Whitesnake hero Bernie reflects on the trial-and-error lessons of his early years of gigging
When I was in my teens and spent my days dreaming of playing the guitar for a living and being a pro musician, the thought of being out on the road was one of the most exciting prospects.
As an amateur player, and a little bit later as a semi-pro, I was doing gigs that were around 20 miles away from the house where I grew up in the rural town of Buckingham. Being 15 and getting picked up from my secondary school gate by the local beat group for a Friday night show in Oxford or Leighton Buzzard seemed to be the ultimate high. I enjoyed the fuss, being in a band was a big deal to me, but travelling to other towns (towns, not cities I stress) at that stage was exciting enough. As the youngest, I was pretty much given the ‘centre’ seat in a Ford Thames or Commer van. This seat was the engine cover, and a small cushion would be placed on it for me to sit on. I didn’t mind it so much in the winter time. If the ‘ageing’ band (whose members were all about 20-25 years old) became a little more successful, the Commer van might be upgraded to a Commer Minibus with windows. This was sometimes frowned upon as the windows necessitated taking the gear out of the bus after each gig, in case some fiendish thief took everything.
This story is from the November 2017 edition of Guitarist.
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This story is from the November 2017 edition of Guitarist.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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