b'is thirty six years ago and I still have to stop for awasnt in any state to sort it all out. Shortly after we while every time I read it. got back to England, Anne tried to take her own life, At the funeral, Gordon Giltrap was one of theand I lost interest in just about everything. pallbearers, along with some of the guys fromOf course, now everything was different. Up to work; some others could not face it and stayedthis point I had kept very tight control at work, I away. I dont blame anybody; I have nothing buthad pushed hard, and it had worked. The business sympathy for everybody else involved. It wouldnthad succeeded against all the odds. For the next 12 help me to believe it was someone elses fault. months I tried to keep things going but I wasnt the There were so many other things going on duringpowerhouse that I had been, I couldnt make the those times, but I cant give them enough spacehard decisions, I needed my friends to be friends here to explain it all. Before Alex died, her healthrather than employees and I let things slide. Things and Annes health had caused us a lot of distress,happened and things were said at work that went I had looked for help in all sorts of strangevery deep and destroyed any remaining desire to directions, but mostly it didnt work. When Alexkeep going. It seemed as if just about every star in died I built a shell, I changed a lot and I survived.folk, rock, even jazz, had bought instruments from Its still with me every day. I tend to laugh in ratherme, but despite being very successful in organizing inappropriate places and I dont see anything thethe design and manufacture, I couldnt react to the same way as anybody else. changing economic and musical climate. In 1980 I was forced to lay off the staff, most of them close After the funeral Anne and I went to New Yorkfriends, and shut the company down. Within the for a few days, partly to regroup but also to dealspace of 12 months I lost everything - my daughter, with business issues that were occurring. While wemy business, my car, my house, big chunks of were there I heard that a major UK shop had closedmyself, and my marriage. Some of my friends down, owing me a lot of money. I managed tounderstood and became closer, some didnt, and organise some fairly heavy help by telephone todidnt. recover the stock from under the liquidators nose, but it was the beginning of a lot more trouble and I Lou RhodesAt one of the guitar shows in London, I was told that Lou would be coming to meet me, but I didnt know when and had no idea what she looked like. There was a slim young woman floating around the edges of the display, very elegant and pretty, rather shy, dressed in lots of light flowing layers and eventually it clicked. Lou is the stepdaughter of an old dear friend, Graham Burton, who was responsible for a large part of my guitar sales during the later 1970s. She is one half of the duo Lamb, which took two Fylde guitars into trip hop and Drum and Bass music, and she was shortlisted for a Mercury music prize with her first solo album.This photo shows Lou playing her Single malt Ariel, with Jon Thorne on bass. Jon works with many musicians, much like his friend Danny Thompson, but I know him best through his playing with John Smith. Its likely that he will become a regular at the Ullapool Guitar Festival if he can find a way of transporting his bass from the Isle of Wight to Ullapool every year. 61'