Author’s preface; The following is a, hopefully, humorous and fictitious tale designed to entertain and delight. If at any point you wish to stop reading, please do so with all possible speed. None of the characters in the following are real, not even me.
It was the morning of the day that it all happened, I pushing a bit of breakfast in to the Tad face at the time when I became aware that a stern looking sort of bloke was on the other side of the bar (in reception, in Brighton Electric). He was standing there with a “Why the hell is there no monitor in my rehearsal room” expression on his face which I recognized with the ease of long years in the field. Awakening to my responsibilities, and not wishing to stir the client up anymore, I sprang to the job with such energy that I smacked my self in the head with the monitor as I pulled it from the rack and tripped myself up with the XLR cable. Having set the thing up and delivered a winning smile in his direction to show there were no hard feelings on my part, I trickled back to the desk, nursing a golf ball sized lump on my head, and carried on where I had left off with the food stuff.
A disapproving cough soon found it way to my ears and I looking up to notice the stern chap was once again a pleasant visitor.
“Is everything ok Mr Person?” I said, in what I hope was a smooth, winning tone.
“I requested an amp” the visitor snapped back.
“Was it not in there for you?” I asked, the heart doing a bit of sinking. Because if there is one think guaranteed to put someone in a nasty mood, it’s walking in to a room and instead of the guitar amp they have requested greeting them, a strange impostor of a thing smiling back at them trying to the job instead.
“No!” he returned, “Where is it?!” He added, wishing to drive it home.
“Frightfully sorry,” I said, checking the amp list for the day. “It would appear that the model you have requested is at the vets right now, something not running true with the tonality and valvation pull. Quiet a common problem. Is there anything else we could fit you with for this session?”
I’ve never seen the blood drain out of someone’s face so fast, he clenched then unclenched his fists and took a step or two forward, his eyes bulging. I began to feel that unless I did something quick to solve this problem, things could get pretty ugly, and if there I one thing I always like to avoid in the work place it’s things getting ugly.
Now, I must begin by saying that the point I’ve been driving at this whole time is that we, the Brighton Electric team are able to provide you with monitors and take guitar/bass amp requests. If we are unable to for fill your request we will do our very best to equip you with the next best model. In the present case am happy to say that I was able to give Mr Person an amp that both delighted and elevated. So all was fine, or was it?!
Be sure to continue reading this exciting instalment in next month’s issue. Same Tad time, same Tad channel.