rants and observations

Way back in 1979 and again in 1980, Doug Bower went to see Queen perform at The Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. Back in these days of festival seating, Doug was a young, aspiring photographer and brought his camera along to take photos of the band while standing a few rows back from the stage.

Pop music officially entered the ‘complete shit‘ phase of it’s existence with the recent appearance of The Black Eyed Peas on the American Idol Gives Back broadcast. Don’t believe me? Take a gander at the video below but be sure to have a small bucket handy while you watch this piece of visual and aural excrement.

I was poking around on Youtube the other day looking for videos about the Boss RC-2 loop station pedal and stumbled across Nouveau Flamenco guitarist John Gilliat. Mr. Gilliat won the Roland company’s loop station competition in 2009, and for good reason.

If you’re a guitar player (like me) you’re very aware of the Fender Stratocaster, Leo Fender’s iconic guitar introduced in 1954 and since utilized and endorsed by top players around the world. The Stratocaster, Telecaster, Les Paul, SG and Flying V are the most recognizable guitars and coveted by amateur and professional musicians everywhere. Forget those dorky video games…nothing says Rock Star like one of these guitars running through a nasty big amp with the volume set to 11.