00:00I was watching television one time and there was a concert by Roy Cuda from Sweetwater.
00:06And I'm looking at him on stage and he's playing a Tysco, Spectrum 5.
00:14And I'm drawn to it immediately.
00:17It's got colours and knobs on and bits of Lego. I'm drawn to it.
00:21I bump into Alan Rogan and he's going to go off to America with the Who.
00:27And I said, when you're over there, if there's any chance you can see Tysco, Spectrum, if you could get
00:34it for me.
00:36And he did. He came back. He got me this one. I've got another one as well upstairs.
00:41I gave it to Gordon and Robert Wells, people who made my Night Arena, which is a guitar I play
00:46all the time.
00:47That's a proper workhorse. Fabulous guitar.
00:50And they sort of set it up for me. And through a period with Eric, briefly, I used it on
00:57a couple of gigs.
00:58And then one night after the Albert Hall, he said, put it away and get a proper guitar.
01:02So it went by the wayside. But I used it with Gary Brooker a lot.
01:05Every Christmas we played with Gary for 20 years and it would come up for those gigs.
01:10It's stereo. Tysco's idea of stereo is these three pickups go through one amp and those other three go through
01:16another one.
01:17And you get a double lead that goes in there. I never did that, but I love the look of
01:21it.
01:21And because I love the look of it, I love playing it too.
01:28Yeah, I'm a big Rykuda fan. So I've gone to see Little Village at Hammersmith.
01:35Nick Love, you know, good friends with Nick. And I've worked with Jim too, Keltner.
01:41And I'm looking at him on stage and he's playing this Telecaster, except, I'm not sure, anyone who knows about
01:50Telecaster or as Squire as this is, this is a long neck.
01:54This is not a baritone. This is what they call the Barhole Sextor, which Fender had made for him.
02:01So I'm on the road in America. And Alan Rogan's with me as well, my good friend Alan.
02:07And we go to Fender, to the factory. And I'm mentioning it to the guys there.
02:12There's a fabulous picture of me and Alan there too, at Fender.
02:15Any chance you can make me one of these? And they did.
02:19They made me this one. And it is glorious. I'm not going to play it because I'm not.
02:24But it's a magical sound. And again, my connection with Alan and with Fender.
02:29When I was with Eric, I could get anything from Gibson or Fender.
02:36Ernie Ball Strings, too, I could get that.
02:37As soon as I left, I was going to get back at all.
02:41I'm not bitter, by the way.
02:42And I did. I got Fender to make me a Vibra King.
02:48But just a head. There's only one ever made.
02:52Because I couldn't...
02:53When I was doing other gigs, it was just too heavy.
02:56So can you make me that and a cabinet?
02:58And they did.
03:00And I had...
03:01I sold Peter Green's... I had Peter's Amp off Andy Sylvester and the Playboys.
03:07I sold that recently.
03:09And a couple of guitars.
03:11I needed them for whatever reason.
03:13And I never realised the effect it was going to have on me when they're gone.
03:17So three of them went.
03:21And I spoke to the guy afterwards because he wanted something else, another one.
03:25And he said, I'll give you those back if you give me that Black L5.
03:28And I went, no, I'm not selling anymore.
03:32I had no idea, you know, what those things meant to me.
03:36Because, well, they're sitting around and, you know, don't know how long I'm going to live or something.
03:39But, well, get them now.
03:41Sell them now.
03:42No more.
03:42Not selling anymore.
03:44They mean too much.
03:47Oh, could do with a bit of a clean.
03:51This has not been out of the case, maybe mid-70s.
03:56But this was the guitar I always wanted.
04:00I'd listen to Barney Castle, believe it or not.
04:04I'd listen a little bit to Where's Montgomery.
04:08But the funny thing about those guys is I'm 60 years on from listening to them.
04:16And I'm nowhere nearer where they were then.
04:20But you need the equipment as well, you think.
04:23So I always wanted one of these.
04:25And Scotty Moore, I don't know, Scotty Moore didn't play in L5, I think.
04:29But it's all part of the look.
04:32So my friend, Glenn Johns, he knew this guy, Fred Wallachy.
04:37Fabulous guy from Los Angeles, from the music shop over there that everybody went to.
04:45And he phoned him up and he sourced this L5 for me.
04:47And I eventually got it and I used it a lot.
04:51And until, as working with Eric, I'd seen Duke Robberland with a black L5.
05:01Phoned him up through my guitar tech at the time.
05:05I wasn't used to guitar techs, but I had one.
05:07And they said, yeah.
05:09So they sent me a black L5.
05:11So this kind of went into the case and it's been there ever since.
05:14But it's filled up with foam.
05:16It would constantly feed back on an A.
05:19No matter what level you were.
05:21And trying to find the right level as the second guitar player with Eric,
05:26where you've got to be loud enough where the speakers are loading enough.
05:29But you can't be too loud where he goes, can you turn down, Andy?
05:36Which he didn't do.
05:37Because I was constantly working on being at the right level.
05:40But that just meant I never got the tone.
05:43I get the tone now because I'm the only guitar player on the stage.
05:46And I'm as loud as I want to be because it's my 10p.
05:49But yeah, this is a beaut.
05:51And it's so good that I've been able, through this thing, to be able to get it back out of
05:56the case.
05:57And it's going on the stand in the front room for a while.
06:04This guitar, I play all the time.
06:07It doesn't go out of...
06:08No, it doesn't go out of the house.
06:10We did take it to Rockfield to record with.
06:14My friend, Mickey G, who we've known for a while.
06:18Great guitar player.
06:19Played with Tom.
06:21Geraint and the Watkins album that I produced and we played with.
06:25He played with Shakey, too.
06:27Man, I saw Shakey at the new theatre with B.J. Cole, Geraint Watkins, Howard Tibble, Stuart Coleman.
06:35What a band.
06:36And Shakey, in all his glory.
06:38I mean, biggest selling artist in the 80s.
06:41Man, they're great records.
06:43Albert also played on it.
06:44So anyway, Mickey had found this in a skip down the bay.
06:48It was sunburst and it was all rippled and burnt at the front.
06:53It's all good now.
06:55And I begged him at one because he wasn't really playing it.
06:58He had it.
06:58And I said, will you sell it to me?
07:00He sold it to me for £47.
07:02And I got some guy, Colin Mackey, to do some work on it to get it to where it is
07:08now.
07:09It's playable.
07:12And it fits in with how I'd like to think I am as a guitar player.
07:21And the first song I wrote on it was Wide Eyed and Leglet.
07:34And I don't know why.
07:36So I followed through and now it's with me all the time.
07:39It's at home.
07:41At one point I stayed at Fryer Park with George.
07:45And then at one point afterwards, after he'd passed away, we went to Fryer Park.
07:51And as you walk into the room, there'd be a settee, like, not dissimilar to that, and there'd be a
07:57guitar just at the end that would always be there for George to play.
08:03And that's how it is in this house.
08:04The guitar is always at the end, ready to play.
08:08George, fabulous ukulele player.
08:11Got me into it.
08:12When we travelled, he travelled with two ukuleles.
08:15Even on the plane.
08:17Even on the plane when we went to Japan, two ukuleles.
08:20And then after the gig, up to his room, and he showed me.
08:24He got me into the ukulele.
08:25We started playing Chuck Berry and the Everly Brothers.
08:28What do you do?
08:28What's nice?
08:29Just this.
08:30And, of course, he's unbelievably proficient.
08:32And since that day, there's always a ukulele on any record I ever record.
08:37There's a track where I play ukulele.
08:39And this is on, yeah, this is on most albums that I've ever done since the 70s.
08:44And it's an absolute beaut.
08:46It's going nowhere.
08:48And I've got its mother in there as well.
08:50Because when you can, financially, you do.
08:53And I did.
