Re: Famous Westone Players - Name and (no) shame them!

[Old Gregg]

Another good clip of New Model Army in action , c/w Westone Thunder Jet Bass being slapped, plucked, dug at and even a few tasteful harmonics too. What more could you ask ?

Link ...

I know that most of you will hate this band , but the Westone bass footage is unrivaled .

[Krysbass]

Not exactly a household name fame-wise, but The Blues Band's bassist, Gary Fletcher, still plays a left-handed Thunder 1A, natural finish.

Going back to the 80's, I'm pretty sure Spandau Ballets' bassist, Martin Kemp "played" a white Westone semi-acoustic in the video for "True". (sorry, I don't know the model name, because I'm a bassist and not too well up on guitars with more than 4-strings).

Finally, when Simply Red performed "Money's too tight to mention" on BBC TV's "Top of the Pops", I'm almost certain their bassist was playing a Thunder III.

The search for similarly enlightened musicians continues......

[Silverfox]

Going back to the 80's, I'm pretty sure Spandau Ballets' bassist, Martin Kemp "played" a white Westone semi-acoustic in the video for "True". (sorry, I don't know the model name, because I'm a bassist and not too well up on guitars with more than 4-strings).

You're not wrong! I spotted this a little while back while watching The Hits channel one day. The guitar is a Rainbow but I'm not sure if it was a I or a II. Was white ever a standard colour for the rainbows?

David

[hummel]

A "the Rail" with the bassplayer of Wire on US television... must have been 1983'ish?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=r6eAOmz-Aag&feature=related

By the way, I saw them (Wire) perform 2 months ago at Hedon, the local venue in Zwolle. Old&bold, but very powerfull en tight.

http://www.hedon-zwolle.nl/index.php?option=com_zoom&Itemid=81&catid=131

[Old Gregg]

Seeing those clips of Wire reminded me of another UK Indie band who had a few Matsumokos in their arsenal - The Fall.

Some people here (I'm looking at you again Polly ) are going to hate this band and won't make it far enough into the clip to even see the left-handed, blue, Westone Thunder 1A guitar, being weilded by the guitarist on the left of the screen, but that's their loss . Personally, I've always had a soft spot for this band, as Mark E. Smith has the most amazing announciation in the world of popular music and I've had many happy hours impersontaing him with my friends, whilst talking gibberish over a beer (or ten ).

The Fall - "Big New Prinz"

The Fall - "Hit the North"

It's really hard to see in these clips, but that Westone has been painted up to look like a globe (I think) and is primarily blue, with little brownish-green "islands" on the body. I've got another video of theirs somehwere (from The Tube TV programme) and I remember noticing that there is definitley some texture to these blobs of brown paint, so it's not simply a case of the blue paint having flaked off to reveal the original colour underneath.

Fascinating, eh!?

[Pollyanna]

Seeing those clips of Wire reminded me of another UK Indie band who had a few Matsumokos in their arsenal - The Fall.

Some people here (I'm looking at you again Polly ) are going to hate this band and won't make it far enough into the clip to even see the left-handed, blue, Westone Thunder 1A guitar, being weilded by the guitarist on the left of the screen, but that's their loss ....

Gregg, you are dead right there mate!

Sorry, but I think it played for about two seconds before I hit the 'Close' button! Don't forget, I'm just a delicate little flower and my shell like lugholes weren't designed to listen to that sort of music! Music for me ended somewhere back in the seventies and I've been stuck in a time warp ever since! "With a jump to the left ..."

Pauline

[logicaljohn]

Well I'm very fond of the Fall - uh

But they can get a bit unlistenable at times !! - uh

In fact, the fellow playing the fender bass there in Hit The North (thats one of my favourite Fall numbers !) lives about 50 yards away from me (on the other side of the road, mind..). He's called Steve Hanley, in the Fall's turbulent (and ongoing) line up changes I think he was the most consistent and long standing member - uh (apart from Smith of course) doing 20 or more years service.. and he works as a caretaker/groundsman/maintenance at the primary school all our kids went to .

I was a big Yes fan as a youth (before Rabins time) but my all time and ongoing Westone hero is Dr Brock of that there Hawkwind....

You can't see much of it here but isnt that a Spectrum he's playing ?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ywWlUfaWlS0

Any suggestions on what Huwy is playing the lead on ?

[Old Gregg]

Great-uh, post-tt there Logical-ll Jaaaaaaaahhhn-nn!

Ah, don't you just love cliquey, in-jokes everybody ?

Interesting story about Steve Hanley, too. I bet if some of the parents saw and heard The Fall during some of their more "experimental" phases, there'd be a lot of rumours and suspicion about the creepy old caretaker (like a real life version of Scooby Doo ). Anyway, glad that I'm not the only one out there with "left field" musical taste .

[logicaljohn]

Sorry about the cliquey in jokes there

- uh...

I believe Mr Hanley (as he is now called) is quite popular at the school..

I would imagine many of the parents know his heritage, Hacienda DJ and author Dave Haslam is one of them.. It's the original School of Rock.

Steve played a free gig there the other week with his current band, featuring himself and Tom Hingley out of the Inspiral Carpets. Unfortunately I only heard about it afterwards, since our kids have all left.

A couple of them are at the nearby High School though , the headmaster of which is Gene Simmons out of Kiss. Paul Stanley is the chief dinner lady. Oops 'Lunchtime Supervisor'. And Jack Black is head of sports.



(Some of those comments are cliquey in jokes - others just plain made up.)

Mind you having said all that, I drove past Mr Hanley on the way to work this very morning and he is starting to resemble a Scooby Doo caretaker. Mark E Smith (the singer and driving force of The Fall) has turned into something like a hobbit permanently chewing a wasp , this happened some years back though...

[colt933]

Lift Me Up - Union tour 1991

[flynny]

Hi again,
as i was researching Westones i fell upon a page claiming that Cliff Burton of Metallica played a Westone Bass.....

http://www.bgra.net/2004/review.php?id=1864&type=bass

Not sure how true that is but when i looked at a list of Cliffs instruments the westone wasn't in there, who knows eh?

[Old Gregg]

Hi again,
as i was researching Westones i fell upon a page claiming that Cliff Burton of Metallica played a Westone Bass.....

http://www.bgra.net/2004/review.php?id=1864&type=bass

Not sure how true that is but when i looked at a list of Cliffs instruments the westone wasn't in there, who knows eh?

I know that he played Aria basses (they came out of the same factory), but I'd never heard of him using Westones. Still, I'm no expert!

[logicaljohn]

I was pleased to see the guitarist in Misty's Big Adventure playing a Thunder 1 or 1a at a festival this summer !

[metabass]

I recently read in Bass Guitar Magazine (UK issue, December 2008) that Adrian Lambert from Biomechanical (he also used to be in Dragonforce) started out with a Westone bass. He said in an interview "The first bass I owned was a white Westone 4-string. It was passive but had quite a punchy sound."

[Thunder Jet Boy]

Hey Old Gregg,
I have held and played a few notes on Stuart Morrow's Thunder Jet!!!!!
Met the whole band in the summer of 85 when NMA played in Inverness on their No Rest for the Wicked tour.
Spoke to Stuart for about an hour about the Bass and how he plays. He showed me how to play Notice Me and a bit of Vengence. Myself and some friends went along to the venue in the afternoon to see if we could see then and ended up being welcomed with open arms. Oh happy days.
I had a Thunder 1 before I was a NMA fan and still have the beast.
It brings back a few memories and at the time brought my Bass playing to a new level.
Went to Glasgow a couple of years ago to see them again and they are still a great band.

[catonine]

ok.. there is this cat named scott mehrens who has played westones since 1984.. st. louis music used to give him promotional guitars every year he was on tour.. started as "razor" form gainesboro tennessee and then "cat o' nine" from fort walton beach florida.. and now is known as "rusty knales" from nashville tennessee.. country but still plays a westone or two on tours.. i know this cat cuz i am him.. lol.. unfortunatley they didnt give me westones every year.. i was out of tennessee and they gave me whatever they had in extra supply to the cookeville tennessee music store.. i have a list of guitars given to me by them if any one ever wants it.. i still have most.. except the 1986 aria pro II ZZ deluxe.. sold it.. damn it.. i did get two corts and an atares bitch and a few ibanezes (1981 iceman).. and series10 by bently (bitch) one year.. and an arbor bass (explorer).. jeez.. i love st louis music co.. they kept me going for years !!!

[Pollyanna]

All hail to Rusty! (or can I call you Scott?)

Looks like we've got a real live celebrity in our midst!

Yes, what are you waiting for - get those photos put up Pronto and any promo stuff that you've got lurking about, we all want to see them!

Pauline

[corsair]

I was watching a BTO concert tape the other night and i could swear Randy Bachman was using a Spectrum II!! it was probably a Jackson but it certainly made me sit up and take notice!!

[bobroberts]

i remember seeing bucks fizz on a tv show years ago (mid 80's?) 'using' a westone guitar and bass. i think they were thunder 1's, possibly 1a's, natural finish, anyway!

more recently, i saw totp2 with some 80's band (can't remember who), bass player had a westone...

[metabass]

Apparently, church burner and murderer Varg Vikernes used a Westone to record the early Burzum albums with.

"When I recorded all the Burzum albums I used an old (I think) Westone guitar that I bought cheap in 1987 from an acquaintance." Says one of the most notorious musicians ever.

[bobroberts]

Might be worth a few quid, as long as he didn't use it to start the fire...!