Old Blue 2
Player Valuation: £40m
SG to Les Paul:
On Xmas Eve 1971 we played a gig in Altrincham with another Liverpool band, 'Pepperbox'. Their guitarist, Steve Wright, asked me if he could use my Marshall stack, and I said, yeah no problem. So Steve puts his Les Paul Custom through my 100w Marshall. Wow! After that, I just had to get a Les Paul. I got my first Les Paul in 1973, and that's all I have ever gigged since. Steve Wright went on to make music his career in life, and among other things he has done, he wrote the theme and incidental music for Brookside and for Hollyoaks. He has also done shedloads of work for the TV industry. Presently, he is the lead guitarist in the Connie Lush Band. I lost contact with Steve for a long time, but we finally met up again after 30-odd years at a gig at The Cavern in November 2006 for the launch of a book on Liverpool bands of the 1970s. Here we are backstage at the Cavern discussing guitars after meeting up again. Steve is on the extreme left. I'm centre, facing him with my guitar strapped on. Second right is our drummer. Extreme right is a guy who was one on four roadies. He went on to be the personal roadie of Bill Nelson of BeBopDeluxe, touring all over the globe, and later roadied for Slade. In the 1980s he was roadie and sound engineer for QTips when Paul Young was still with them. Not a bad career after starting out with us in the nightclubs of Liverpool knowing nothing about the game!
Anyway, here's me & Steve:
How much did I pay for the SG Standard & the Les Paul Custom you see in the photo? In 1970 I paid £406 for the SG - bought from Hessys. The 1991 Les Paul I paid £1,250 in 1994 from Holiday Music in Leytonstone (now based in Rochford).
