Fact #119637
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John Entwistle (bass, The Who) : Every time the owner made his announcements the sweat on the wall used to become live because this lousy amp that he used was so dangerous. If you were leaning against the wall at the same time as you were holding your guitar you'd get a terrible electric shock. It happened to me loads of times and was so dangerous that once we kicked the shit out of it so he couldn't use it again
Speedy Keane (musician) : In the early days I used to play in a band out in the west, in Ealing, and there were a few bands who could come in and really break things up, and they were the Stones and The Who … Townshend would go into the local music store and buy ten Rickenbackers. In those days a Rickenbacker guitar meant real class; they cost about 300 quid and anyone who owned one stood apart - and he would bust them all up in a week, then take 'em back without paying for 'em. This caused quite a stir at the time, for a guy to get three grand worth of guitars and bust them up.
Roger Daltrey : We had lots of shops that would give us credit. And thank God for Jim Marshall. We used to just run and say, 'Hi Jim,' and two of us would keep him talking at the counter while someone else would take a guitar off the wall and run out. He got paid in full in the end, though.
Pete Townshend : Jim Marshall started manufacturing amplifiers and somebody in his store came up with the idea of building a 4 x 12 cabinet for bass. And John Entwistle bought one and I looked at it and suddenly John Entwistle doubled in volume. And so I bought one and then later on I bought another one and I stacked it on top of the other one.
John Entwistle : I didn't buy the very first one. it was a guy in a band called the Flintstones who got that. I bought the second one...and the fourth, and the seventh, and the eighth. Pete bought the ones in between. It was great, I'd buy one, he'd buy one, I'd buy one, then he'd buy another. As I went, "Is it loud enough? Fuck, I'll buy two more." And I started using the two-amp system - bi-amping. Then we had a period where we switched to Vox equipment because we figured it would be louder. But it wasn't. It just blew up. So we'd always been trying to persuade Marshall to make us a 100-watt amp. They told us it would be impossible: the amp would be too heavy to carry around. we said, "Put a handle on each end."
Lemmy (Motorhead) : The Who were really impressive, loud. They were the first ones with Marshalls, you know. Cuz nobody'd seen an amplifier that was bigger than a suitcase before that. And there's Townshend with this massive fuckin' thing with ten-inch horns in it.
Pete Townshend : I was using a Rickenbacker at the time and because the pickup was right in line with the speakers I was instantly troubled by feedback. But I really used to like to hear the sound in my ears. I didn't like it coming out down there (below ear level) because I felt it was coming in my ear I could get it louder for me but it wasn't necessarily going to be louder out front. And I started to get quite interested in feedback, but I was very frustrated at first. There were a lot of brilliant young players around - Beck was around. I think Roger first saw him when he was in a band called The Triads or The Tridents or something and he came back and said there was this incredible young guitar player. And Clapton was around and various other people who could really play and I was very frustrated because I couldn't do all that flash stuff. So I just started getting into feedback and expressed myself physically.
(Source : not known)
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Speedy Keane (musician) : In the early days I used to play in a band out in the west, in Ealing, and there were a few bands who could come in and really break things up, and they were the Stones and The Who … Townshend would go into the local music store and buy ten Rickenbackers. In those days a Rickenbacker guitar meant real class; they cost about 300 quid and anyone who owned one stood apart - and he would bust them all up in a week, then take 'em back without paying for 'em. This caused quite a stir at the time, for a guy to get three grand worth of guitars and bust them up.
Roger Daltrey : We had lots of shops that would give us credit. And thank God for Jim Marshall. We used to just run and say, 'Hi Jim,' and two of us would keep him talking at the counter while someone else would take a guitar off the wall and run out. He got paid in full in the end, though.
Pete Townshend : Jim Marshall started manufacturing amplifiers and somebody in his store came up with the idea of building a 4 x 12 cabinet for bass. And John Entwistle bought one and I looked at it and suddenly John Entwistle doubled in volume. And so I bought one and then later on I bought another one and I stacked it on top of the other one.
John Entwistle : I didn't buy the very first one. it was a guy in a band called the Flintstones who got that. I bought the second one...and the fourth, and the seventh, and the eighth. Pete bought the ones in between. It was great, I'd buy one, he'd buy one, I'd buy one, then he'd buy another. As I went, "Is it loud enough? Fuck, I'll buy two more." And I started using the two-amp system - bi-amping. Then we had a period where we switched to Vox equipment because we figured it would be louder. But it wasn't. It just blew up. So we'd always been trying to persuade Marshall to make us a 100-watt amp. They told us it would be impossible: the amp would be too heavy to carry around. we said, "Put a handle on each end."
Lemmy (Motorhead) : The Who were really impressive, loud. They were the first ones with Marshalls, you know. Cuz nobody'd seen an amplifier that was bigger than a suitcase before that. And there's Townshend with this massive fuckin' thing with ten-inch horns in it.
Pete Townshend : I was using a Rickenbacker at the time and because the pickup was right in line with the speakers I was instantly troubled by feedback. But I really used to like to hear the sound in my ears. I didn't like it coming out down there (below ear level) because I felt it was coming in my ear I could get it louder for me but it wasn't necessarily going to be louder out front. And I started to get quite interested in feedback, but I was very frustrated at first. There were a lot of brilliant young players around - Beck was around. I think Roger first saw him when he was in a band called The Triads or The Tridents or something and he came back and said there was this incredible young guitar player. And Clapton was around and various other people who could really play and I was very frustrated because I couldn't do all that flash stuff. So I just started getting into feedback and expressed myself physically.
(Source : not known)