This is the most recent.

And quite possibly the most pointless.

But it is recent mind you!

So it's almost topical.

And did I say recent?

Until the next thrilling installment.

God I wanna go back to working in Soho!

Edit:

Of course I could do a smutty post about the dark eyed girl leaning on the desk just over there, with a fairly low cut top on, with her arms on desk and her shoulders hunched up. I'm sure she knows her arms are pushing her boobs together and making her cleavage look wonderful, but who would want to hear that sexist rubbish.

Used to be down at the other end of Denmark Street from the Charring Cross Road. It was one of those places that seemed at odds with some of the other guitar shops in the street.

Actually, whereas all the others stores gave the impression of having a range of stock set out to tempt you to buy, Andys had the air of a place where everything had been moved and put where it was while someone was hoovering on the other floor, and it would all be put back in its right place soon. Or someone had backed a van up to the front door and dumped all the stuff in and said, “I’ll be back in a minute!”

It was “character full” shall we say. And friendly. I got my first Gibson Les Paul there. The staff were willing to chat and not show off, or barter and deal till they got a sale. I sat playing the soon to be mine LP and studiously plucked away ignoring the sales person. I only looked up and spoke to him after he had dropped another hundred quid (making £200 in total) off the price. And then all I said was “I’ll take it. With a case included” Try that in any other shop in that area and see how many fingers they point at you.

And the repair and maintenance section downstairs in the basement was a joy. Low roofed, dingy – made you feel at home instantly. So did the racks of odd, weird and wonderful guitars down there. It was also good to see just how careless other people could be with their beloved guitars. I mean, people really DO sit on acoustic guitars and crush them, then expect someone to repair it!

There were old amps here and there, and some very odd/wonderful guitars covered in too much sparkly stuff and dials and knobs. Stuff the other shops would never stock. Of course there would be the out of reach expensive battered old Strat/SG/whatever. But they were only out of reach financially. You could have a go provided you took your leather jacket off.

But now it would appear that this guitar haven has shut after almost 30 years of doing good work emptying the wallets and thinning the credit cards of musicians and amateurs alike.

Bugger.

I really liked that shop.

Wonder if my nose print is still on the front window.

Yep I got it bad – G.A.S.

It’s a condition that guitarists and other musicians suffer from on occasion and there is only one cure – total surrender.

Gear Acquisition Syndrome comes on at the sight of a new shiny bit of kit, and is only sometimes complicated by a price tag with quite a few zeros at the end. Although this is by no means a guarantee that the item will not be acquired, it will cause more pain and anguish to the sufferer as they have to wait, or more agonisingly SAVE before they can get what they want.

The trickiest situation is the one where the bit of kit sits in that most dangerous of areas. The “I don’t actually need it, but at that price…….why not!” area.

This is where I am stuck. I want a new ickle portable amp modeller (the new Line 6 Pocket POD) and it is less than a hundred English pounds!

I don’t need it, but ya know.

It’s red!

And shaped like a kidney bean!