KevBower

This was the day that he (Zorrow) acquired it. It was 2014 in Frankfurt;

Folks watching this will possibly know that the black one is #0204 which I bought new in 1979. It's mad to think that this was the guitar Andy stood looking up at during the first 1980's incarnation of Hell when he was a just a kid. He was a super-fan and it was the band's frontman (Dave Halliday) who first taught Andy to play guitar. It's delightful that after its long history, it's finally in Andy's hands where it will remain forever. I can't possibly think of a better custodian; In other news - Paddy Watters is one of the nicest guys I ever met and it's great to see him in this role. He was the guitar tech for Hell also, and we had some great times together. He's a damn fine player, too. When the band folded and I sold up - Paddy bought my Kemper. And finally - a fun fact. It's pretty well-known that I'm a (now-retired) carpenter. When Andy first started working with Judas Priest, he called me and asked for some woodworking-related help. The rack case seen in the video was originally built for a pair of 5150's and Andy's Gower-hotrodded Marshalls were too tall to fit. So I split the heads in half vertically, took a slice out, and spliced the two halves back together. If you look at them - you'll see that they're quite a chunk shorter than regular JCM800's. I defy anyone to spot the joins ........ ☺️ Best wishes to everyone !!

One of my rare claims to fame is that I have history with the original which was still all-black at the time. It was 1975 so I'd only be 16 years old. In my town, there was an old 1920's dance hall which had been converted into a swanky nightclub which was always stone-dead empty on a Thursday night, so the club owner decided to experiment with a 'Rock Night' featuring a live band. One of these bands was UFO, unknown to practically everyone in the place at the time, but just having released their seminal 'Force It' record. MS was playing a black Gibson V which was subsequently painted by his roadie in the famous two-tone scheme using masking tape and a white rattlecan. Andy (Sneap) and myself talked to MS about this over several backstage beers we shared with hin at a festival we played (Leyendas Del Rock in Alicante, Spain) and he confirmed that it was the same guitar. He told us that he still had it, that he'd never part with it, and that it would never go back out on the road because it was too special and too precious a part of his history to risk being damaged. He also said that it was still the best-sounding V he'd ever played. He also referred to his then-current Dean V's as 'throwaways' ..........