GIMME SHELTER

Many British guitar heroes of the 60s started out on budget archtops, and models associated with the early careers of stars retain nostalgia-value today. But what if you thought you had found Keef's actual guitar?

- Jamie Dickson

Ever since the fresh-faced newcomers of the 60s Beat groups grew up into megastars, there’s been intense retrospective interest in the gear used in the early days of bands such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Numerous reference books have been written on the subject, aiming to provide a definitive account of what guitars were used for seminal gigs. One problem is that no one was taking notes at the time – and very few photographs, either. Another problem is that the beginner’s guitars that legends such as Keith Richards started out on in the 60s were often poorly documented budget instruments built in Europe, about which relatively little is known even to this day.

A classic example is the Gallotone Valencia archtop Keef used for The Stones’ first official gig on 12 July 1962 at London’s Marquee Club. During that performance, Keef used his Gallotone, then fitted with a floating pickup at the neck, ensuring it a small but important role in music history. Unsurprisingly, there’s a growing market for Gallotone Valencias, just as there is for guitars such as the Futurama electric once used by George Harrison during The Beatles’ early gigging career in Hamburg.