This is a truly brilliant piece from Rocketboom…
Summer Heat and the Google UK Big Tent Event 2012
Firstly I must say I enjoyed this event… This is the 2nd year Google UK has run this event and it really is a place where great conversations can happen and awkward topics broached. It can also help people in the industry realise where everyday people are with tech in their lives – because that really is the information the industry seeks without assumption. The event itself was also accompanied by the Channel 4 news team and a posse of people from the Guardian newspaper that showed some interesting things later on, not to mention various journalists from a wide range of other publications.
First upPeter Barron from Google welcomed everyone as usual and kicked off the 
proceeding with – Porn: how do we keep our children safe online? Well this is an age old discussion, but one that is always sidelined through complete and total ignorance… This is either because of the prudish nature of one or more of the participants, or simple discomfort.
Porn for all its sins is different in the eyes of each individual person, in cultures where people are generally covered up; the simple act of showing a bare arm can be enough to create a response, so while in western society we’re used to seeing semi naked bodies it often comes down to why should someone else’s beliefs impact you and how you 
should or should not dress and so on. For this very reason there is no defined definition of what porn truly is. But the main question was raised by Daily Mail journalist Amanda Platell. Her point was that as a responsible parent wanting to make sure that her child doesn’t come across anything they should not online – what does she do? Especially as she’s not computer savvy and doesn’t know how to do things like block sites etc. She went on to say that government or the ISP’s should offer a service to make sure things are blocked. She then continued saying that the night before she’d gone to the site “pornhub.com” and described the sexual acts she watched being carried out… She did this in great detail. So before I finish this, on her recommendation we tried to find the said video… Nope, couldn’t find it anywhere!! Something similar, but not the one she described (so it was probably a good job I refrained from heckling “How many times did you have to watch it before you got off?”). Infact the subject covered was seriously “niche”, so we’ll leave you to your own thoughts to why she had to stand on a stage and describe all this in such detail. So, in response to what should a responsible parent who isn’t computer savvy do…. the answer is simple – LEARN!!
On to the totally awesome Dr. Aleks Krotoski who showed off her Serendipity Engine which was interesting, insightful and frankly if the results of what could end up being a lifetime of research bear fruit – the very same system/algorithm etc will very probably prove the key to Chaos Theory.
The Minister of State for Science and Universities came on and proclaimed new things at universities yet missed the points completely. Even Eric Schmidt mentioned the UK has disregarded what made it good – leadership with flair and our skills. It almost seems to me that every country wants to have its own Silicon Valley – but they shouldn’t and can’t… We should do what we’re good at and in the global age it makes us stand out. The UK is the hands on engineering country… that’s it, pure and simple. However, we’re seriously lacking in training and education in schools, not just in Computer Science, but the far bigger and more vast areas that make up the rest that knowledgeable people talk about and the “App crowd” (there is a phrase I just invented and is now copyright TWBrit lol) don’t even know about – embarrassing stuff in front of engineers and people who build the infrastructure for the “App-Crowd” to use their toys on.
The next session was “Copyright in the Digital Age “This is one of the biggest subjects on and about the internet now. Some fascinating things were talked about here. Firstly the media industries as a whole need to re-address how they work out their losses and stop being so blinkered in their overall approach. Bottom line is that it created a rod for its own back, we’ve been recording music etc ever since it was possible to do so, whether music off the radio in the 70’s and of course hooking video machines together at home in the 80’s.
After lunch Eric Schmidt gave a fascinating talk about Globalisation and mentioned a few things like how in some schools in 
Africa they don’t have textbooks – they simply use Google and YouTube to teach from these. And then there was the obvious yet simple observation as to why educational and help software or information doesn’t come pre-installed on mobile phones; pointing out it’d cost very little or nothing to do so. He talked about the next billion users of Google and then got the whole thing kyboshed when some journalist kept pushing questions about stuff regarding Google and the EU Govt. which he answered that they’re waiting to hear exactly what the co
mplaint is about so they can take a proper look at it. Yet the journo kept pushing… That’s not called great journalism – it’s called f’king everyones day up inside a tent with a room temp of around 130f (thanks moron!!) The result was that we didn’t get to hear good questions and become informed more. After all, we really wanted to hear what Eric had to so say – not listen questions on conjecture. But because of the nature of these questions Eric had to answer them clearly and properly.
Someone from the Guardian Newspaper then came on and did a bit about how they tracked the London Riots last year. They showed how little information the Police gave them, so they went to get court documents of who had been charged etc. Then they turned to Twitter and gained information of who tweeted what, the terminology used, the “#-tag” information and suddenly came up with some frankly amazing information, statistics and a mountain of other things. This simply and finally proved that our want and need for tech, apps and the latest thing – is the very thing that is creating a 100% guaranteed “Big Brother” future for all of us… remember : put any info out there – and it’s there forever!!
With the breaks becoming more and more needed due to the heat inside the main tented hall, it was refreshing to see and have a sit down with Dr Sue Black: not to be confused with the Curry Queen of Camden Town (I also just made that up). As soon a
s myself, Sue and this blogs editor Gabsatrucker sat down – the ladies went straight to geek mode in their phones and reminiscing of their road-trip between Little Rock and Austin, Texas a few weeks ago. After briefly meeting Sue’s son, [hold it, I gotta add something] Sue Black has the most amazing kids, most of whom are grown up. But one has to wonder just what an amazing mom she is because every time I meet one of them – they are truly the nicest of energetic, confident and charismatic individuals. This of course doesn’t stop me yanking Sue’s chain a little, but as I’ve said before; Sue gives as good as she gets and is a straight arrow. If you ever get chance to meet Sue, your life will be better for it.
Anyway… Back into the sweat box for the final session mediated by the awesome Sarah Smith. This final session covered something that is becoming what I believe is a serious blight of the web; the true “Big Brother” issues surrounding the Web 2.0 and social media.
Ever since the dawn of the ability to write a letter, social media has grown and grown. Now that information is for sale, that information is all about you, me and everyone. Privacy is getting seriously trampled on, so in light of this two authors “Andrew Keen” and “Nick Harkaway” who have differing opinions on this subject took to the stage. In my own personal view, I feel both of them were 75% correct, but were offering no middle ground; they seemed to be at one extreme or the other. Thankfully signed copies of their books were given out at the end of the day, so I’ll be sure to take my time and read both.
Typically I have been a little scathing at some things. While it was hot, we can’t blame Google for weather Gabsatrucker brought from the US, but in all things these were discussions. Insightful and highly educational – but simply discussions… who knows what they will amount to. I thoroughly enjoyed the day, enjoyed meeting the people I did, enjoyed Aleks Krotoski’s work and left in fear of what the surface media will make of it all.
Running for Joplin
It was year ago next Tuesday the 22nd May, that the small town of Joplin, Missouri hit TV screens around the world, and almost instantly the un-edited videos appeared on YouTube displaying the true nature of what had occurred as fights for survival were still happening.
It wasn’t a case of the magnitude of what happened in Japan or in many other places. But for the most part it was proportionately the same. A town was almost wiped from the map with over 160 dead and over 900 seriously injured. Identification was sometimes near impossible due the frankly horrific nature of what happened that day. This was of course a mile wide Tornado with winds in excess of 200 mph – a rare EL5… Stories of heroism abounded, stories of survival against all the odds and videos of both still litter YouTube.
It’s times like these that only selfless acts can or will save lives and those whose job it is to help, have to risk their own lives in order to save others – if you want to know what life is about, what true success is, then you just read it. Here is a video by CBS News that says it all – Joplin; a year on…
This Saturday I’m proud to say that Gabby, better known as Gabsatrucker is running in and for Joplin. Yes it’s a Half Marathon that raises money for the town – but it also tells a people that others still care deeply enough to help and to be there to help rebuild lives in whatever small way they can.
Like this:
The Week That Was…
So a lot seems to have happened in the last week, in fact a surprising amount. Microsoft showed off a new screen system in Austin, which reminded me of back in 2004 when they showed off their “Touch-Light” concept. It was so good I was all over them to get my hands on the finished product at a time when only Bill Gates was shouting the future of end-user tech will be all about touch interfaces and tablets… Indeed, at that time the only people really using it was Motion Computing on their tablets. Here is the original Touch-Light vid followed by their new concept.
Talking of Motion Computing; all I have stated here and on Twitter about them insomuch as don’t buy a bling toy tablet, buy the real deal from Motion… Well I really think they’re now getting to grips with the concept when this ad was emailed to me….
Motion, you could have at least offered me a fully loaded J3500 in the post 
That said, if I was given a gift of the products I do recommend – I’d have no room left. But what I would have – would totally rock! However, it turns out that parking of large wide-bodied aircraft isn’t exactly cheap – who knew…
This week saw two of the most disliked people in the UK give their evidence at the Leveson Inquiry; frankly I’m surprised they show their faces in public and I’ve never heard such evasive BS in my life.
Talking about evasive… President of Yanksville; Barack Obama, came out and stated that he has nothing against Gay marriages… I have no problem with it either. But what is gobsmacking, is the amount of people whom believe marriage is only a religious thing… Well if it were – how the hell did we all get here before Christianity, the Jewish and Muslim faiths? No, marriage is where two people have declared publicly that they wish to be together forever… Not only this but in this argument regarding faith, irrespective to what you personally feel – ALL faiths have a core that states your greatest gift is freedom of choice… Not abstention – but to teach moderation and understanding… This is whatever anyone wants it to be, but on the other side of the US political ranks; Mitt Romney claims he doesn’t remember shearing the scalp of a long-haired gay guy at college… Pranks aside, but I know and remember 99.5% of every prank that I did and in turn was done to me at school. Heck I remember every single first day at school I ever had. So instead of doing or saying something honourable – he denied remembering it… hmmmm interesting!! However, in a moment of coffee choking (care of Andrew Baron) he pointed towards what people were trending on Twitter about the issue.
moving on…
A week on Monday, intrepid blogger, one legged 1/2 marathon, sideways and nose runner not to mention this blogs hindrance and help “Gabsatrucker” heads
to the UK for a while. Now Gabby is many things, and in this my sarcasm holds no bounds – but yesterday against 951 competitors she came third place and gained a new door stop, not only this – but she came 1st place in her age group – the age of the nearest person to beat her? 15 years younger!!
Well done G, very well done!!
And we don’t stop there with our intrepid travellers… Tech head, geek gurl, and one of my better friends; Sue Black is conference kicking over in NYC. While out and about with her younger daughter known to all as “The Cheekster”, well The Cheekster told Sue that her daddy should wear this….
I’ll leave you to worry about this yourselves. 
Sue is bouncing off to SF soon, but not before she makes arrangements to go drinking with Gabsatrucker in London upon her return…(under the guise of “I’ll get you away from that horrible man” – aw blessem) Thankfully with the Olympics drawing closer – the military has been busy moving a lot of weapons and hardware into central London, so people should feel somewhat safer at this knowledge and need not concern themselves with a return to rioting seen last year ;D 
Fenny of Hooloovoo42 is also USA bound next Saturday too. Fenny tends to divide the US up into chunks to explore a couple of times a year and this time she’s kicking the far north-east and possibly over the Canadian border a ways. But just in case she gets into bother, I have notified 1 x Botson who is playing war on behalf of the Royal Air Force in the US at present and is due to head north to Canada in another week or so.
So what’s left? Oh yes, me 
Well last week I had blocked drains and had the joy of dealing with that for days until shovel came out – only to find the gas company had smashed straight through it to lay a gas line, also a little basic fault-finding on my washing 
machine which was this! And finally I have the joy of sitting with my lawyer next week to go through some old school stuff. Actually the lawyer is a good laugh, the school stuff – not so much. And with that – I’ll take my leave until my next post
Where is the TV you’ve been waiting for?
As many know, back in the early to mid 2000’s I worked on the development of 4G. Back then the basic requirement was for a 20Mb download and 20Mb upload to any base unit or moreover – a handheld device. We increased this to 25Mb and at a time when there was a lull in the computer industry, we were working on some pretty cool and what was often called “over the edge” technology. Since then the benchmark has gone literally through the roof.
But the problems regarding bandwidth, power, mobile, fixed line accounts and billing aside – the real problem was that there wasn’t an end user device that could handle this in the mobile field. This gave birth to the requirement of advanced PC levels of power in a handheld device which (and this is still an issue) wouldn’t melt the head of the user. But more over, this system for the most part wouldn’t require video compression, that’s right – complete real-time video! In this, I looked to the future and realised very quickly that this would probably be the end of terrestrial/cable/satellite TV. The future of TV would be simply Web-based and cut the massive costs of powering and building the millions of transmitters that exist today.
A few years later I was observing a discussion on Joseph Mallozzi’s blog;
who was then the executive producer of the MGM Stargate Atlantis franchise about the stunning number of DVD sales worldwide for their show, yet cable and channel subscriptions appeared low. In a conversation I mentioned that most people I knew around the world who watched the show – watched it the 
following day on the web and that it was highly likely that it was these people buying the DVD’s. As it turned out, MGM sold the show badly around the world to expensive pay channels or in some cases – highly obscure channels. This, coupled with highly inaccurate method of gathering viewing figures proved that the industry as a whole is not in step in any way with the technology to hand and were grossly over concerned with “Piracy/copyright” than acknowledging that this system (because of the show’s popularity) was actually making them more money… The bottom line is people want to watch shows when THEY want to watch them and if a company can’t see the alternative method of generating revenue then there is a real problem with that company.
But you must also remember that Piracy is not theft! Theft is when something tangible is “taken” from you, but copyright infringement is the actual problem. Also what about all of us who come across things on the web (think YouTube as an example) and end up watching things you didn’t search for? For most they wouldn’t have gone out of their way to buy, pay for or even consider watching or listening ordinarily – and here lays many problems and issues of which there are too many to list here, but the promotional attributes are limitless. Yet this again shows a complete initial lack of awareness by the mainstream entertainment industry of the technology they’re prepared to use for profit in a totally unsecure manner. In effect, a rod for their own back. In turn, while they cry foul, a few years ago these modern formats allowing them to make billions more in profits simply didn’t exist.
At the same time true innovators of web media and web shows like Andrew Baron owner and creator of Rocketboom and frankly an authority on the subject, has understood the direction of web TV for a very long time.
There are several web based shows; Robert Llewellyn’s “Carpool” and “Fully Charged” and a great many more now exist – so where is mainstream web TV? Strange things happen, take for instance Amanda Tapping’s “Sanctuary”. This show was always designed to be web based. 
They used little more than green/blue screens in order to put any and every location background they liked to the show. The initial run of “Webisodes” was put together at minimal cost and used many of Amanda’s close acting and directing friends to see if it would be popular. It was, and strange as it might be – the show got picked up for mainstream TV. So the power of TV designed for the web is powerful enough to make the TV Studios sit up and appropriately beg.
The problems are several fold but it basically comes down to the TV companies and cash… I can go to the BBC’s iPlayer to watch their shows, CBS website (if I’m in the States) and watch their shows – along with Fox and everyone else’s websites. But you have to bounce from site to site all the time and then wonder if the “Geolock” will prevent you from watching what you want – this really does have to stop… it’s not good for business, it thwarts overall growth and is a shockingly bad business model!
The future of Global TV will rest in the palm of the people, company or person who can achieve what is seemingly impossible; to sit down and work out, negotiate and then generate one of a handful of sites that does it all. A site that will have to decide to pay for itself via advertising, pay per view or all possible methods together. A site where you can watch what you want, when you want. But the reality is that copyright and other royalties are the very things that stand in the way of this happening.
Web TV in the format of YouTube and commercial business sites is an entertainment and subculture all of its own already and has been for years. If you want to know if a product is good rather than get mugged by TV shopping channels – go and see what people who already own the product say about them on YouTube. You’ll soon learn the truth and probably save money – especially if you need to repair something! Lets say you need to fix your laptop, replace
the broken screen on your smart phone, anything practical you don’t know how to do - someone somewhere has made a video of how to do it. And what about skill learning? Want to learn Photoshop? go to the simply vast library of videos on the Adobe website to learn just what you need too. The list is endless.
But what of the technology for the home? What are the overall bandwidth and usage requirements which, in reality, have to be limitless. Thankfully newer home entertainment, LCD/LED TV’s all come with web connectivity now. But there are other issues on a global scale which need to be sorted out like; age of the viewer and/or in some more religious cultures; censorship or more edited programmes and movies. But as a technical issue most people will be aware that terrestrial TV (certainly here in the UK) is swapping over from Analogue to Digital. This raised many questions from viewers to why they should go out and buy a set-top-box to place on their old TV to see this new digital medium. Well the answer is quite simple; For a lot of people who may not know, analogue and digital signals are both very different and even look different. A digital signal is basically a signal of “On and Offs” which is basically binary and would look something like this:
Analogue signals are far more complicated and looks sort of like this:
The difference for the most part is that the digital signal is predictable and can therefore can be repaired by your TV, computer or set-top box with either an On or Off and an Analogue signal simply can’t – because there is no reference to what was damaged. Here are the same two images with sections deleted; you can easily work out the digital repair – but not the analogue.
VS Analogue
So the digital is better, but more importantly – it also means it can be sent across the web with complete and total ease.
The future is Web based, but what about the redundancy of normal TV? Will it just become a persistent “Day Time” schedule mixed with News and Current Affairs? Probably! Or will we use the infrastructure that transmits it as the base for 4, 5 or 6G bandwidths? TV IS destined for the web, it’s been there for years – just no one has organised it yet, can you imagine the accuracy of the viewing figures? I strongly doubt Firefly would have been cancelled that’s for sure. In fact one of the reasons the original Stargate franchise was cancelled was simply that they make the same money in advertising revenue from re-runs as they did from a new show/season. Thus what was the point after 10 seasons in spending the money to make more?
It’s a massive subject that needs to be sorted out, the pitfalls and mountains to climb are obvious – but the moment one person lays the road ahead out clearly – all others will follow. So, stop messing about with strange apps, and let’s get on and get this minefield navigated so we can stop the witch hunting across the Web and get to a place where we can all watch and listen to the media we want, when we want it – in a way that everyone is happy with.
As many of you may know, I don’t own a TV and haven’t done since 1998, all my entertainment, news and 99% of my communications comes through the internet medium. If I stay in a hotel I do switch the TV on, but tend to select a 24hr news channel like the BBC, Sky, Al Jazeera or CNN. Irrespective of how scattered the entertainment on the Web is, there is an abundance of it, it just needs work. Until then, you can watch “The” daily internet culture show at www.rocketboom.com and for the Car Pool interview chat show and “fully charged” the complete inside real information on the future of electric cars - go to www.llewtube.com. And so much more…
Walk Off The Earth
In some ways you could say, if you haven’t seen the amazing video by Canadian group Walk Off The Earth – where have you been? When the band decided to cover “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye, they spent days working out the various parts to play the whole thing on one guitar together. Then after more than 14 hours and around 30 takes they did it… The rest is history! The video went viral and as I type it has had over 100,600,000 hits!! It’s so good that parodies of the video are being made all over the place.
Walk Off The Earth, I don’t know who you are – but well done… Very well done, just brilliant!!
According to wikipedia the band are:
- Gianni Luminati - Guitar, Electric Guitar, Bass, Ukulele, Banjo, Kazoo, Keys, Drums, Vocals, Theremin, Beatbox, Xylophone, Cigar Box
- Ryan Marshall - Guitar, Ukulele, Vocals, Trumpet
- Mike Taylor (Widely known as “Beard Guy” and “Beard Man”) – Keyboards, Vocals
- Joel Cassady – Drums, Cigar box guitar
- Sarah Blackwood - Guitar, Electric Guitar, Kazoo, Ukulele, Banjo, Bass, Vocals, Piano, Glockenspiel, tambourine, Cigar Box, Guitar, xylophone
- Sarah Blackwood has a lot of her own stuff up on You Tube also – frankly, this one talented group of individual with a passion.
Here is the video they did followed by a parody version h/t Gabsatrucker for bringing this to my attention several weeks ago when it first broke.
and the parody
Click the band logo to go the band’s website for more incredible and fun vids
It’s Back…. Rocketboom!
In among the turmoil of the last few days Andrew Baron of Rocketboom sent me various tweets in regard the relaunch of Rocketboom. 
What’s more – there’s a new presenter. We chewed over it and frankly I’m glad it’s back!! I would of course have reported this last week, but unfortunately the way of the world intervened. Over the years some truly outstanding people have worked with and for Andrew, as the evolution of Rocketboom has gone on, the show and its progress is forever changing. This time the selective process for a presenter changed, not a budding presenter, not simply a geek gurl and no, no Vlogger… This time an actress, a quirky and spirited lady with various tv shows already behind her and no doubt a big enough future ahead. As such, I’m personally calling it Rocketboom Gold – and the new lady is?
Keghan Hurst
Previous presenters of RocketBoom and former Know Your Meme were:
Amanda Congdon
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Joanne Colan
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Caitlin Hill
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Mememolly
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Elspeth Rountree for Rocketboom, Tech Crunch and Know Your Meme
And various correspondents including Ella Morton and Annie Tsai.
As with all new starts, the presenter may need a little time to settle in and get her stride, and this time I think they may be onto yet another winning team… I do hope they travel a little more, go to more places to interview people like they used to do. But all-in-all, I’m glad it’s back, it’s like an old friend.
Click on the Rocketboom logo to go to Rocketboom.
The Strangest few days of my life
I write blog posts all the time, most never get published, but on Friday the 13th of April I wrote a post about it being a Friday the 13th, but more over it was riddled with large amounts of humour because among all things – it was my sisters 50th Birthday.
I still have the original post, but with a few highly distracting issues I failed to post it… As it turned out, she had her own issues and was looking after my mother during that weekend as she had to be taken to hospital for shortness of breath.
Unfortunately I wasn’t aware or made aware of this; only 3 ½ weeks ago I saw my mother and she was frankly looking great. She was back to her rhetoric which was great, seriously, she looked marvellous. She was bringing me up to speed on all the news, and telling me of other developments with her. I in turn told her of the events of this last year and why I had been unable to attend or keep up contact, generally answering questions only a mum can ask. While costs of my own travels were graciously covered by others, for much of the past 12 months I have been (like many) anchored to my dwelling and any real time news of this would have added serious stress to her. I said things were starting to improve and I’d be back more often. We also spoke of new friends and old and meeting them etc. She spoke of just how hard my sister had worked holding down a job and seeing she was sorted out and how my Aunt had done so much.
I left planning to return on the 2nd of May and again after the 22nd. But this time was so different, she said “I do love you Sam”. I said “I know. You know I love you too right”.
So it was with an astounding shock that on this Thursday last I received an email that my Mother had died the previous Monday…
I am told that she went quickly and peacefully, a tear fell upon her cheek and she took a blessing.
So…. to a mum who when she switched on – was as razor sharp as they get, a person who knew human nature, who was there whenever I needed to pick up the phone, to simply chat, injured or even helpless. To a consistent (sometimes annoying) stubbornness, who in her later life loved nothing more than creating, helping (often in opposites) those whom needed it. Who with a weighted past longed for a greater peace and the touch of comforting love and to know… to know her kids were alright.
My mum, a mum of three…
Sadie
A true Yorkshire Rose
The Father of Loud
It’s with such complete sadness that I learned today that Jim Marshall has died.
I have been lucky enough to visit Marshall Amps at Bletchley and see this thriving family business at work, amazing products that have changed lives and few ears on the planet have not heard – all backed up with a passion and dedication to making the best they can.
Just walking down the lines of photos of every band you’ve heard of and all those you’ve forgotten is a staggering reminder of just what Jim Marshall and his family achieved.
I don’t have the words, what do you say about someone who had as much influence on modern music as Les Paul did – yet still a drummer at heart. So I repeat here what the Marshall website has posted…
It is with profound sorrow that we announce the passing of our beloved founder and leader for the past 50 years, Jim Marshall. While mourning the Guv’nor though, we also salute a legendary man who led a full and truly remarkable life.
Jim’s ascent into the history books as ‘the Father of Loud’ and the man responsible for ‘the Sound of Rock’ is a true rags-to-riches tale. Cruelly robbed of his youth by tubercular bones, Jim rose to become one of the four forefathers responsible for creating the tools that allowed rock guitar as we know and love it today to be born. The ground breaking quartet also includes the late, great trio of Leo Fender, Les Paul and Seth Lover – together with Jim, they truly are the cornerstones of all things rock.
In addition to the creation of the amps chosen by countless guitar heroes and game changing bands, Jim was also an incredibly humble and generous man who, over the past several decades, has quietly donated many millions of pounds to worthy causes.
While the entire Marshall Amplification family mourns Jim’s passing and will miss him tremendously, we all feel richer for having known him and are happy in the knowledge that he is now in a much better place which has just got a whole lot louder!
Rest in Peace & thank you Jim.
Your memory; the music and joy your amps have brought to countless millions for the past five decades; and that world-famous, omnipresent script logo that proudly bears your name will always live on.
Marshall Factory Tour
with the Son of Loud
Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap
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Nigel Tufnel
The Marshal Stack Guitar
Nigel Tufnel with Marshall Amps
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I guess I should add something…
Right at the beginning of writing this blog back in February 2008, the first post I wrote was “Why I will never own a Marshall”.
It is in this, that from the outset it was fairly obvious I love Marshall Amps.
From the hours if not days spent in the guitar shops of Denmark Street, to coveting expensive things I’d never own because my playing standard simply isn’t high enough – none of it meant anything without the knowledge that the sound of the instrument would one day ring its tone through the speakers of a Marshall amp.
Over the years, there has been many pretenders to the throne, some quite good, others really quite bad – but nothing ever has really challenged a Marshall. I even owned a Roland JC120 once and that never cut it.
Back in the 60’s Jim Marshall never set out to be a big maker of amplifiers, he was asked to make them, and his name grew because of demand and the end product both created a legendary sound and he backed everything up with personal service and guarantee – you know, the way things used to be done!
Today Marshall gives no less than a three-year warranty on their gear and their support is outstanding, even their merchandise is high quality and low-priced unlike everyone elses.
Yes, they are a commercial entity, their equipment isn’t cheap – but then it is still put together for the most part by hand and the inside signed by the guy that built it.
I’m a very proud owner of a Marshall Amp, music isn’t music unless it comes out of a thing called Marshall at some point in its life and that my friends is simply that…
Jim Marshall almost by sheer coincidence changed music forever, and while many great people have had statues created in their image as a mark of respect – Jim’s own products will be his testament in history. Wherever there is a gig, a guitar, bass or keyboard player…. The name Marshall will not be far away.
