Gomm on down and hear guitar master

Oct 22 2008 by Gordon Robertson, Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser

ONE of Europe’s finest solo acoustic guitarists will be in Coatbridge on Sunday.

Virtuoso musician Jon Gomm brings his “incredible” guitar style to the Georgian Hotel for the latest Intimate Gigs showcase.

Jon uses one acoustic guitar to create drum sounds, bass lines and sparkling melodies all at the same time. He draws influences ranging from Robert Johnson to Radiohead and Jimi Hendrix to Prince.

He will also be hosting a workshop on Sunday afternoon that is open to all budding guitarists in the area.

Jon first laid his hands on a guitar at the age of two (actually it was a ukulele, as his parents couldn't find a guitar small enough!)

He started taking classical guitar lessons, wrote his first song at the age of six, and at twelve he was accompanying his father, a music critic, to blues gigs in his home town of Blackpool.

He immediately got hold of an electric guitar and began emulating Clapton and Hendrix.

This led, in turn, to teenage years spent practising the skills of the rock guitar hero – playing very fast and very loud.

On leaving school, Jon turned down a place at Oxford studying English to attend The Guitar Institute in London.

While there he paid his way through college playing jazz in café-bars, recording as a session guitarist, and playing country & western in working men's clubs for line-dancers.

He decided to try his hand at performing solo, and discovered all kinds of new sounds could be made with an acoustic guitar – hitting the surface of it to make a snare drum, bass drum and bongo sounds, re-tuning the strings to get bass sounds, and teasing high harmonics from the guitar for synthesizer-like effects.

He worked all these techniques into his own songs, and put his years of singing blues into use.

He began to get high-profile gigs supporting some of the most-respected names on the acoustic circuit such as Tommy Emmanuel, Nick Harper and Bob Brozman.

He has also performed at many festivals including The Italian National Guitar Festival and The London Guitar Show at Wembley.

His debut album 'Hypertension', totally self-produced and self-released, has sold over 10,000 copies at gigs and from his website alone.

Tickets for the show are £5 and available from the Georgian Hotel. Doors open at 7.30pm. Tickets for the workshop are £10 and must be booked in advance. For more info call 01236 421888 or visit www.acmusicclub.co.uk