Pleasant Encounters and Sad News

I’ve been house sitting in Cheam this week,which means I’ve been able to visit and connect with people in London(I am presently a resident of Southampton).

Met up with  Steve Hackett on Thursday and was pleasantly surprised.I was expecting a droll,chin stroking prog rocker and instead got an open minded,forthcoming ,courteous.Nowadays I can never predict who is going to be a good interview.I remember going to see Meatloaf and expecting a great story.The guys is a character;he’s played the Grande Ballroom with the MC5 and Iggy & The Stooges,he’s hung out with Ed Norton and Brad Pitt.It was horrendous!He was totally spaced out,it was like doing an assessment with a patient at a psychiatric hospital.

Most of the legendary difficult people I’ve met have been great interviews;Scott Weiland,Jeff Beck,Ritchie Blackmore.I’m sure other writers have had similar experiences.

I was sad to hear about the passing of Les Paul.Although how sad can you be about someone who pegs it at 94 and has had such an amazing life.My initiation to The Wizard was in the mid eighties when I came across one of his 78′s in a junk shop.I didn’t appreciate what a genius he was until I saw a recent documentary.

Later in the evening I spoke to Jimmy Page about Les Paul who explained to me how mind blowing it was to hear overdubbed guitar in 1952 and how much impact he had on people who had previously never considered the guitar to be a lead instrument.

Imagine if Les Paul gave up with idea of pursuing the possibilities of the electric guitar and how different music might sound today.