STANMORE: THE BACKSTORY
SOME PEOPLE JUST HAVE IT. YOU KNOW, THAT KIND OF RAW MUSICAL
TALENT THAT MOST OF US CAN ONLY DREAM OF.
JIM MARSHALL
WAS ONE
OF THOSE PEOPLE. HIS MUSICAL TALENT WAS INNATE, AND HIS FATE AS
THE
'FATHER OF LOUD'
WAS NOT TO BE HINDERED, EVEN IN THE FACE OF
A CHILDHOOD DISEASE.
AT THE AGE OF FIVE, JIM MARSHALL WAS DIAGNOSED WITH A RARE
CONDITION CALLED TUBERCULAR BONES. HE SPENT MOST OF HIS
CHILDHOOD IN A PLASTER CAST AT THE ROYAL NATIONAL ORTHOPAEDIC
HOSPITAL IN STANMORE, LONDON. FOR SEVEN YEARS, JIM LIVED IN THIS
CAST, FROM HIS ARMPITS DOWNWARDS, ONLY TO EXPERIENCE BRIEF
MINUTES OF FREEDOM WHEN THE CAST NEEDED TO BE RESIZED TO
ACCOMMODATE HIS GROWING LIMBS.
LIBERATION CAME AT THE AGE OF TWELVE WHEN JIM WAS FINALLY CUT
FREE FROM THE CAST. HE WAS ENCOURAGED TO TAKE UP TAP DANCING
AS A WAY TO STRENGTHEN HIS FRAGILE BONES. HE DISCOVERED HIS
NATURAL SENSE OF RYTHYM, WHICH EVENTUALLY PAVED THE WAY FOR
HIS CAREER IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY. HE STARTED OUT SINGING, AND AS
CHANCE WOULD HAVE IT, HE TOOK UP DRUMMING WHEN THERE WAS A
GAP TO FILL ONE NIGHT DURING A GIG. HIS INTEREST IN DRUMMING GREW
DEEPER, AND HE SIGNED UP FOR LESSONS TO IMPROVE HIS SKILLS.
AFTER REACHING THE TOP OF HIS DRUMMING GAME, JIM BEGAN TO TEACH
OTHERS. HE OPENED UP A SMALL DRUM SHOP, WHERE DRUMMERS SUCH
AS MITCH MITCHELL FROM THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE WOULD COME
IN WITH THE REST OF THEIR BANDS, INCLUDING A BUNCH OF THEN-LOCAL
GUITARISTS WHO WERE ABOUT TO CHANGE THE SOUND OF ROCK'N'ROLL
FOREVER. THOSE GUITARISTS INCLUDED RITCHIE BLACKMORE, BIG JIM
SULLIVAN AND PETE TOWNSHEND, WHO ASKED JIM TO DESIGN THEM AN
AMP THAT WAS LOUD ENOUGH TO CUT THROUGH ALL THE DRUMMING. IN
A FEW TWISTS OF ELECTRICAL FATE, THE FIRST MARSHALL AMP WAS
BORN. THAT AMP GAVE GUITARISTS A SOUND THAT WAS UNLIKE ANYTHING
THEY'D EVER HEARD BEFORE.
THE REST, AS YOU KNOW, IS HISTORY.
006.