a musical history – by Terence Ruffle

(This is the final part of a two-part story. Part one is here.)

Another major influence on Powerpop has to be the Byrds. Certainly their gorgeous three part harmonies have been emulated many times. The Groovies, the Raspberries, Big Star, and the Posies, have all used the Byrds style harmonies as standard, as have many others.

Also Roger Mcguinn’s twelve string Rickenbacker sound, a la “Mr Tambourine Man”. George Harrison said he’d started playing the Ricky as a direct result of hearing “Tambourine Man”, massive praise indeed! [Read more →]

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I first met Wade at a Rock bar in Pompano beach, South Florida, in the summer of ‘89. He had a kind of cowpunk look about him, very modern post punk, post Hanoi Rocks – cowboy style but definitely punk rock.

For the most part his guitar sound sucked, but his playing was real good. He had a strange old Fender combo. It was cream coloured, just like Jed’s Band Master amp that I used with the Accidents.

Wade had two guitars, a Gibson Les Paul and a cranky old Fender Jaguar – which he’d drag out to play this whacked-out surf instrumental. [Read more →]

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I read with some amusement recently that Steve Jones, the guitarist with the Sex Pistols, saw David Bowie at the Hammersmith Odeon, the night before he retired as Ziggy Stardust,on July 2nd, 1973.

I was there, tho’ I don’t recall seeing Steve.

But I do recall guitarist Mick Ronson (Ronno) playing a white Les Paul at the gig, one that looked remarkably similar to the one Steve Jones played in the Pistols. I wonder if this was one of Jonesy’s infamous heists? Perhaps if anyone knows they could leave a comment?

To give you some background about myself at the time, I was sixteen and had been gig-going since the previous year (see Emerson Lake and Palmer article).
[Read more →]

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The first big gig I remember going to was at the Oval cricket ground, on the 30th of September, 1972.

The main attraction for me was Emerson Lake and Palmer (ELP). My dear old mate Barn was fanatical about them and I’d bought “Pictures at an exhibition” myself, which I thought was rather dark, and rocked in an odd kind of manner.

The cover images of the “Tarkus” were all it took to convince me I should attend. When we walked into the Oval, either side of the stage there were what initially looked like huge images of the tarkus. But they were actually full sized models of tarkuses. They were almost as big as the p.a. stacks – which were about the size of a house! It seemed like a comic book prog rock wet dream!

[Read more →]

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