Chris George

18th July 2011:

Hello! Hope all is good, its been another crazy month thats for sure...

First up, we welcomed the newest addition to the George family on the 23rd June, Jakey Christopher George came into the world weighing 7 lbs 14 oz. Mrs G didn't have quite as good labour this time round but their both doing great, he's settled in brilliantly, but let's face it, with a big sister who's nearly 6 and a big brother who's 15 months, he doesn't really have a choice! His name by the way, actually comes from Jake E Lee, the guitarist who played with Ozzy. His birth name was Jakey Lou Williams, and it kind of stuck!

So, onto other things. As always, lots going on with Marshall, we're booking some shows up for later in the year so we'll be hitting various parts of the UK, and of course, the whole band will be there too. There's also a lot of testing with R&D going on this week too for some future products.

There's also some big plans afoot for next year, which will be the Marshall 50th anniversary, it's going to be called '50 Years Of Loud' which is pretty fitting I think. There's obviously going to be some cool new product, but also some other very cool collaborations and events going on. It's gonna be killer!!

Some of you may have seen my column in Guitar Buyer magazine by now, hope it looks/reads ok, haven't actually got round to seeing it myself yet. I've done the second column already, it'll be on overdrive/distortion pedals, and there's some video to go along with the digital edition again. Also, thanks to some of my dear Twitter followers for shouting out their favourite overdrive pedals earlier in the month, always interesting to hear what's favourite!

About a month ago I got put in touch with a girl singer who's kind of well known through the whole reality tv singing contest thing. She wants to record a rock album and tour so we hooked up in London for a few hours to talk music. I wasn't sure how much I wanted to commit, but was happy to put some demos together and send them over to try and find a direction initially. She's since put a band together, so I won't be in the lineup but will remain behind the scenes in terms of writing if things pan out, and that definitely works better for me... Who is it? Now that would be telling....

So another thing I've got going on at the minute is some possible avenues to explore in the west end. I actually got put forward for the new Rock Of Ages musical that's coming to London in September. I was told that the band are on stage for the whole show, and that its a bunch of covers by Journey, Foreigner, Poison etc and would I be interested (hell yeah, I thought, my ideal musical!). After the usual waiting and waiting, the production team decided to bring their own guy from one of the other shows abroad. There is still the option of being dep for this guy though, so all is not lost. I also went down to see my friend who plays bass in Mamma Mia, Jaz Lochrie, and sat in the pit with the band for the show. It was cool, all great players, and incredibly structured. I've been sent the tracks to learn so there might be the odd show with that one too at some point. I've always fancied giving a show a go, something completely different from what I'm used to, not only in terms of style, but also how everything is so regimented, and has to be perfect. I love that sort of pressure!!!! So who knows, it'll be a nice thing to dip in and out of if it comes off.

This weekend, CGB are heading to St Tropez. Farid booked us a nice gig down there which is actually a private show for a pretty wealthy dudes birthday/garden party. It's all in the grounds of his rather large mansion, he has 2 stages set up and does this every year with various types of live entertainment. So, I'll keep you all up to date on Twitter how it goes, only bugger is I'll miss High Voltage festival in London.

Lastly, I am reading all your messages on the feedback page here. I'll try and get back in touch as soon as I can with you all.

Until next month....

CG

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June 2011:

Well well well! It certainly has been a while since this site had an update, in fact I lost the complete site so had to start over again. I guess it needed it so here we are. I have to say at this point that if you want to know what I'm doing up to the minute then follow me on Twitter (@chrisgeorgeband) or keep an eye on the Twitter feed here on the home page.

So it's been about a year or so since the site got a proper update I guess, and what a year it was. 2010 was an incredible emotional rollercoaster, my wife and I welcomed our first son, Alfie, into the world on the 28th April 2010 (yep, he's over a year old already) a little brother for our daughter Elli (who will turn 6 this year!), he is awesome and is such a character too. About the same time, my Dad was diagnosed with cancer, although the outlook was good, he was literally having his treatment as our son was born so it was tough. The year would get much tougher as my Dad, my hero, my inspiration and strength, lost his fight in August and I had to say goodbye to him for the last time on the 8th August '10. It was a huge loss for us all, and I still can't believe it actually happened. We all pulled together to look after my Mum whilst all dealing with it ourselves. My career was a team effort between me and Dad, he enjoyed it just as much as I did, and knew all the people I had met along the way too. From taking me to my first guitar lesson when I was 7, to my first jam night when I was 12 and onto driving me to my first gigs with various bands when I was too young to drive. He was proud of everything I had achieved, he watched me play to crowds consisting of 11 people, to 11,000 people and everything in between. Now, I can write about it, or talk about it, it''s slightly easier, but the loss is still there, and if you've ever lost someone you really love, you'll know what I'm talking about....

So, onto more happy things. What else happened last year? Well, the Marshall thing has taken up a LOT of my time, so thats why I havent been playing live quite so much. I went out to Chicago and New York for them last year when they changed distribution for the launch of 'Marshall USA'. It's a cool setup, and there's some very cool people come back to the Marshall fold for it too. CGB also when on a brief UK stint in October last year for some Roadshows with the PMT stores, twas very cool. I've also been working hard with the Marshall R&D team on lots of cool new product, some which has seen the light of day such as the AFD100 and YJM100, and some which hasn't, and I cant say anything about until each thing launches (that's the rules! Although off the record, I would SO love to tell you all!!!!). Also, the online demos with Marshall are still going, I'm thinking about a web series with them at the minute which will take things a step further if it goes ahead, and also you may have seen the exclusive YJM demo I did for Guitarsit magazine last month which was on the cover CD.

We spent Xmas in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee, and got snowed in like crazy, then headed down to New Orleans for New Year and my 30th birthday, it was one hell of a trip, the kids were great, and we drove over 1000 miles. We saw in the new year/birthday on Bourbon Street watching an amazing Dixieland jazz band, and of all people to be sat near, Kenneth Clarke, the MP.... We flew home and 2 days later I went back across the atlantic for NAMM.

NAMM in California was awesome in January (loads of videos of me showing off the YJM were to be found online straight after) but seems like ages ago already. We (CGB) played an awesome Frankfurt Musik Messe this year in April, probably the best yet. We had a few days rehearsal (I know, a novelty!) before at Marshall HQ and put on a little shindig for all the staff there who bust their balls making the amps, they loved it. We played 3 shows per day at Musikmesse, and had Bernie Marsden get up with us again, as did Doug Aldrich like he did last year, so it was a bit of a Whitesnake past to present going on, we closed the show with the song 'Stratus', it must be on Youtube but I haven't looked....

I went to Lisbon a few weeks ago for the annual Portuguese Marshall Convention, and very nice it was too. The setting was a farmhouse/function place with it's own vineyard, so we had a little wine tasting first, then all my mistakes went unnoticed ha ha!

I'm starting a regular column in Guitar Buyer magazine next month, it's going to be called 'The Guitar Buyers Guide To....' and each month will be a different subject chosen by moi. On each subject, I'll be looking at my 5 favourites, a bit of history, how it works in use and giving some technique tips too. The digital version will have a video to go with the latter, and the first month is on the Wah pedal! My favourite...

Right, thats me done for a while, this is waaaay more than 140 characters, I'll try and put one of these up each month! Again, I'm sorry for the lack of updates for the site, but we're back in business now.

Later!

CG