PimpMyArea.com
History
I've been a semi-pro guitar player on the Dublin/ Irish music scene for the last 18 years. In that time, I've been fortunate to play with some wonderful (and some, not so wonderful....but I ain't sayin' which is which, heh heh!!) artists/ musicians, such as: Rob Strong , Donal Kirk , Pat O'Farrell & The Business (Yeah, they've finally got a web-site!!), The Commitments , Chiara Browne , Taboo , Georgie Fame and Zen, to name but a few.
Until recently, I was playing guitar with the wedding/ covers band "Livin' Proof" , but decided to quit the band in January 2009. I had some really good times during my five year tenure with the band, and I wish them all the best in their future endeavours ('tho, if I ever have to play an Elvis or Neil Diamond song again ....I think I'll seriously go "postal"!!!).
My current main project is the covers band
Taboo . The band is a 2 piece, featuring myself on guitar and my good friend (and super singer), Derek Jordan. Our MySpace page is currently a "work in progress", but we should have it tarted up and have a few tunes on it in the next couple of weeks.
Occasionally, I get the call to play with the Donal Kirk Band , which is a great gig ('tough it's a bit scary, given the fact that the normal axe-player in the band is either Jimmy Smith or Anto Drennan, but hey, ....what's life without it's little challenges !!!?? Also, of late I've been doing a good few gigs with the "Monday Club" in McPhail's in Drogheda. This too is a very enjoyable gig as we get a chance to play songs that we actually like! This band features dave McCune (drums), Marc Oliver (vox), Darren Rooney (bass) and Baz (ridiculously good!) Leahy on guitar.
Guitars, equipment, toys and gadgets
I've gone through all manner of guitars, amps and gear over the years. My current setup is as follows:
Danvel/Nelson "SuperStrat" (Click on the link to see a pic): Derek Nelson put this together for me circa 1999. It features a set of Steve Lukather signature EMG's and a Floyd Rose trem. This is an extremely versatile axe, thus I use it a lot when doing covers gigs.
Mesa Boogie Nomad 45 Amps - These are seriously "punchy" machines-.... They blow most 100W valve amps outta the water in terms of onstage volume!!
TC Electronic- "G System" - I bought this in July 2006, just before I moved house ...I've only gotten a chance to take it out of it's box and start learnin' how to use it recently !! It's a great piece of kit, but I'd say it'll be a while yet before I take it out gigging.
As regards effects 'n stuff, you can see a pic of my current pedal board in the slideshow below. It's a bit "rustic", to say the least, but it does the job for me! The lads in "Livin' Proof" used to affectionately refer to it as the "train-set". They were always on to me about getting one of those Boss "GT" thingies, but anytime I've used one of 'em, I've felt that my lead/ overdrive sound sounded like an extremely irritated wasp in a very small jam jar!! I'm not really mad into effects, so this setup works fine for me !
I've also got a shit-load of guitars at home, including a '91 Strat Plus Deluxe, Tokai "Tele", Fenix "Custom-Shop Tele", Yamaha Electro-Classical, Martin electro-acoustic, an Aria "Les Paul" type and 2 Chinese "knock-off" Les Pauls that my wife brought back to me from China the last time she was home. Considering that the latter pair of axes only cost €250 each, one of 'em is actually a really nice guitar to play and with a good set of pick-ups (whenever I can afford to buy 'em!!), it would be a really good guitar.
Thrills & disappointments ...
I guess, without question the biggest highlight of my musical life was opening for Deep Purple at the Gothenburg "All Star Festival" in 1994. This event was tinged with a little bit of disappointment tho', cos Richie Blackmore had just quit the band and Steve Morse had yet to join. In the interim, DP had to slum it with some guy called Joe Satriani !!!Nah, I jest ... Joe was great. Actually, it was interesting to see Purple doing "Satch Boogie". After the show, myself and my (drummer) mate, Robbie , got to sit and have a few beers with Roger Glover and Mick Box , Lee Kerslake and Trevor Bolder from Uriah Heep .... 3 very down to earth guys. 'Twas a rare pleasure !!
As regards disappointments, sometimes it's not a great idea to meet your heroes. Let's just say I've "still got the blues" after meeting one of 'em and a "handful of blues" after meeting another !! ... I'll say no more !!
So, apart from music ....
This is the sad part, aside from plank spankin' (that's a euphemism for "guitar playin', for the unititiated!!), I'm actually a bit of a geek !! I'm currently studying I.T. with the NUI/IPA. I love all things I.T. related ... particularly if they don't work and need fixin' !!
I also appreciate good comedy: Python, Bill Hicks (man, that guy was so ahead of his time !!). To me, real comedy is just subtle way of awakening peoples social consciousness. Hicks was good at that, but was sadly taken away too soon !!
Vids
I hope to be changing and updating this section regularly, so keep an eye out for new stuff !
Here's me and my son, Conor playing at the recent christening of my grand-nephew, Ruben ....it was quite a day, Ireland also took the Six Nations and some Irish guy knocked 40 shades of shit outta some Mexican guy. Anyways, here's Conor and me doin' "Whiskey in the Jar":-