Home Forums Guitar Discussion Guitar Tony Blair: Rock Star

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  • #22807
    glw
    Participant

    (Apologies to those outside of the UK)

    #http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1855000/images/_1855939_tony_pa.jpg
    http://www.channel4.com/music/ontv/T/tonyblair.html

    Last night on Channel 4 there was a programme looking back at our current Prime Minister’s “rock star” pretensions back when he was 19. It was one of those documentaries featuring interviews with those who knew him at the time, interspersed with dramatised segments featuring actors.

    At one point we were told how Blair was trying to write a song, playing his guitar, when the neck fell off. (In the dramatic sequence we see the actor wrestling with a Telecaster in pieces, and trying to fit the neck back into the neck pocket).

    How on earth was that supposed to have happened? If Tone really played a Telecaster, then perhaps some joker had removed the bolts, but how could he not have noticed? It’s kinda worrying that our Prime Minister in waiting could have overlooked this.

    Meanwhile, here’s a webpage devoted to Tony Blair’s Rickenbacker collection: http://rickbeat.com/gallery/tonyblair/tonyblair.htm. It can’t be the same guy, surely?

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    • #66752
      1bassleft
      Participant

      I’m a good enough bass player to be a forum moderator 😆

      Speaking of modding, rather than edit/delete posts (which is a drag and general last resort) it would be preferable to keep this closer to whether “The Tone” is an adequate or otherwise guitar player and if it’s just photo-opportunism. Don’t want “A_Campbell” posting in about x billion extra spending on blahblah 🙂

      FWIW, I do know that he’s a member of the Fender Owner’s Club. Filmed moving into No 10 in May ’97 clutching a Strat, the enterprising brown-noses at FMIC quickly gave him freeby membership and a nice bit of publicity for themselves. I remember a TV prog about the Coke/Pepsi wars where the two rivals battled to secure shots of the Presidential candidates slurping their stuff (“I have never…” sips Diet Coke “had sexual relations…” turns can around so logo faces camera).

      Watch this space to see if new Tory leader David Cameron gets a freeby Gibson to strap to his bike rack. I doubt if the Liberal Democrats are worth enough for the Custom Shop “Closet Classic” but there might be a Stagg waiting for Ming in the wings.

    • #66750
      mrblanche
      Member

      OK, here’s a tangent that actually comes back around!

      I once heard an animal expert asked whether dogs or cats were more intelligent. He said the question made absolutely no sense, since all we can do is judge them by human standards, and neither are smart enough to be a human under any condition. What they ARE is just smart enough to do what they do, which is to be a cat or a dog. And they are perfectly intelligent enough to do that.

      So, going by that roundabout little route, we can assume that Tony is a good enough guitar player to be a politician…and no better. If he were good enough to be a rock star, he’d be a rock star! And, of course, that’s the truth about all politicians, be it Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, or even the local school board chairman. They are usually best at being a politician, and nothing else, and even that for only a short span of time, when their talents and the public’s needs coincide with their skills. When that coincidence ends, they usually prove that they were never really cut out to be anything else, either.

    • #66768
      glw
      Participant

      You are probably right, Nigel. There is no evidence for Blair being anything more than a mediocre guitar player. I think you’re right about the rest of what you say too, but perhaps this isn’t the place for a political discussion.

    • #66732
      Nigel
      Participant

      Has anyone actually witnessed Blair playing anything, other than his normal role of habitual liar? I expect the whole thing is some story made up and spun in the usual fashion by Millbank to make us think he was some kind of cool OK dude. As a life long Labour voter, and someone who voted for him in ’97, I think he is a total disgrace. As in the immortal words Billy Ocean, Tony it’s “Time to move on”!!
      No doubt a fine, well paid position awaits in the EU or somewhere so “Go Now”!

    • #66749
      Tim
      Participant

      Well I was born in ’81…

      The only problem is that Tequila is the only thing that makes me aggresive
      EDIT: got rid of long dull story

      Or should I have said:

      ‘Best Friend, You’re all that I’ve got’

      No, that makes me sound like a crazy stalker.

    • #66736
      1bassleft
      Participant

      “I’m on a list, I’m on a list. A celebrity hit-list”

      We’re getting so 90s, Tim 🙂

    • #66754
      Tim
      Participant

      [quote=”Michael”]Who doesn’t cry like a big girl when that happens.

      In the end but… it’s all about connecting with the voters. From that picture alone Tony has to be a great guy, and a cool rock star one at that.[/quote]

      On the first point…me. I’m more into real sports! (way to make friends…)

      On the second point, no he doesn’t and indeed isn’t, but probably still better than the competition, maybe…
      If he was cool he’d be called Tone (Whales and Dolphins, Whales and Dolphins, Yeah) (if that doesn’t mean anything to you, don’t worry, you weren’t there)

    • #66779
      Michael
      Participant

      Who doesn’t cry like a big girl when that happens.

      In the end but… it’s all about connecting with the voters. From that picture alone Tony has to be a great guy, and a cool rock star one at that.

    • #66770
      lee_UK
      Participant

      Yeah and our PM doesnt ‘Blub’ like a big old girl who tripped over the skipping rope and droppd her cornet ice cream on the floor. 😆

    • #66755
      1bassleft
      Participant

      Yeah, I gather John Howard made a complete ashes of himself 😆

    • #66765
      lee_UK
      Participant

      [quote=”Michael”] He bowled like a girl and batted like a pom.quote]

      Is that meant to be a provocation? its a pretty poor attempt mike.

    • #66778
      Michael
      Participant

      Thankfully I couldn’t find John Howard clutching any sort of instrument.

      However, Johnny does express his love for cricket quite a bit over here, but recently when asked to join in a game with a few troops he made a fool of himself. He bowled like a girl and batted like a pom. Made every news break and no doubt the web if you do want a laugh.

    • #66771
      1bassleft
      Participant

      Ah, I see. I watched that Channel 4 prog that recreated the events leading up to Dr Kelly’s suicide. They had a bit where Campbell was trying to ‘phone Blair over the “sexed up” dossier but he was noodling on his strat “Hey Alistair, what do you think of this riff?”

      Probably never happened, but amusing anyhoo. In the honeymoon days, I used to get sick of “what a modern PM, used to be in a band dontcha know” stuff in the chattery sections of the papers.

    • #66743
      glw
      Participant

      Bass, the programme did not make him out to be any kind of guitar player. In fact they said he could just about manage three chords back in the old days and most probably doesn’t know any more now.

      If anything, the programme ripped the peepee out of him royally.

    • #66740
      1bassleft
      Participant

      This continuous Millbank bumf about Tony Blair, guitar hero is annoying rot. Clinton’s a very capable sax player but Tone has never been anything more than a very average strummer, not much better than I. Fine, he’s got a hobby, great but I wish the meedja would stop making such a big deal of it. British tabloid journalists know naff-all about decent musicianship (quite unlike the British music press 😆 )

    • #66737
      lee_UK
      Participant

      mouthwatering collection.

      There is no way on earth the neck can fall off a Tele, unless of course it is a Columbus copy, in which case anything is possible, apart from being able to tune, play or get a decent tone out of the bloody thing.

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