G.A.S. or "gear aquisition syndrome" was and still is a term first used in 2001 by Guitarist magazine forumites in the UK. This was to indicate on forum threads that they had bought a new piece of gear.

Run by Simon Bradley, the Guitarist Magazine forum in 2001 was less popular than it's sister magazine forums, Guitar Techniques & Total Guitar but it was, and still is a very friendly and pleasant forum to belong to.

If you wanted to know anything about the UK music industry in general or advice on guitar related matters, forumites would respond almost immediatley - a great place to hang out.

As time went by, regular forumites became a close knit community and formed a collaboration group known as Collective Guitars. Headed by Adrian Clarke, who is a regular contributor to the magazine. Each month guitarists from all over the world would submit a song in mp3 format, which prescribed to a theme set by a member of the collective.

Mike de Jager approached Hard Rock Cafe in Birmingham to see if they would allow the collective guitarists to jam at the venue on a Sunday afternoon. Given the green light, Mike set about inviting the forumites to what he called the Forum Jam in Brum.

The gig was a disaster, only a hand full of guitarists pitched and the band who supplied all the backline gear, EASY, played so loud the poor old "Sunday afternoon lunch" punters got up and left! HRC management have never forgiven us for that but it was an insane attempt at the impossible and definitely the wrong venue for a jam!

Later that year, forumite Rock Babe approached Mike to do something similar in Bristol but this time they would call it "GASFEST". Her idea was to get the forumites together for a jam and use the gig as a fund raiser for charity. Mike was up for it and in March 2003 the first ever Gasfest gig was launched. Rock Babe organised everything, Mike supplied the sound system, Simon Bradley was stage manager, performer and host for the evening - Simon kicked off proceedings, helped the musicians setup on stage and co-ordinate the performers...and he did a magnificent job of it too!

Gasfest 2004 and 2005 where awesome events and raised hundreds of pounds for charity - Mike produced a DVD of the gig and all the proceeds after costs all went to charity. The team took a break for 2006 but should be back in 2007...if Rock Babe is still up for it?

Guitarist TV pays tribute here to all those generous guitarists who gave of their hard earned cash, performed at the gig and made it all possible.

Also, we pay tribute and say thank you to all the sponsors who supplied the amplifiers and gear for the performers, who also supplied the prizes for the competitions held on the night and for the cash they gave which helps makes this event year after year a raging success.

Credits:

Rock Babe - Founder & Chief Organiser

Mike de Jager - Sound System & Video Production

Simon Bradley - Stage Manager & Host

HUW - Website (btw...where has it gone?)

Barry Bremmer - Photography

Performers:

Simon Bradley, Rock Babe, Rock Babe(Junior), Bill Jehle, Thing, Axetec, Jason Morris, Geetarfreek, Vibetronis, Vai n Maiden, Guitar_Slinger, Thomasross, Ten Men Wide, Smoking Beagle, Al Gordon, MannytheHamster, JonEve, FilthyPhil, mike_strat, viz ....if you performed and your name is not here, please email info@guitaristtv.com with your details.

More Sponsors:

SmallPrint, Leeds for Printing.

Happy Necks

More Prize Sponsors:

Filthy Phil, Zap, Ten Men Wide & Bill Jehle(USA).

For any information about GASFEST please email info@guitarsttv.com or vist the intermusic forum here.

 

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