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 OF THE CAST. HE WAS ENCOURAGED TO TAKE UP TAP DANCING AS A
WAY TO STRENGTHEN HIS FRAGILE BONES. HE DISCOVERED THAT HE HAD
AN INNATE SENSE OF RHYTHM, 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, HE BEGAN TO TEACH
THE LIKES OF MITCH MITCHELL FROM THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE, ROD
STEWART, JIMMY PAGE AND RICHIE BLACKMORE – JUST TO NAME A FEW.
HE OPENED UP A DRUM SHOP WHERE THOSE DRUMMERS WOULD COME IN
WITH THE REST OF THEIR BANDS, AND 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:
HARDER, CRUNCHIER AND MORE RICH.
THE REST, AS YOU KNOW, IS HISTORY.
006.