KevBower

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' ..........