mostly david ephgrave

A ten-year-old child has no right to look this passionate with a guitar.  What makes it worse is that ten-year-old is me . What makes it worse still, is I’m not even playing the thing; I’m just holding it. My left hand isn’t fingering a chord or knocking out a solo, it’s resting on top of the strings. To top the situation off, I’m wearing my school uniform, clutching a guitar bought in Argos. There’s nothing rock ‘n’ roll about this photograph; it’s just a junior school kid posing with his dad’s acoustic in the dining room, with a 12-inch copy of Chesney Hawkes’ The One and Only visible in the background. If anything, it’s anti-cool.    To be fair to myself, I played a little bit of guitar back then. The only problem was I didn’t know how to tune it. I’d accidentally stumbled across a slide tuning where the open strings would sound as a major chord, and would move a barred finger up and down the fretboard as I sang my own primitiv...

Is this the dullest album cover of all time? I may be consumed with anti-Eighties bias. The sleeve for the Beatles’ White Album has a lot less going on. I’d argue, however, that a minimalistic cover with just the artist’s name embossed on it and a limited-edition serial number is preferential to a photo of a man in a cagoule, particularly if they’re also sporting a mullet. I should clarify that I’m a fan of George Harrison. I’m also fond of all-weather wear. I just don’t think the two should have mixed in this context. George may have been an avid gardener, but when he came indoors to pose for the photographer he could have at least changed his outfit. The record itself is a feat for false advertising. Every song, bar one, was released between 1979-1989, which is a very narrow margin. A compilation that claims to contain Harrison’s finest work yet misses off My Sweet Lord and All Things Must Pass is very suspicious. I’ve never see...