THE SOUND OF ROCK - A HISTORY OF MARSHALL VALVE GUITAR AMPLIFIERS

BY MIKE DOYLE... Published By Musical New Services Ltd. ISBN 086175 330 5

I've often gone on record as having said that, personally, I regard amplification as virtually equal in importance to a guitarist's sound as his choice of guitar.

Much has been written about guitars, but far too little about amplification in general which, when you consider the vital part it plays in the story of Rock, seems to leave a major vacuum.

As the leading guitar makers have each had their chroniclers, it was high time that someone turned their attention to an amp maker and, of course, the doyen of all amplification manufacturers being Marshall, it's quite right and proper that they should be the first to have benefitted from a book dedicated to their products.

Author Mike Doyle concentrates his attention on the valve amps and does a remarkably thorough job in tracing the history of Marshall, right back to when Jim Marshall and Ken Bran started their first experiments with amps. The book reveals a lot of the background to this phenomenal success story, from 1962 (when Ken Bran came to work with Jim in his Ealing shop in West London) till today, when Marshall is the name in amplification for so many of the world's top players.

The book concentrates on the amps themselves, mainly, although it does contain some very interesting personal material on Jim and Ken, which is good as it helps to offset the inevitable dryness in any book which concerns itself solely with hard facts. There are plenty of fascinating photos of old Marshall amps, complete with copious technical details on them.

The only slight crib I have with this book is that the printing doesn't really do justice to the photos contained in it. There are some lovely shots from the past (early Townshend, Clapton, Free), plus plenty of fine old amps. This publisher (Musical New Services) has produced a fine series of reference books on guitars and guitar history in the past and it does seem a shame that they cannot print them slightly better — particularly as they constitute the only historical records of any note produced over here. Still, this is a long overdue tribute to Jim Marshall, Ken Bran and their products, and any players who find amps interesting should certainly add this to their collection. You should be able to find it in most decent music shops with a book section, or any bookshop can order it for you if you quote them the title, author and ISBN No. A long overdue book and a fascinating read.

MAKING MUSIC

EDITED By GEORGE MARTIN. Published by Pan Books. £5.95 ISBN 0 330 26945 3

With a contributors list including such notables as Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, John Williams, Cleo Laine, Midge Ure, Paul McCartney, Julian Lloyd-Webber and Herbie Hancock (and that's just a sample!) plus a list of personalities from the business side of the Music world, George Martin (yes, the George Martin) has put together a book which, on the face of it, should be a sure-fire 100% gold plated winner for anyone interested in making music.

In true Music Press review fashion I should now proceed to mercilessly rip this book to shreds — but I'm not going to. What the Editor has done is compile what is, effectively, a series of essays on just about every possible relevant topic in the whole process of musical creation. Hence we have Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, and Sting talking about songwriting, Stephen Sondheim discoursing on theatrical lyrics (there are no false boundaries in this book), Herbie Hancock on playing synthesisers, Eric Clapton, John Williams and Jeff Beck on playing guitar, Andy Bareza (perhaps the leading figure in home recording today, via his Bandive/Turnkey operations) talking about home recording, Dave Harries (of Martin's own Air Studios) talking about recording equipment, Geoff Emerick on recording techniques and George Martin himself, on record production.

From the business side of the industry there are contributions from such figures as Chris Wright (boss of Chrysalis) on the record industry, Richard Branson and Simon Draper (partners in Virgin Records) on the search for talent, Harvey Goldsmith on concert promotions — the list really is remarkable.

About the only flaw in the book that I can see is a slight overtone of nepotism; hence we find McCartney (produced by Martin), Chris Wright (there is a connection between Chrysalis and Air Studios), David Harries (of Air), Geoff Emerick (also of Air) Chris Poole (who writes on Press and Publicity and is head of Press at Chrysalis) well, they're all good choices and you can't really blame Martin for choosing those people he knows and can personally vouch for. One or two of the articles are a little self-congratulatory (notably the one by the Virgin twins) but, overall, this is a very worthy contribution to the subject of making, playing and recording music and anyone even remotely interested in the subject should buy a copy and read it carefully. The style is light and the advice exemplary: anyone reading Making Music cannot fail to be hooked right from the very introduction and will put the book down having gained a mud better understanding of how music works in the widest context possible.

Definitely a valuable book, MAKING MUSIC should be on the top of your current shopping list.