Simon: The other Townshend

Simon Townshend has resumed his recurring role as touring guitarist for his older brother Pete’s little group, The Who. And his responsibilities on the current jaunt have been expanded to include the occasional lead vocal among other profile raising factors. Radio WFJA’s website quotes ABC News Radio:

I’ve been given a promotion. I quite enjoy being suddenly under the spotlight…and that’s something I didn’t know I had in me until recently.

Read more about the tour and Simon Townshend’s new solo album at WFJA.

Right here.

 

RIP Bert Weedon

In the past few days we’ve lost Dick Clark, Levon Helm, Men at Work’s Greg Ham, and now influential British guitarist Bert Weedon. Though perhaps known more anecdotally in America, Weedon was a giant figure in the U.K. From BBC News:

As a solo guitarist, he had many hits, including Guitar Boogie Shuffle, Apache and Nashville Boogie. In 1976 he became the first solo guitar player to top the Official Top 40 album charts with 22 Golden Guitar Greats.

Weedon’s Play in a Day instruction book was also significant in the development of a generation of guitarists. In a sidebar of the BBC article, Guitar Techniques Magazine Editor Neville Marten sums up:

Bert may be best remembered as a teacher. With ‘students’ that number Eric Clapton, Brian May, Sting, Pete Townshend, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and countless others, Weedon could well be described as the most genuinely influential guitarist of all time.

Read more at BBC.

Right here.

 

Killer Marshall stack exposé

Are you familiar with Pete Townshend’s involvement in the development of Marshall Amplification? It’s an interesting story involving battling John Entwistle for volume and drowning out audience requests. Woody Tone is running an excellent article on the subject, drawing from a video tour of the Marshall plant (embedded) and various classic interviews, such as Townshend in Guitar for the Practicing Musician, August 1996:

The guitar kind of starts to sound like a symphony orchestra. You get up to a certain pitch, and something happens between the pickup and the amp. I knew that in distortion there was music of a much higher harmonic order than anything that I could play …

I’m inordinately amused at how founder Jim Marshall’s son Paul only refers to the elder as, “Mr. Marshall.”

Have a look at the whole thing.

Right here.