Just worked something out

[Malc]

When I was a lad, about 18 to 20, I played in the local folk clubs in Irvine and surrounding area. I was famous as the idiot who painted "Malc" in huge white letters on his guitar case, causing much "Hello Malc!!" and "Hey Malky!!" from diverse idiots and ne-er do-wells as I hopped on and off buses to gigs.

There was another keen folkie at that time, a girl with sandy hair, quite attractive and buxom, who would try and get gigs wherever she could, including playing her guitar in restaurants, walking around the diners. She had a good finger-picking style, whereas I was a strummer, so she was REAL folk and I was a fraud.

We sometimes shared the bill as floor singers, but more often played clubs at different times, and we had a nodding acquaintance. I often thought we might get a band up together, but it didn't even come close.

I occasionally wondered what happened to her, did she carry on playing, writing, get married, have kids, etc ? I just figured out she did all that stuff, she is Eddi Reader.

[Sandy Buttcheeks]

Nice one, Malc. Not a great fan of her stuff, but I can't deny she has a great voice. Can't help but thinking what might have been if you had only kept the guitar case plain...   

[Malc]

The thing is, it wasn't a black case, it was originally a horrible pale turquoise-y, cheapo stiffened acoustic case, with top sunken in about a half inch.
I poured a huge tin of matt black Dulux on it, let the paint find its own way to the edges and left it to set. It increased the weight of the bloody thing by half a stone, then I hand-painted MALC on it in huge, white letters.
The guitar inside was an EKO Ranger with a pickup mounted across the hole - lovely thing, it was like driving a BMW. I sold it when I was broke, as I did my VOX AC30 combo, a classic that would sell for thousands today.
I remember someone offering me his American-made Fender Strat at that time for thirty quid.  That was about a week's wages! Today it would also be worth thousands.

[Sandy Buttcheeks]

The thing is, it wasn't a black case, it was originally a horrible pale turquoise-y, cheapo stiffened acoustic case, with top sunken in about a half inch.
I poured a huge tin of matt black Dulux on it, let the paint find its own way to the edges and left it to set. It increased the weight of the bloody thing by half a stone, then I hand-painted MALC on it in huge, white letters.
The guitar inside was an EKO Ranger with a pickup mounted across the hole - lovely thing, it was like driving a BMW. I sold it when I was broke, as I did my VOX AC30 combo, a classic that would sell for thousands today.
I remember someone offering me his American-made Fender Strat at that time for thirty quid.  That was about a week's wages! Today it would also be worth thousands.

Ah Malc, your pain is my pain. A wise man in a now-defunct Glasgow music shop once told me "Never get rid of a guitar, son. A wife, yes. A guitar, no".
I heeded this advice for a full two weeks before trading in my candy apple red Tokai strat (the lawsuit model no less) and putting the pittance I got for it against a 12 string Yamaha acoustic that I could never get to grips with. I still think back to that day with deep regret. For my 40th, my darling wife purchased me a new Tokai just the same...almost. Something just isn't there. Hey ho, live and learn. At least I always kept my Ibanez Roadstar. It is now over 30 years old with all the original gear, and has pride of place over the others. I long ago accepted I will never be Mark Knopfler or Dave Gilmour, nor even Ralph McTell, but as all us frustrated guitarists know...we still dream.

PS You got rid of a Vox AC 30? I'll say no more.

[Malc]

These days I play a Samick Strat copy, it cost fifty quid twenty years ago, and it's the only electric I have. I replaced the pickups with Fenders, so to me it's a Fender. It's been with me back and forwards to Australia about ten times (that's 200,000 miles).
I have an acoustic but can't remember the name of the make. It belonged to my friend's son and they were moving, so I offered fifty dollars and he jumped at it.

This is the one. That's me in the red jumper.

Call Me The Breeze (Malc McGookin cover)

[Sandy Buttcheeks]

Hats off to you, Malc. Superb. Plus you've got Eric Clapton's expression down to a T. Alas, I have nothing on the internet, nor do I intend to. My daughter has a phone clip of me on stage in a bar on Crete playing "I want to break free" with the house band...and there it will stay. (Alcohol is a terrible thing). 

[Egg]

I've seen Eddi Reader a few times, excellent songs and fantastic banter and stories, but never heard
her mention a Malc!!

[Malc]

Bitch

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

Brilliant video, Malky, although I might question the fashion statement that is specs hanging from jumper neck. Perhaps that was your downfall back in the folk club days, because in order to get Eddi Reader to notice you, you've got to be-ee-ee-eee-ee-ee-eee perfect.

[Roger Kettle]

Malc, you're one of those annoying people who makes playing the guitar look effortless. Had I attempted something similar, I'd be frowning deeply, my tongue would be sticking out and blood would be spurting from all my fingers.

[Malc]

Well, I've been playing for forty years so there has to have been SOME improvement
The guys who I admire are those who could play like gods at the age of 25, the Hendrixes, Claptons, Ronnie Woods, Knopflers, SRV, Joe Walshes, and (these days) John Mayers and Joe Bonamassas of this world.
Unfortunately, for me there were always competing disciplines, I wanted to be a footballer, for one, and a fire engine driver...

[Sandy Buttcheeks]

Honest opinion though, Malc. How jealous are you of all the tutorials and run throughs that you-tube show nowadays? When I think back to trying to listen to a track(on a record player of course)and then play it back by trial and error, I realise how much easier the internet has made things.

[Malc]

Honest opinion, never had a lesson in me life, not even seen a You Tube tutorial - sorry, that's a lie, I saw one, but after five minutes of "lift the second finger on the third fret to the G on second fret, taking care to move the first finger E on the first fret to the..." I swore off them forever.

I don't say this to boast, it's actually a failing of mine. I have some kind of dyslexia, but for figures, not letters, and when I'm playing and writing, that's like an English lesson, which I enjoyed. However, when someone is showing me, that's like a maths lesson and I switch off.

I'm the same with football. I was (though I say so myself) a very good junior coach, because I always remembered how hard it was for me to understand stuff on a chalkboard. I took the time to make sure all the kids knew what I was saying. I didn't throw the little magnetic markers around like a madman on the whiteboard, because I knew most of the kids were like me, they wouldn't follow.

It was embarrassing last December down at St George's Park when I took my International Coaching Licence. The FA coaches were buzzing the little coloured magnets around in threes and fours, talking about "false nines" and "double pivots", terms I totally understood, but when they were demonstrating, they might as well have been talking Swahili.

It was a football version of this:Mark Knopfler on French & Saunders 1990

[Roger Kettle]

Never seen that before---excellent!

[Sandy Buttcheeks]

Likewise.  What a terrific clip. I "honed" my skills playing along to Gary Moore's "We Want Moore" album...the man was a god of mine and I went to see him twice at the Barrowland in Glasgow; and who hasn't played along with Dave Gilmour. Legend.

PS...don't tell my kids, but Ralph McTell and "Streets of London"? My guilty pleasure. There is something uniquely satisfying in listening to a guitarist playing quality fingerpicking like that, and I find it a very moving tune.

And on the subject of quality fingerpicking...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwGQKuUeQC8