All well and good. When they came to the Strat section, I was expecting to hear a reference to Hank and maybe even the Shads, bearing in mind he was the first in the UK to play a Strat and inspired many of us to play and more especially on a Strat (when we could afford it!). Well Buddy Holly got an all too brief mention and the didn't play anything of his and Hank's mention was more of a private joke between the two guitarists in the band. One said something like "you can't even bring yourself to say the name, can you" to which his colleagues response was to play the opening bar of Apache, out of tune! When you consider what HBM has done for sales of Fender guitars, I thought that was a bit off to say the least. Also, the stuff they played, whilst expertly done was mostly heavy rock and fretboard gymnastics which didn't really demonstrate the instruments' tonal capabilities to the full.
When the break came the time was filled by a band called The XCERTS who took forever to set up and then played with their amps so overdriven that any musicality was lost. My apologies to anyone here who may be a fan of theirs. I guess I'm getting old!
I didn't stay for the second half but maybe I should because the blurb mentioned "a Q & A with the Fender team, a chance to ask any questions about music, guitars, or the world of manufacturing. Guests will also be invited to try out different styles of guitar".
A disappointing and an opportunity lost I thought but if anyone here attended last night I'd be interested to hear their views.
