Made by Prestowebs

© 2008 edsimonsguitars.co.uk

I suppose my interest in guitars all began for me when I first heard Hank B. Marvin playing Apaché with the Shadows back in 1960 and thinking to myself ‘how hard is it to play a guitar?’ Having messed around a bit with my mate, Graham’s, acoustic guitar, I decided to earn some money and buy my own guitar and decided to go for a solid electric one right away.

My first electric guitar was a Vox Shadow in a bright red, bought in December 1961 it cost 16 guineas and I was over the moon when I unpacked it as it came complete with strap, lead, plectrum and a small introductory book.

The next mission was an amplifier. My family had recently bought a new radio, making the old valve one redundant. I had this given to me and I set about making my first amp by removing all the unnecessary parts that were not needed. Due to lack of knowledge, and other things, I did not finish it until August 1962, as I had to learn about the principles of amplification.

I started to learn to play, and the first complete tune that I learnt was the Shadows hit of the time entitled ‘Dance on’ (which reached number 1 in December 1962). It was not easy but with perseverance and determination I got it right.

Next thing some friends and I decided to form a group and our very first group consisted of: Phil Blake(Drums), Graham Cheetham(Bass guitar), Tony Lawry(Rhythm guitar) and myself(Lead guitar). We started out as ‘The Nitewalkers’ playing all instrumental numbers from the Shadows, Ventures, Surfaris, Chantays and the like

Graham, like all of us, was still going to school and did not have a lot of money so I engaged in a project at woodwork classes to make a bass guitar. It was quite a challenge but with good guidance from my teacher, Des Astin, I soon finished the body and neck. I brought it home and Graham and I fitted the frets, bridge, machine heads and a complete pickguard with a De-Armond pickup and controls.

In late 1962 I wanted a new guitar but again due to lack of funds, I could not afford a new one. I approached my woodwork teacher again to see if I could make a new body on the lines of a Fender Stratocaster to which he agreed and the body was duly made out of Mahogany and stained a very dark brown, I changed over all the parts from my Shadow and we were away.

Little did I know that this fascination of the mechanics of musical instruments and the knowledge and skills that I learned here would follow me through my life.

By this time it had appeared that my Vox Shadow and home made amplifier were not adequate so Phil’s dad, who owned ‘Western Electronics’, offered to build us a set of new amplifiers. This was achieved and now it was time to change my guitar. There were no good guitar shops in Cornwall, so a trip to the Band Centre in Plymouth was arranged. Tony had already been there and bought a Rosetti Solid 7, so we all travelled to Plymouth in Graham’s 1934 Austin 7, which took about 3 hours and it was there that I bought a Watkins Rapier 33 costing about £32. When we returned, we started rehearsing in Phil’s dad’s workshop.

Phil’s dad soon became very involved with the group and began managing our bookings and supplying the transport to and from our gigs. We did a couple of ‘open air’ gigs for local charities and during these it was suggested that we change our name to ‘The Surfers’ due to our involvement with the beach and the local life saving club. This suggestion was accepted and we adopted that name.

We started holding regular weekly dances on Friday nights at the St.Thomas’ Hall, Marazion (from April 1963 to September 1964) that is where we decided to add a vocalist to our line-up. We auditioned several and decided to try some of them out at our regular Friday night gigs at Marazion. Two of them never turned up but Keith Strick did and was made very welcome by our regular supporters at St.Thomas’ Hall so he became the ‘fifth Surfer’. We covered an area from The Lizard across to Newquay right down to Land’s End from late 1964 to 1966

In 1963/4, John Fry (the camera shop in Market Jew Street, Penzance) started selling musical instruments, we were always looking to see what bargains were available. One day, when looking in the shop window, I noticed a very smart looking Futurama Coronado. It was similar in shape to a Fender Jaguar, but there the similarity ended. I just had to have this guitar and with a bit of part exchanging and hire purchase it was soon in my hands at the price of 69 guineas. This guitar turned out to be one of only about 250 manufactured as they did not create the right sounds and did not prove popular with the musicians of the time in spite of having a superb neck and low action.

Tony bought a Watkins Rapier 44 around this time. After playing it for about six months he exchanged it for a Hofner Verithin as he had always wanted a semi-acoustic and could now afford one.

In 1964 we entered the Cornwall ‘Rock & Rhythm Championships’ at Truro City Hall. We came fourth out of twenty groups.

In the summer of 1965, Graham was due to go on to College so we recruited Alex Wilson, another local lad, as our new bass player and in September Graham departed to join his college in Weybridge, Surrey.

Alex had bought a Hofner ‘Violin Bass’, made famous by Paul McCartney and fitted in well with the group and things continued as normal until Phil announced his decision to leave the group to try his hand as a full time professional drummer in the north. This meant that his dad would not continue as our manager so sadly ‘The Surfers’ were forced to disband in 1966.

There followed a bit of a ‘gap’ where I hardly played, just filling in for any-one who was ill or injured and it was in late 1966 I had a call to fill in for a lead guitarist, who had broken his wrist, at the Flamingo Ballroom on Illogan Highway, Redruth. I arrived to be greeted by the group’s lead singer saying that he thought one of the main band was Eric Clapton.

I put my gear on the stage and, to my delight it was Eric. He was part of a ‘made up’ band appearing that night. He told me that he was forming a new band soon (which turned out to be ‘Cream’). After running through some material with my new ‘group for the night’ it was time to do the gig.

The band that I stood in with were pretty average and I could not wait for the end of our second session and settled back to watch ‘god’ perform. Imagine my total shock when Eric invited me onto the stage to play a couple of numbers with them. I was shaking with downright terror but soon got going and played a couple of R & B numbers and finished up with T-Bone Walker’s ‘Stormy Monday Blues’. Someone once wrote that everybody has fifteen minutes of fame, and this was surely mine.

In January 1967 I was sitting at home when the doorbell rang. I opened it to find our old singer, Keith, from the Surfers days and three others who I did not know. I invited them in and Keith explained that they were a band called ‘Circuit Five’ and were looking for a new lead guitarist. I agreed to audition with them and a date was arranged for a rehearsal.

With all my gear loaded into my trusty 1952 Ford Popular I set out for the ‘Trencrom Revellers’ hut that they used for rehearsal and got to know more about the band and play a few numbers. I was invited to join them and I accepted. The band consisted of: Malcolm Perry(drums), Bill Oxenham(rhythm guitar), Dave Berryman(bass guitar), Keith Strick(vocals) and myself as the new lead guitarist. The manager was called Barry (I can not remember the surname).

All went well for almost a year with Circuit Five playing in most of the old places that the Surfers had played with some new venues as well and then Phil Blake returned home. There was an immediate urge to get him into Circuit Five but this was thwarted by a vote in the band. Eventually, Dave and myself left Circuit Five and teamed up with Phil and a brilliant guitarist called Malcolm McKenna to form a new band.

While this was going on Tony, from the old Surfers, and myself had started playing instrumentals at our local ‘pub (the Pra Bar). I fitted in some bookings with Tony in between rehearsals with the new band and we went under the name of ‘Simon & Tony.

Our new band, formed in 1968, consisted of: of Phil on drums, Dave on bass, Malc as lead guitarist and me as rhythm guitarist (I stood down as lead guitar as ‘Malc’ was much better than me) and was called ‘New Circuit’ as Barry, the manager from Circuit Five, had come with us and it appeared that to fulfil some of the bookings that he got for us were actually for Circuit Five and we were told, by Barry, that the naff name had to stay for contract reasons. Eventually we discovered that this was not true and New Circuit and Barry parted company.

Our next mission was to establish a new name. We all decided on ‘Supernatural’ and our material was very much more progressive and we featured numbers from Cream, Hendrix and the like as well as playing current chart material. We started gigging in 1968 and our first venue was a dance hall at ‘East-the-Water’ just across the bridge in Bideford. Unfortunately, due to flood damage, the bridge was closed and we had to make a massively long detour to get to the venue.

Continuing with Supernatural was quite a challenge as local venues were a bit reluctant to give bookings bands playing progressive music. We tried a new combination with me acting as a ‘roadie’ and not playing but, after sacking Barry, bookings seemed to dry up and we suspected that he had ‘put the boot in’ however, we continued going right through the summer. In September Dave and Malc left to go back to Circuit Five. I then sold my amplifier, more in anger than for any other reason.

Malcolm eventually ended up as a ‘session musician’, appearing on British television.

In all this time I continued to set up and make repairs to guitars for friends and fellow musicians, in fact, I enjoyed having the challenge. I still enjoyed surfing as a sport and Tony and I used to spend lots of time following the surf around in my Morris van. One day we bought two Eko acoustic guitars and started playing at the Two Chimneys Club. We decided, after the first summer season, that we would go electric again and look for more venues. I still had the Futurama and we bought the old Surfers’ P.A. amplifier from Phil’s dad, got hold of some speakers and a microphone and we were up and running with me on lead guitar and vocals and Tony on rhythm guitar and backing vocals. We started to get work and expanded our venues.

Praa Sands Golf Club had opened at Germoe Cross Roads in April 1971 and we were invited to play there in September 1972 where I met the golf professional R.A. (Bobby) Hamilton. He told me that he had a son called Roy who was in the music business and, early in 1973 I met him and we talked music, golf and guitars and had a few beers. He told me that he was forming a new band named ‘Jeep’ who would operate from his music shop (the Band Centre, Hounslow).

In July 1973 I bought my first Fender Stratocaster. It was a Japanese Sunburst model and it came from Minns Music (formerly Yardley’s) of Truro costing £175. To my horror every time I used the tremolo it went out of tune so I took it back under guarantee. They adjusted the tension of the tremolo springs and returned it to me but I was still not happy with it so, using my guitar building knowledge and skills, I adjusted it and added two more springs which did the trick.

I met Roy, again, later in 1973 and told him about my problems with the Stratocaster. He informed me that the early Japanese models did have problems so I asked him to find me an American Stratocaster. I had a message from Roy in April 1974 telling me that he had found a black Hardtail Stratocaster (reputed to have been owned by Dave Davies of the Kinks) that he was bringing to show me at the golf club. He duly arrived and he took my sunburst Stratocaster in part exchange with £100 cash balance. I found the new Stratocaster completely different to my Japanese model. It was much more versatile and it was not long before I got used to it as it was so much easier to play.

We played all over Cornwall and enjoyed great success around our own local pubs and clubs including a return to the Two Chimneys Club that had been bought by a company called ‘Freshfields’ (part of the Butlins’ group). It turned out that we would entertain there during the summer, three times a week, for many years to come. At a cabaret night we met ‘Jethro’, an up-and-coming Cornish comedian and formed a very lasting friendship with him. We played as a support act to him at several venues during the next three years.

We continued playing regularly at Two Chimneys, The Golf Club, The Coach & Horses, Welloe Rock, Gulval Meadery, Troon Cricket Club, Driftwood Spars, St.Agnes, Duporth Holiday Camp, The Atlantic Inn, Porthleven and some venues in Newquay to name but a few.

Tony was married to Angie in 1974 and settled in Germoe village, I married Christine in 1978 and we bought a house in Helston. Unfortunately, I was forced to sell my Hardtail Stratocaster to raise money for the house deposit. Once again Roy supplied me with a Jedson Les Paul copy and some much needed cash. The Jedson was awful but I made several adjustments and got the action as good as my old Stratocaster.

After increased pressure from Christine (who always got her way as a spoilt only child), I was forced to stop gigging in 1981 so that was the end of Simon & Tony.

Sadly, my marriage to Christine broke up in 1982 and I came back to live at Praa Sands. I sat in with a few bands and duos at various venues from 1982 to 1990 but then decided to retire from playing and just do a few repairs and set-ups just to keep my hand in. I still do a few repairs and it is my ambition to make my own Stratocaster and Telecaster replicas in the future.