General News

New guitars.


It must appear as though I buy a new guitar every week...Well I can't argue with that!










What we have this month are THREE great guitars to tell you about. The first one being an instrument that has been in the making for some time now. It is a stunning new guitar made by Steve Toon. It is basically an instrument that contains the electrics from my Line 6 Variax guitar, the one I have been using for a while to perform 'The Dodo's Dream'.

It made its first live outing at The Playhouse in Alnwick on the 23rd of April and then at Cheltenham on the 25th. I'm delighted to report that this is an OUTSTANDING guitar made by one of THE great makers here in the UK. We have long term plans for this guitar so watch this space, but in the meantime, do give his website a visit www.toonguitars.co.uk

Now on to the second guitar. This is a stunning custom shop Martin kindly loaned to me by those lovely folk at Guitar Junction down in Worthing, West Sussex. www.guitarjunction.com The guitar features a three piece back of choice Mahogany and Rosewood with Mahogany sides. The front is made from the best Bear Claw Spruce. The guitar has a larger than normal herringbone bound soundhole to match the front inlay. The bridge and fingerboard are of Ebony and the headstock sports a beautiful tortoiseshell pattern, all set off with gold plated machine heads with Ebony buttons. A truly stunning lookingand sounding guitar, perfect for fingerpicking. This guitar comes with a £3000 plus price tag but is worth every penny bearing in mind that there are only five in existence right now. I plan to do some recording with this guitar in the very near future. Do visit the site if you can for a view of this beast along with MANY other great guitars for sale including quite a few from my collection!

The final guitar is a Tacoma Thunderhawk baritone guitar. This is a HUGE guitar with a HUGE sound to match. I have only just acquired this guitar but hope that it will inspire a few more new things. You won't believe the size of the case, folk will think I'm bringing a cello to the gig! These guitars are quite hard to come by these days due to the importers focusing on alternate brands and sort of letting the Tacoma range 'wither on the vine.' I had a standard model a while back and has great fun with it before passing it on!





Hofner Book.

You may remember a while back me mentioning the Hofner Book and the chance that it may be back in print again. Well, it's still looking positive and I hope to have more news in a couple of months so watch this space!

Another view of my new Toon guitar.

New GG book.

Once I have finished typing this months newsletter I need to check out the final drafts on my new book with Lathkill Publications entitled Vintage Giltrap which really does what it says on the tin, it is vintage material from way back, pieces like 'Heartsong' have been given a 21st century makeover. We hope to get the book out before the end of the summer!

The Tracy Sollis concerts.

My two nights at the wonderful location of the Fleece in Bretforton went really well with a packed house (or more to the point barn) both nights with over £2200 raised for the charity. We shall be doing the same next year and the dates are already booked. A special thanks to Nigel and Jenny at the Fleece for hosting the event and looking after us SO well. Read Sue Sollis' press release below or visit their website www.tracysollistrust.org.

PRESS RELEASE:

The Tracy Sollis Leukaemia Trust
(registered charity number 1069269)

SENDER :Sue Sollis


Charity Event Hailed Overwhelming Success

A Charity Concert held on Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th April has raised £2,229.00 for The Tracy Sollis Leukaemia Trust. The Trust provides hospital equipment, considers individual grants for those suffering financial hardship, as a result of their illness, and funds advanced nurse training.

The two day event held at The Fleece Inn, Bretforton, featured Patron of The Trust, guitar virtuoso, Gordon Giltrap.

Gordon who has recently released an album together with Rick Wakeman, performed to an almost virtual sell out audience.

Founder of The trust Sue Sollis said "I am absolutely thrilled at the success. I am so grateful to Gordon for his long term commitment to The Trust and Jenny and Nigel for providing such a wonderful venue.

Gordon performs at no expense whatsoever to the charity. He first met Tracy way back in 1993 when an urgent search was on to find a suitable bone marrow  donor.

A return concert is already booked to take place on Saturday 24th April and Sunday 25th April next year.

END

Useful Contact Numbers

Jenny and Nigel – The Fleece Inn (01386) 831173
Sue Sollis (01386) 421424

Brush and Stone PR.

At the risk of repeating myself...Over the next few weeks I hope to see some of the PR kick for this very special album, unfortunately our Rick is too busy to get on board with the promotion so it's down to yours truly...grin.

Acoustic Magazine.

It's great to still be on board as a contributor to this fine monthly mag. The May issue features my early arrangement of 'G & T Blues'.

YouTube.

I have for sometime be meaning to mention some of the outstanding players that have covered my pieces on YOUTUBE. I can remember thinking YEARS ago how wonderful it would be for me if anyone would feel moved enough to want to play some of my pieces, and all these years on it has finally happened and you know it's more than just an ego massage for me to know that folk think these tunes of mine worthy of playing. It is almost a humbling feeling of realising all these years on in some small way I have somehow 'arrived' if that makes sense. I can still just about remember the days weeks and months I would spend trying to figure out how to play the music of MY heroes, people like Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, and then finding out that their fingering was completely different to the way I had learned it. In so doing, I did start to develop my own thing and somehow the struggle with continuously slowing down the record to try and nail what they were doing helped in some way to develop my ear, so all was not lost. It was only the advent of that first recording contract that spurred me on to write my own things.

Bearing all this in mind, you can I'm sure, understand the great joy I feel when I hear other fine players tackling these old tunes of mine and in many cases making them their own. I should like to give the following people a heartfelt THANKYOU for their postings on YOUTUBE. If I have forgotten anyone please forgive me.

RAY MYTTON……............THE LORD'S SEAT...(Absolutely sublime playing here)
KEV......................................THE LORD'S SEAT
WILBER SEARS……...........IVE'S HORIZON… (A particularly outstanding and original version)
EWAN MERRETT….............THE DODO'S DREAM...(Great playing from this fine young guitarist)
GUITAR GR..........................FROM THE FOUR WIND/THE KERRY DANCERS… (Perfectly played)
KEV………………...................MELANCHOLY LULLABY…(Very sensitive version)
BEN WALKER….................NURSERY CHIMES…(Perfect)
BRIAN BIRCH…................ON CAMBER SANDS… (Well done sir)
TRISTAN SEUME……..........VARIOUS...(The man's a genius)
KRAZY KURT……...............WHO KNOWS WHERE TOMORROW GOES...(Not an easy piece for anyone to play)
KENNY MCKENNA..............ISABELLA'S WEDDING...(Nice one dude)
HELEEN…………..................FOUR WINDS...(Nice to see someone abroad playing one of my tunes)
FURTHERON MUSIC.........ON CAMBER SANDS…(Good one sir)
MATTY…………...................HEARTSONG…(Well done guv)
BEN STAGGS….................HEARTSONG…(Great energy from Ben here methinks)
JOHN LENNON…................FOUR WINDS.
NOODLE GUITAR.............THE DODO'S DREAM.
TIME FOR A TWANG.........A CHRISTMAS CAROL/THE LORD'S SEAT.
CHRIS MOSES……............FROM THE FOUR WINDS.
GANGLY 1………............... ISABELLA'S WEDDING…(A beautiful version)

By the time you read this I shall be in Portugal. Fingers crossed it goes well as I rarely play abroad and sincerely hope I'm well received!

Be VERY well all.

Gordon.