 The first thing that made me want to play music was seeing Jimi Hendrix really smash his guitar, set fire to it and all that. When he died there was an item on the news and I watched it with awe in my eyes and I said to my father, any chance I can have a guitar dad? And he said, okay, right, be just like your action man, you'll play with it once and put it down. I said no, no, no, I think this is something I really want to do. And the fool, he bought me a guitar so it's his fault really. I was quite lucky, I had two elder brothers that were constantly playing rock music in front of me when I was really young. It kind of inspired me to try and work out what they were doing. And I was extremely lucky that my parents also started me off on the piano but I soon discovered I wanted to be a guitar player so I said, come have a guitar, same as you. And they bought me acoustic guitar and I just sit on the dining room table trying to work out what these other guys were playing which was quite difficult at the time but I nearly got it. If I wasn't a musician I would have carried on doing what I do for the other side of my life which is studio qualified as a sound engineer, to work with all sorts of people which was really good fun. I think I'd still do that. We've both been using the Blackstar S100B. They're very, very good, very solid. Have all the kind of things that are good on the road amplifier, working amplifier needs which is they're very, very solidly built and they sound loud. Lots of rich bottom end and there's lots of tonal variation. It's changed the way I use an amplifier on stage now. I wouldn't generally have used a four-channel amp but this thing is so brilliant. It gives you so many options. I'm starting to use it more and more. And it has some fantastic features on it. The American versus British sound, the ISF and that feature alone is remarkably useful. In certain rooms they can sound very different and that ability to just be able to tweak that so it sits in just the right place is fantastic. The other really useful thing is the power control where you can set your amp up exactly as you want it and then use this power button to vary for the size of the venue. You know, the reamers whack it right up and into the smaller clubs, you tone it down a bit but it doesn't change the overall colour of the sound which I find absolutely brilliant. I'm a bit of a fan, I have to say. It does everything that you expected to do a bit more. I kind of expected to be disappointed by it because I've been disappointed by other amplifiers before. So many kind of promise to be great and then don't. When I first plugged in, I thought, oh look at that, there it is. The thing about the Blackstar amp is it allows me complete tone or freedom across the spectrum from ultra clean to very dirty and everything in between. It responds beautifully to the guitar. The guitar still controls most of what I do so where I'm on the volume pot and how that communicates with the amplifiers is very important. Some amplifiers don't give you that. It's almost like they're playing you but with the Blackstar what I find is that wherever I'm on the volume spectrum of my guitar, the amp will always respond accordingly. If I turn it down it will clean up without losing any character. If I turn it up it's a really fierce, nasty, in-your-face overdrive, very full. It doesn't lose anything either when you turn it up really loud. Everything tonally moves up as it should like that. And back again. What I find great with the Blackstars is, you know, the difference between a Gibson and a Stradocaster is it's a vast difference in tonal characteristics. And you stick a Telecaster in the middle of that. I can pick up any of those three and all three will sound great through the amp. A bit like Luke, all they've changed now. I'm a pot player. I don't use pedals. I don't even have a bicycle so I just don't use them. So it's very important, as Luke said, to how the amp responds to where your volume pot is. It absolutely nails it every time. And the extra little feature is fantastic. For the first time ever I've got a recording out on an amplifier that's usable. Great safety for a front house guy and great for recording. You've got another option in case there are any problems with the mic. What's not to like? There's one kind of little pearl of wisdom that you've picked up in all the years doing it. The one that's probably served us the best is be absolutely true to yourself.