March 2014 75 www.bahrainthismonth.com SIMI KAMBOJ Walking us through his guitar collection of 34 years, amateur musician Andrew Doherty plucks a few notes as he shares his favourite stories. A Six-string Love Affair For an amateur musician, Andy Doherty’s passion for guitars really shines through when you visit his home. Lined up along his hall are 11 gleaming instruments, each marking a unique chapter in his life. By day, the 46-year-old Scot is a chartered electrical engineer working for Chevron in Bahrain. The weekend finds him playing at an assortment of venues ranging from a friend’s barbecue party to a club in town or just jamming with friends. Andy, who has lived in Bahrain for 10 years, was part of The Travellin' B'erbellies, an amateur band, most of members being Bapco employees who jammed together on the weekends. Andy performed at the Dilmun Club and the Rugby Club and was a regular weekend guitarist at JJ’s Irish Pub and Restaurant. He recalls a particularly memorable St Patrick’s night a few years ago at the Sherlock Holmes, where he played into the early hours of the morning. Each of the eleven guitars sounds different; the Fender has a softer, Clapton-style sound, while the Gibson is a heavier, hardrock instrument for playing the music of the likes of ACDC and Bon Jovi. “I’d say my collection has grown with my passion for playing coupled with a desire not to let any of the guitars go. I don’t trade up or trade in any more. If I see an instrument that I can afford, I will buy it while retaining the others,” he says. Andy bought his first guitar second-hand when he was 12. It was a Gibson Les Paul copy for which he paid £10, a lot of money to him in those days. “I couldn’t afford a real guitar then. I had it for three years until I’d saved enough to trade it in for another guitar from my friend,” he says. It was much later that he could afford his first real instrument, a Fender Stratocaster. His current favourite, an Eric Clapton Fender Blackie, was purchased on a holiday in the US, where he dragged his family away from Disney World into a music store. He enjoys plugging it in to strum his favourite Clapton numbers — Badge, Crossroads, Layla and Lonely Stranger. The black Gibson Les Paul 1977 was his first rock guitar, gifted to him by a musician friend in Singapore in 2001. But Andy is most sentimental about the red Gibson ES330 1961 guitar that belonged to his uncle Paddy, who willed it to him. “Uncle Paddy was part of a band Teenbeats in Reading. This instrument has a typical 1950s Chuck Berry sound. It’s a precious family heirloom that I’ve had for about 25 years,” he says. Perhaps taking this legacy forward is Andy’s 12-year-old son Drew, who is studying music and plays an acoustic guitar. Andy Doherty BLIPP THIS PAGE TO: WATCH ANDY PLAY HIS ERIC CLAPTON FENDER STRATOCASTER EXPLORE FENDER GUITARS FIND OUT ABOUT ERIC CLAPTON IN BAHRAIN spotlightthismonth xxxxx I’d say my collection has grown with my passion for playing coupled with a desire not to let any of the guitars go
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