Kimberley Rew's 1989 Gibson SG 62 Reissue

Warning: Showing my age alert.  Back To The Future.  Step into the DeLorean, set the clock for the summer of 1985, accelerate to 88 mph, step out of the car, dust yourself down, and listen.  I guarantee it will be only a matter of minutes before you hear the joyous up-tempo hit that is Katrina And The Waves' Walking On Sunshine.  It was everywhere.  Belting out from a passing car, an open window, a rammed bar, or getting you ready for (or at) every party that summer.  Just about anywhere, in fact, that had a radio, a record player, a tape deck, or a TV (yes, those were the only technologies we had at the time).  This was, hands-down, the feel-good hit of the summer of 1985, and one that still fills floors today.  The impetuous rush to the dancefloor may be more of a careful shuffle, the moves may be less adventurous, and the search for a seat at the end of the song a bit more urgent.  But, once you've made it to that seat, you, just like the song, can proudly proclaim, "Still got it".

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Forward one year, and I was in my second year at university.  Doing a degree that I loved (English Literature, one lecture attended in three years, otherwise reading), and in a band that was going places, President Reagan Is Clever.  If you haven't heard of the band, you must have been in different places.  Also, we never got quite as close to those places as we thought.  We did release a seminal if not entirely influential EP in 1986 - which for reasons none of us could fathom did really well in Luxembourg.  Check the EP out here: President Reagan Is Clever.  And, no, not a self-indulgent digression.  OK, partly.  But just stay with me here.

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Riding high on the crest of their eponymous waves, Katrina, Kimberley and the gang were a firm fixture at venues and college summer parties across the country.  And President Reagan Is Clever was in the happy place of supporting them at one of those many summer parties.  Being the support act was a pretty good deal in those days.  You were on early, the crowd, however small or large, were still broadly on their legs, and you had the rest of the night ahead of you - plus all the free entertainment, food and drink, and chance meetings, that goes with that.  So, I remember dancing myself down to my knees when Katrina And The Waves took to the stage.  And I remember Kimberley Rew, cranking tone to die for out of a magnificent cherry red Gibson SG.  Never got to speak to him by the time the set was finished though . . . legless in all senses.

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Happily, you can nurture dreams throughout your life.  And, they can come true.  In late 2018, Kimberley put this 1989 Gibson SG Reissue up for sale.  I studied English, so may be slower than my mathematician compadres, but I also spotted  that the guitar I saw him with in 1985 was not this one here.  Thank you to Kimberley, who was just amazingly helpful in filling in the story behind this (and that) SG.  And so . . .

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Kimberley bought his first good guitar, that SG, in 1972.  It was a 1969 SG Special. with those lovely black single-coil P90s.   In his view, not a technically great guitar, but one that he still has to this day, so it can't be that bad.  He bought a few other SGs over the years.  This SG 62 Reissue he bought in 1992, from Coda Music in Stevenage - happily still there and in business today.  Ever since then, and up to 2018, it's been well-loved and well-used in the studio and touring the world.  And, not just that, but also the guitar that he recorded Eurovision Song Contest winner "Love Shine A Light" on.  It may not appear in the videos for the song - colour-coordination taking precedence over sonic fidelity - but it's the one.

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Kimberley also made a couple of changes to the guitar over time.  The SG 62 Reissues were faithful to a tee.  Which could be as problematic as it was accurate.  "It had the contemporary style of tune-o-matic, where the strings hold the six bridge pieces in place, so if you break a string, the bridge piece falls out, probably onto a darkened stage . . . which I don’t recommend.  I replaced the bridge with one where the six bridge pieces stay in place. The only one I could get at the time had a gold finish." 

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And the three distinctive screwholes on the body top?  "In 1997 I bought a Roland VG-8, a guitar synthesiser-like gadget with a pickup and control unit that you screw on to the guitar, hence the extra holes."  Which explains the two screwholes in between the bridge and the bridge pick-up (for the synth pick-up), and the screwhole above the jack socket (for the control unit).  And which was intriguing enough for a YouTube search.  Check out this nice video from Franky Payne, exploring the infinite possibilities of the VG-8.  Though, to be honest, I'm happy enough without the synth ;-).

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And that brings us back to today.  A beautiful SG 62 Reissue, now some 35 years old, itself harking back nearly 60 years.  From the hands of the very lovely guitarist and songwriter, Kimberley Rew.  We may hear less of Katrina And The Waves today, but in their heyday in the 80s, and then again with Eurovision in the 90s, they led the way for infectious guitar-based pop and power ballads.  And I know that the next time I hear Walking On Sunshine, I'll be out on that floor again.  There are some  songs that are with you for life, that help you remember, and then tell the story of your life.  The best bits, the worst bits, the average bits.  No matter.  It's what makes you what you are - or at least put together the jigsaw.