• Home
  • VIBES
  • Music
  • Hire me
    • TUITION AND COACHING
    • Production, mixing and session work
    • REVIEWS
  • Gallery
    • VIDEO
    • GEAR GEEKERY
    • STARLITE CAMPBELL BAND
    • '70s
    • '80s
    • '90s
    • '10s - Now
  • Equipment
    • Electric guitars
    • Acoustic Instruments
    • Amplifiers & speakers
    • Microphones & DI boxes
    • Cables, Pedals & FX
    • Synthesisers & electronic wizardry
  • About
    • Interviews
  • Contact
    • MASTODON

READ 'VIBES'

THE BLOG BY SUZY STARLITE & SIMON CAMPBELL

TAKE A LOOK

Simon Campbell

  • Home
  • VIBES
  • Music
  • Hire me
    • TUITION AND COACHING
    • Production, mixing and session work
    • REVIEWS
  • Gallery
    • VIDEO
    • GEAR GEEKERY
    • STARLITE CAMPBELL BAND
    • '70s
    • '80s
    • '90s
    • '10s - Now
  • Equipment
    • Electric guitars
    • Acoustic Instruments
    • Amplifiers & speakers
    • Microphones & DI boxes
    • Cables, Pedals & FX
    • Synthesisers & electronic wizardry
  • About
    • Interviews
  • Contact
    • MASTODON

LIVE VIDEO

NEW MUSIC

BLOG

VIBES: The blog of Suzy Starlite and Simon Campbell

VIBES is the blog of Suzy Starlite and Simon Campbell.   

It is brought to you via the wonderful Substack, home of free thinkers, authors and journalists and is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

READ THE BLOG

Mar 19 2023

What podcasts do you listen to?

Why does it feel that everyone and their cat, dog and donkey has started a podcast in the past couple of years or so?

I’m not complaining, I think it’s great!

So many people are taking control of the narrative…

Read more

Mar 12 2023

Did you see Pink Floyd on The Dark Side of the Moon tour in 1974?

The front cover of my original Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon tour programme from 1974

Over the years many people have written about this groundbreaking album. Here is my personal story about what it was like to see…

Read more

Mar 5 2023

Our Lips Are Sealed

Photograph by Paul Husband | Graphic design by Barry Kinder.

On Friday, March 3rd, we released a new Starlite & Campbell single, Our Lips Are Sealed.

The track is available to listen to and buy exclusively on Bandcamp - the…

Read more

Feb 26 2023

Damn the torpedoes

“Creative work of any kind involves risk. Creativity is risk. You can’t do creative work and play it safe. That’s the whole game. Writing is a risk. Traditional publishing is a risk. Serializing your novel on Substack, same deal. Your…

Feb 19 2023

What does it mean to be punk?

The album cover of our first studio album featuring my grandma, Betty Higgs. Photo by me!

Virtually thumbing through The Guardian, I came across an article by Amelia Hill about the Unglamorous Music project, a new punk collective for…

Read more

Feb 12 2023

To stream or not to stream?

The artistic landscape for musicians has changed since the heady days of the 80s when record company money flowed like water and I signed to a major label.

I am not saying it was easy to secure a record contract…

Read more

Feb 5 2023

David Crosby: the early years

Have you ever experienced the feeling that the world will never be quite the same again when one of your favourite musicians shuffles off this mortal coil?

Everything feels a little strange, you feel a sense of loss and a…

Read more

Jan 27 2023

My journey with Fylde Guitars

Roger Bucknall, two new guitars and myself

When people from England hear the word Fylde, they associate it with Blackpool, its tower, beach, kiss me quick hats or perhaps Fleetwood, Fishermen’s Friends and Lytham St Annes.

Mention it to guitar…

Read more

Jan 20 2023

A tale of three rings!

The following is a tale of three rings: one lost, one found and one I never had.

The wedding ring

I’ve been thinking about wedding rings recently as I don’t have one. I did, but then I lost it.

Well…

Read more

Jan 13 2023

Jeff Beck

There are many guitar players that have influenced me over the years. The quartet of Beck, Page, Clapton and Green always spring to mind first. These are all legends of the British blues explosion and ones who spearheaded the British…

Read more

Jan 11 2023

The end of Big Tech

Yesterday was my birthday. I am 65.

When I was growing up, 65 was the sunset of one’s career and the onset of blissful retirement. Nowadays people are living longer and coupled with a declining birth rate, there are fewer…

Read more

Jul 1 2022

No Treble Magazine

It's an absolute honour to be featured in this month’s ‘Wonder Women’ series in 'No Treble' online magazine in the USA.

It’s the second time I’ve had to really dig deep about my life, music and the bass for a…

Read more

Jul 7 2021

Big Pink Vauxhall Viva's and The Language of Curiosity!

If ever I’m asked for any words of advice when it comes to starting a new job, a new course or in fact anything new, I aspire to live by this simple mantra: be authentic, be yourself and… be curious.

…

Read more

Apr 16 2021

My father's drill

My father taught me everything about DIY. 

The first experience I can remember was changing a tyre on the drive of our family home on Countess Lane in Radcliffe. I can’t recall the car, possibly a Triumph 2000, but do…

Read more

Feb 20 2021

Music from the big pink in Portugal

The modern recording studio (for this purpose say from the late ‘60s) can be a very strange environment. Many are pretty cold and sterile, not just the decor but also the ‘sound’ of the recording space. Dead and lifeless acoustics…

Read more

Feb 14 2021

Rupert Neve

Earlier today I learned that Rupert had sadly passed away.

He leaves behind a huge legacy of equipment, knowledge and legendary recordings that were facilitated by the electronics he designed.

I was very fortunate to spend a couple of hours…

Read more

Feb 5 2021

Hello

Hello, I’m Suzy Starlite - custodian of the groove, storyteller and full-time musician with the Starlite Campbell Band. 

Music is my language… 

I love gigs - they are the way we can all hang out together.

I love festivals -…

Read more

Jan 25 2021

10 things about Portugal

Suzy and I moved to Portugal in October 2020. It’s a very long time since I was last in the country and Suzy had never been before. Here are our top ten observations so far.

Repair not replace

Stuff that…

Read more

Jan 18 2021

The fixer

Suzy and I have moved six times since we became a couple in 2013. Isle of Man to Duras, France - Duras to Valencia, Spain - Valencia to Estivella, Spain - Estivella to Castletown, Isle of Man - Castletown to…

Read more

Jul 30 2020

Let's talk guitar cables

The cable that links your guitar to the first effect or amplifier input is the most important part of tone retention. The greater the capacitance per metre of cable, the more top end you will lose, as essentially, the cable…

Read more

Jun 30 2020

Big Jim Sullivan

I may be wrong, but many of you reading this may not know this man.

So I have taken extracts from his Wikipedia article plus a 'Forgotten Heros' piece from Premier Guitar Magazine for the quotes in this article. Between…

Read more

Aug 21 2018

'The Custodian of the Groove'

I’m thrilled and totally stoked to be featured in the September edition of Bass Guitar Magazine with a front page name check and in-depth interview article inside.

I had fun chatting about our forthcoming Starlite Campbell Band’s headline gig at…

Read more

Mar 12 2018

Luckiest Girl in the World

Totally bowled over to be a part of the wonderful Lehle family of musicians!

Most of my tone comes from the Mike Lull V4 and Gretsch Thunder Jet basses (both fitted with Curt Mangan stainless steel flatwound strings in combination…

Read more

Jan 15 2016

Squeezing Lemons with John Paul Jones

Lemon is great for killing parasites in chicken, a zesty addition to a large vodka and tonic and also apparently an age-old tradition in the playfulness of sexual innuendo in Blues music: way back in 1929, Joe Williams was singing…

Read more

GIGS

COOL SHIT

  • Log out
Powered by Bandzoogle

Terms