in the European Community; the Group of 6 industrialised nations is formed under the heading of G6; in Scotland the first petroleum pipeline connecting Grangemouth and Cruden Bay is opened for business; the price of petrol increases by nearly 70% during the year as inflation spirals out of control; Margaret Thatcher is the new Prime Minister; and mercifully the war in Vietnam finally comes to an end.
A SMALL RUN OF STARCASTER GUITARS
and even the odd bass slips out of the Fender factory. It’s the company’s answer to Gibson’s ES-335 with a bound semihollow asymmetrical double-cut maple body, arched top and f-holes attached to a bolt-on maple neck with a new headstock shape and a maple fingerboard. The electronics are over-the-top with two volume and two tone controls plus a master volume and three-way selector, all for the twin humbucking pickups.