On Saturday, 7th October 2023, over 60 enthusiasts of Brian May’s music, guitars and equipment gathered at Theale Village Hall near Reading in Berkshire, U.K. Brian himself is currently touring the USA and Canada with Queen + Adam Lambert with the ‘Back to Humans’ themed Rhapsody Tour and was unable to attend in person. The theme of this year’s meet-up was “Good Company” which reflects the friendliness, trust and respect in the global Brian May enthusiast community.
Perhaps the next best thing to Brian being there, to celebrate twenty years of working with Brian May, Andrew Guyton brought three of Brian’s guitars never seen or rarely seen in public: the spade, the 12/6 double neck and the scalloped fretboard guitar. He also exhibited the “Badger” archtop semi-acoustic and three customer guitars based on the original Red Special including Pete Malandrone’s semi-acoustic archtop and Nigel Knight’s heavily customised Ruby Special. Check out my highlights package YouTube video and also the video I made in January 2023 entitled “Brian May’s Other Guitars” to find out more about these guitars.
Each instrument was given a brief demonstration by Supreme Queen tribute band lead guitarist, Luke Timmins. The daunting nature of being handed unique and precious instruments belonging to our revered guitar hero and improvising in front of a small number of knowledgeable enthusiasts should not be underestimated!
The meet-up grew in scope and attendance in 2022 and now has significant international representation from the USA, Canada, Chile and Mexico, the Republic of Ireland, Sweden, France, Germany, Spain, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Israel and others.
Structure to the day came in the form of a series of talks by Andrew Guyton. Jon Underhill facilitated presentation of as yet unpublished video footage that Andrew recorded when he and Will Gatley undertook a mini restoration of Brian May’s original Red Special in spring 2016. Check out a brief report and pictures of that here:
http://www.guytonguitars.com/blog/the-original-red-special-guyton-red-special-for-sale-and-imminent-badger-making-of-video
Many other Red Special guitar variants were on display which had been made by amateur and professional luthiers in addition to custom guitar hardware and musical equipment including Deacy amplifier replicas and various Vox AC30 amplifiers.
The attendees dug deep to win some superb raffle prizes including a Queen Wembley roadie cube donated by Brian himself and various KAT gear including a Load*Star speaker attenuator, power drawer and Plush treble booster kit. In total, £2,300 was raised for the Save Me Trust. Until next year, goodbye and thanks for visiting. RIP Phil Webb, Brian’s dedicated driver and May family friend for over 30 years. Only the good die young.
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