Simon Campbell

Posted at 1203 hours on 01/07/09 | Posted in Life, Music

Rock ‘n roll is back

Over the last few years my whole attention has been focussed upon developing my diving skills. I realised about a month ago that I hadn’t played guitar seriously for a few years, missed it and decided to get back to Rock ‘n Roll!

From the age of 16 guitar playing was an obsession with me. Moving from hardass ‘rock’ in the 70’s, through R&B (that’s original ‘Rhythm & Blues’) to 80’s ‘power pop’ then finally in the 90’s to jazz/rock/blues. I was totally committed to creating a great guitar tone and hopefully writing some good tunes.

When I started diving in 1996 the obsession moved focus and guitar started to take a back seat; Rock ‘n Roll (I gave you all the best years of my life) springs to mind :-)

Whilst living in North Yorkshire, I ‘kept my hand in’ by jamming weekly at the mighty ‘Stanley Street Social Club’ in Accrington. This was organised by my mate Rob Livesey who has always encouraged me to keep playing as much as possible (thanks Rob).

Moving to the Isle of Man, which has quite a vibrant music scene, has sparked guitar fever again: I can almost hear Angela, my long suffering wife, sighing in the background.

I think at this point I should mention Angela. Ever since we met (some 32 years) I have played in bands plus a couple of other various all consuming obsessions (such as diving). She never complains or says “You can’t do that’ – it’s amazing actually. Angela is, as my mother says, a ‘Queen of Women’. If you know my mother, that is indeed a compliment of galactic proportions.

Anyway, back to the story… How do I get into the local scene?

The local scene

My initiation started early. After seeing the mountains of guitars, amplifiers and effects racks in our house, Paul Geddes, (the Manx Telecom engineer who installed our line) suggested I contact Barry Nelson who was a keen musician on the Island. I noted his name, but having all our stuff in boxes, I left contacting him to a later date.

Our first home on the Isle of Man was in the picturesque, but pub free, village of Derbyhaven. We therefore frequented the very excellent Sidings public house.

Serving behind the bar was a young bloke who was clearly a musician; hair straight out of 1970 plus ubiquitous Led Zeppelin t-shirt. I later found out he is called Adam Cubbon, guitar player with RedGap and with the ever present Barry Nelson in Jeceris.

During the TT week, I saw ‘A Little Bita’ Rosie’ (surprisingly enough, an ACDC tribute band) and started talking to a lovely bloke called Dave Rourke who mentioned he was in a band called ‘Carbon Frog’.

This conversation took place following the consumption of a few pints of excellent ‘Bushy’s’ bitter and my befuddled mind wandered, considering how one would create a frog out of 100% carbon. Through the beery haze, I dimly recall him suggesting placing an advertisment on manxbands.co.uk.

I returned home, sobered up and decided to do it. The question was now what do I write?

It’s very easy to look like a total nob on these things (which is even easier if you are me) and I carefully considered the text eventually plumping for:

Very experienced guitarist / vocalist available (blues/rock)

Greetings manx muso’s!!!

I am sure there are 1000000’s guitarists out there looking for bands so I will be specific. I am 50 and been in a variety of bands since 18 that have had a couple of recording deals. My favourite being ‘the Disciples’ which played regularly (and occasionally headlining various stages) at the Burnley & Colne Blues festivals. Although I love everything from Neil Young to Radiohead, Muse to Flaming Lips, I am a blues/rock man at heart.

I moved to the Island last October, love playing, and want to get into a band again. I have been very fortunate to work with some great drummers, the last one, Kevin Whitehead, played in the style of Vinnie Colaiuta (very excellent indeed). People say I play in the style that is a cross between Robben Ford, Jeff Beck and Gary Moore.

For the gear heads amongst you, I have piles of guitars mostly made for me based around Fender Telecasters and use the very fine hand built TwoRock amps. I do play acoustic also and again have a nice selection, my Gibson SJ45 being most treasured. To get an idea of where I am at take a look at my website and specifically about music.

So, if there anyone out there that is prepared to invite me down for a swift blast, please contact me.

I am also interested in meeting some of the musos on the Island. Is there a regular jam somewhere?

Thanks for reading!!!

Simonski

OK. Blue touchpaper lit, now retire and see what happens…

The Blues Club

I received a number of personal messages and some posts on the forum, one of which caught my eye which was an invitation to the ‘Blues Club’ held at the Railway in Douglas.

One of the other posts was from ‘BassBoss’ aka Dave Moore. From his message he seemed to have frequented the same studios in and around Manchester when I was playing professionally and he lives in Port St Mary! I called ‘BassBoss’ and arranged to go down to the Railway together.

Dave is a good guy, very experienced and following the relatively short car journey from Port St Mary found he did indeed know most of the people I hung out with during the 80’s/90’s.

We arrived at the ‘gig’. It’s a funny feeling, tooling up to a place where you have never been before, with a group of musos that don’t know you from Adam, guitar in hand, waiting to play…

The first guy I met was the remarkably ebullient Dickie Best, who instantly made me feel at home by insulting me then farting right next to me; he did let me use his amp though.

Anyway, I did a couple of songs that seemed to go down pretty well. At the end of the evening was in a band with, surprisingly enough, Dickie and Dave; just need a drummer.

Davy Knowles

One of the Isle of Man’s hot musical exports is a young bluesman called Davy Knowles. Very talented.

Yes, I know the BeeGees are from the Island as well but I am afraid they can no longer be called ‘hot exports’.

As with many things here, Dickie knows Davy’s mum and dad (Jan & Tony) and they are letting us play in his former rehearsal room… Excellent, thanks!

Following more chance meetings we now have a drummer, the newly married Dave Rowles and are currently working on some tunes.

I will be posting regular updates about my musical progress on this fine Island and also something about my 35 year quest to find the perfect tone!!!

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1 comment

1. Mike Corkhill on 11/05/10 at 2008 hours

   Cleveland Medal finalist (Tenor) would love an opportunity to try singing some rock/blues nimbers

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