Monday 12 January 2009

Ask Tom #9



Dear Tom, Why are your two Takamines named Derek and Clive (on your setlists)?

Well, I knew one day this would come up. It was a stupid way to mark the difference in guitars for my guitar technician ("roadie" we would have called them in the 70s). Derek was a standard Dreadnought shape, and thus began with a D. Clive was a cutaway shape, and so began with a C. Derek and Clive are alter egos of Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore. Simple.

Now, in my head this all makes sense - so when I shouted at my tech: "Clive's got too sweaty, I need you to put a smooth and dry Derek into my hands NOW"... it was a simple request for a guitar change.

Got it?

P.S This is a picture of me with my Guild, which is a Jumbo Guitar, and begins with a J. Naturally, we call this guitar, THE GUILD.
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9 comments:

  1. Kaper12 January 2009 at 12:39

    would you not like us to help you rename it? We could.

    Indeed, maybe a way of helping struggling singer songwriters would be if we fans sponsored your guitars, amps and other bits of techy equipment I don't know the names of. As well as sending money to ensure they are well cared for, we could write them letters and knit them scarves and all sorts. What do you reckon?

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  2. Kirsten Mavric12 January 2009 at 12:59

    I've just searched in my archive for that picture, 6th of December 04. Good God, I was a shocking photographer back then.

    Nice guitar though.

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  3. Lucy12 January 2009 at 16:31

    You are crazy.
    No offense : crazy people are often genius...

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  4. Drew Stephenson12 January 2009 at 17:39

    Makes perfect sense to me, i have a "robot" guitar, two epiphones (called bert ('cause it's big) and ernie ('cause it has an elliptical sound hole) and an electric guitar, called "the electric".
    Perfectly logical

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  5. Anonymous12 January 2009 at 17:41

    Are guitars the only things you give a name? For gods sake I hope it is..but we females don't understand that name-giving-thing anyway;)

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  6. frenchani12 January 2009 at 18:27

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. frenchani12 January 2009 at 19:42

    So which one is your favourite?

    I've kept the setlist from Edinburgh Sunday 4th November 2007( Does it sound fetishistic?) and Derek, only, got exclamation marks: 4 ! for "Got A Suitcase Got Regrets" and 5 ! for "Silent Boulevard".
    Methinks you like Derek best. Just saying, I don't want to make Clive and Guild jealous or anything.


    All guitars are equal...

    PS: Sorry for making a mess on your blog.

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  8. Anonymous12 January 2009 at 22:11

    Thanks Tom, probably the fastest answer to any question in the history of music :-)

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  9. Tania K16 January 2022 at 19:42

    Great readding this

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