Here I Go Again
Wham Bang Thank You NAMM! the ex-Whitesnake guitarist caught up with old mates, new gear and even a reptile during his trip to anaheim
Last Christmas, I had a very nice gift from Mrs M – a signed copy of Mick Fleetwood’s Fleetwood Mac autobiography Play On. My head was stuck into it most of Christmas Day, devouring the Peter Green pictures and stories. Usually, my time after Christmas and at the start of the New Year is a bit quiet, but this year was different. The day after Boxing Day I flew to Italy for a meeting about the new range of foot pedals I’m working on with a company called Baroni Lab.
It was good to leave a grey and cold UK for a couple of days and find myself in a still-cold, but beautifully sunny and bright Pisa. I can tell you that the pedals are looking and sounding very good. I’m pleased with them. I was also in Pisa to discuss my trip in January to Los Angeles and the 2018 NAMM Show – the premier gathering of all things connected to the gear side of our profession! I was to travel to LA and be a part of the Baroni Lab team, who had booked out a booth at the event.
After a fantastic gig in London at the 100 Club and an enjoyable Saturday acoustic show in Skegness, I left a stormy Heathrow on 24 January on a spanking new Boeing 777. I arrived at the Anaheim Convention Centre by taxi in the Los Angeles sunshine.
Days In NAMM
For those of you that have been to NAMM you will know that the noise is incredible, and I do mean noise. Literal waves of noise throughout the entire arena hit you as you walk through. There are thousands of instruments being played at the same time, guitars, bass, saxophones, trumpets, in addition to that chatter and babble of thousands of people from all over the world walking around.
So, to the show itself. An excellent part of this trip was the fact I was shoulder to shoulder with my good friend and fellow ex-Whitesnake guitarist Doug Aldrich – he also has a pedal with Baroni. Doug and I are close, he’s a great player and a good guy to be around. He played before me on the first day there and sounded terrific. A lot of people came by the stand to hear him especially. Later in the afternoon it was my turn, and I played a few things demoing the BM overdrive. People were interested straight away, and I then invited Doug to get up on the small stage to play with me. The crowd doubled in size as the word went out on the floor – I guess we were putting out our share of the noise in the room!
On the Saturday I ran into my old friend Steve Lukather, he greeted me warmly and I noticed Andy Timmons was there, too. All three of us stood at the front while Doug tried his best to ignore us and do his gig!
That evening, I was invited to play a gig across town for ‘Ronnie Montrose Remembered’. I played with Doug again and the current Whitesnake bass player Michael Devin. I played Free Ride and Make It Last. I think the large crowd rather enjoyed the Whitesnake connection happening as we were well received – it was great fun.
“The noise at NAMM is incredible – guitars, bass, trumpets, being played at the same time, in addition to chatter”
On Sunday I met Jared James Nichols, a fine guitar player from Wyoming, now living in LA. What a player he is. He has taste, great phrasing, and we played together while the crowd lapped it up. He’s going to be in the UK in March, go see him and tell him I sent you!
Gear, There And Everywhere
Over the weekend – well, four days to be accurate – I was totally amazed at the extent of gear that is out there available for people to buy. I really had no idea just how many pedal companies there are, so many acoustic guitar companies, so many amplifiers, strings, straps, plectrums, cables… it really was relentless. People are spoiled for choice. One major thing I noticed, however, was that Gibson weren’t there… interesting.
I managed to see Albert Lee and Steve Morse on the Ernie Ball stand, both master players, of course, and seeing Steve that close is something else. I don’t think I need to go into Albert’s prowess in these pages, do I? A true guitar god. I went up to the first floor to see Paul Reed Smith who were incredibly busy as usual. Paul is genuinely such a guitar nut, and his enthusiasm is infectious. Next door to the PRS team were the Marshall team from good ol’ England. It was great to catch up with them. As I sipped a cup of coffee my dear mate Don Airey wandered into the area, I didn’t know he was there, so that pleased me no end. That’s the spirit of NAMM for the players, a time to hang out and talk guitars.
I normally leave NAMM on the Sunday, but this year I was asked to play so I stayed. Doug had left, as had most of the artists, and I wondered if I should also have left. But, being there on the Sunday enabled me to see what goes on after the show is over. So many forklift trucks, pallets being moved around and loaded, whole booths of guitars left without anybody there to watch them – I could only presume they were being picked up on Monday. As I walked yet another kilometre I could see the other side of this huge exponent of selling in great numbers.
Top Talent
Guitar wise I saw British luthier Patrick James Eggle, his fine custom-built guitars looked fabulous and the one I played was a beauty. I saw Adrian Thorpe of ThorpyFX, and did a short interview with the Captain, Lee Anderton of Andertons Music Co. It was good to see people with that level of talent, who have moved companies, still selling guitars and amps to the world.
My few days spent among the hustle and bustle of NAMM were certainly memorable and the guys at Baroni took lots of orders. Success. There will be more time to promote, and probably next up is China! I noticed a large amount of Chinese builders of instruments, amplifiers, most gear… In fact, everything that was there had a Chinese version as far as I could see – a peek into the future perhaps.
The sunshine was constant, and I had a very unique breakfast meeting with a very interesting man and his iguana. A 30-minute drive into the mountains to meet him for breakfast was a pleasant excursion after the madness and cacophony of the Convention Centre. The iguana was very nice, too...
I was on the plane home on Monday evening trying to get some sleep. I arrived home to find an invitation to a talk by Harvey Goldsmith at the University of Buckingham. Now that should be a much quieter evening, but you never know! See you next month.