Valhalla/Streetlight/Cathy Credulous and the Unbelievers

Quick recap Part One ended with me playing a Kay guitar through a Kay amp and listening to Black Sabbath..........

From my Saturday job in Colney Road Co-op butchers (“Ron” was reputed to make the best handmade sausages in Dartford 😊, (…..it was actually me !)), I finally managed to save up enough money to buy a half decent guitar: a Hondo II Les Paul copy. Then a stroke of luck, an advert in the local paper for a Marshall Amp, I went my dad to have a look and it was a JMP 50W Head with a 2 x 12 cabinet. The woman said she was selling it for her son who is away for a few days. She has no idea what they are worth and asks for £20 for both. As you can imagine they were in Dad’s van quicker than you could say “don’t leave a phone number so he can’t find us when he gets home !”. (As an afternote I later sold this entire rig for £35 to a friend…..the amp goes for £6.5k nowdays…..).

So, the Hondo and the Marshall became the route into the world of live music, Valhalla the band with Andy, Tony, Merv as regulars, Squid, Russ, and Julian in on 2nd guitar/bass at various times and for different gigs. Great memories of my guitar lead coming out during a solo, of bombing and walking off stage to total silence, (then pissing ourselves laughing), of Julia running to kiss me before we went on at the YMCA and of the unbelievable high, so very high, coming off stage when we’d played well. Could throw in Mick Jagger’s mum coming to Andy’s house to complain about the noise when we were practising, but you wouldn’t believe me. Some not so great ones: the electric shock from an incorrectly wired AC30 that made my arm shake for an hour so that I could hardly play for a gig, of asking people to leave the band, of the paedo (not libel he went to prison for it) teacher trying to get us drunk and cop a quick feel after an evening rehearsal and of the end of dreams when Andy (the drummer) moved to Cornwall. So, you ask, what did we sound like? Find out here Valhalla. We staggered on as Streetlight with Trig on drums but the magic had gone…. Do all bands have what if stories? Ours, we were booked to play support to Generation X at Dartford YMCA, but the gig was banned by the local council during the “Punk Panic”. The Attractions (minus Elvis Costello) came to listen to us rehearse (also looking for support acts), we played absolutely shit that evening for some reason, and they were blunt in telling us.

Guitarist’s listened to in this period, Pete Townsend (how to make a lot of noise in a four piece), Nils Lofgren and Wilko Johnson (see Pete Townsend). I was at Charlton in ’76 when The Who played at the time the loudest ever gig. It was measured at 126 decibels 100ft from the speakers. How loud was that? I can only say that it was not a heard sound it was felt inside your head.

Cathy Credulous and the Unbelievers was the next venture. Cathy, Kev, and me making an unholy racket in Totley-Thornbridge College Student’s Union to complaints from the staff. “The music’s ok but when she starts singing, I want to cut my own throat”. A short-lived project. Then engagement and marriage and like a lot of blokes do to raise some money I sold all my gear ☹.

Fast forward, finances improved, a Rally GL300 Les Paul was my next important electric guitar. For my 60th we had a “Valhalla” reunion which was a great laugh and got me thinking a bit more about music again. However the GL300, was still was not producing the sound I was after, like so many before me I’d been fooled by the pictures of my favourite bands playing Les Pauls (“cool”) when what they were recording with were Telecasters (“uncool”). Having finally sussed this I got into guitar building by assembling a couple of Tele “Partcasters” from kits. The one I have kept now has only the Ash body left from the original kit. As an aside for anyone that is after decent pick-ups for a Tele at a good price, after hearing about them on the Telecaster Forum https://www.tdpri.com/I got a set of Bill and Becky Wilde’s Keystone pick ups sent over from the States https://www.wildepickups.com/products/keystone-telewhich are fabulous. In terms of amps, I had forgiven VOX by now and having tried a couple of modelling amps to use at home (and hopefully with the band again) I settled on a VOX Valvetronix VT40+ which sounds great and can be very very loud when required 😊. Although the VOX is a modelling amp it is a good platform and I have started to use it with pedals to get some really cool sounds out of it. My own playing as become a bit “Gilmourist” as I’ve gone from think about a band to just noodling to backing tracks.

Forty years of my day-job as a mass spectrometrist, ended in 2023 with retirement from Sheffield Hallam Uni. After a very busy career retirement was quickly exceedingly boring and having seen that “Stu’s Guitars” was for sale I bought it. IMAG Music I choose for my small music shop to celebrate my previous career in imaging technologies and to look forward. A confirmed “Tele” man who now owns three, my “go-to” guitar is a black 2022 Player that I’ve upgraded with a new bridge etc to get it how I like, and which plays superb. At various times I’ve mentioned going to a guitar shop and trying guitars before you buy one and the Player Tele is a classic example of this, it is a perfect fit for me and better than guitars worth 4x as much that I’ve played. Support your local Music Shops, it’s in your interest!