Classic Rock

Upselling is every sales-assistant's dream. If the guy behind the counter had known I'd only come out with the intention of picking up a few plectrums he'd have been slapped himself proudly on the back for coaxing customer through the purchase of a nice new guitar amplifier. Instead he chose to comment on the irony of an English guy buying perhaps England's finest rock'n'roll export, a Marshall amp, in Bosnia.

It was a slightly impulsive purchase, although not an entirely unpremeditated one. The amp I brought with me from England has been playing up and experience says that it's the sort of playing up that is not easily rectified. I have been keeping an eye out for a small, all valve combo. When I saw the Class5 today I knew my search was over. It looks great, sounds fantastic (and will hook up to a 4x12 cab for sonic enormity!) and, best of all, was a wallet friendly price very comparable to its UK rrp. Given that I usually expect to pay half-as-much-again on music equipment this was like getting a generous discount.

A guy walked up to me as I was trying it out. He'd picked up I was English and started asking about what I played. I displayed the lack of depth of my local hard rock history with the blank look I gave when he told me the name of the band he plays in. Formula 4 have been around since 1970 – longer than I'be been alive! - and has seen 80 different musicians take the stage under their name in the intervening years. This I glean from their YouTube channel, where I found this video.

Do click play; you'll recognise the song. Fast-forward to six minutes in for the start of a guitar-solo extravaganza that does not disappoint. Rowan always says I'm bad and remembering faces but I'm sure it was the guitarist stage right, the one with the black Strat, that I was talking to. If is was him, and he happens to be reading this, then I apologise for mistake him for a sales-assistant!