MI Pro

RING, RING! Where am I? Somewhere in America. What’s the time? The early hours. Oh, that’ll be Hugh Manson, then. “Hi Hugh.” He only phones me when I’m asleep in America. “I haven’t woken you up, have I?” Hugh’s keen to ask if I can get something into MI Pro about him ‘teching, along with his brother’s stepson, Seth, for John Paul Jones at the imminent Zep reunion: the undisputed gig of the 2007. “Drop me a mail to remind me.”

He never does, but technically, I guess, I’ve got it in via this column. How are they doing, anyway, the Zeps? “They are very, very, very, very, very, very, very, good.” There’s something rather soporific about Hugh’s intonation. I nod off and dream he said, “do you want a ticket?”

RING, RING! Ohforfuckssake what does he want now? “Hi,” I croak. “Oh, shit, I’ve just woken you,” says the voice of Fender GBI’s Neil Whitcher. “No, it’s fine, you’re not the first.” “I just wondered if you wanted to come and see Jeff Beck at Ronnie Scott’s on Friday?” Er, yes please!

Just 12 hours after I land, after a lengthy return flight from San Francisco where I’d been on assignment for Guitarist, I’m sitting just feet away from probably the most incredible living guitarist. Okay, Beck might look a little odd performing original rockabilly-style licks with the Big Town Playboys dressed in sleeveless black T-shirt and American Indian-style choker but — ‘king ‘ell — his command of the instrument is peerless.

After this first surprise set, he runs through another with an amazing band of Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, keyboardist Jason Rebello, and an implausibly young-looking 21 year-old female bassist Tal Wilkenfeld. It’s the kind of performance that makes you realise that even if you practised ten hours a day from birth to death you’d never get close. “I think it’s called talent,” quips Fender’s Danny Jones. He’s not wrong.

And talent is more than on show a couple of weeks previous to this stellar display of virtuosity. This time it’s the Schools Proms and the venue is a little bigger: the Royal Albert Hall and we’re all waving plastic union jacks along with a orchestra bashing out Land of Hope and Glory.

‘We’ includes my good lady, Mr and Mrs John Skewes, a certain Mr and Mrs Richard Desmond, Bert Weedon and a few others all assembled, at Mr Skewes’ invite, in the Royal Box. It’s been a fantastic display of young musicianship and despite a noted lack of guitars being strummed, the performances range from orchestral, trad jazz, virtuoso drumming, various choirs, a sort of soul band and even a funky sounding steel band.

But Zeppelin, Beck, the Schools Proms, as good as it is, isn’t it all a bit old fashioned? Aren’t there easier ways to make music and become a celeb? Certainly. Well, if you believe an article I saw in the San Francisco Chronicle by Peter Hartlaub centred on the highly successful Guitar Hero and Rock Band video games. “What kid will ever want to pick up a real guitar when learning to play a fake one is so easy?” he argues. But these massive-selling games are attracting all sorts.

Apparently in Rock Band there are 58 songs to play along with, “but pretty soon you’ll be able to download dozens more, including the entire Who’s Next album by The Who.” No doubt numerous publishers, record companies and artists are queuing up to make even more dosh… and in the process, helping to kill off the necessary learning necessary to become a real musician? Maybe, in the not to distant future, the music grade exams will be entirely scrapped, replaced by grades in Showing Off, Karaoke and Air Guitar?

A couple of days after the Beck experience I’m at the press launch of the much-hyped Gibson Robot Les Paul that incorporates the Tronical auto-tuning system – officially made available, as a retro-fit, earlier this year. It offers a plethora of features, primarily the ability to retune your guitar (and tune to altered/open tunings) in a matter of seconds. It works, although the user interface isn’t the easiest and even Robbie Gladwell got in a bit of a mess during its launch. Another gimmick to remove a key learning process or a powerful tool for the working guitarist? Probably a bit of both.

Well, here’s hoping that the likes of Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, elder statesman as they maybe, continue to inspire people of any age to pick up a guitar and that schools across the country– with the support of people like Mr Skewes and Mr Desmond – continue to promote real music teaching. Robots and video games are all very well, but what happens when there’s a power cut?