1988. A boy stops in front of a pawn shop in Stockbridge, Edinburgh, his eye caught by a red semi-acoustic guitar in the window. He carries a cheap black Les Paul copy in a bag over his shoulder. The type played by a million dull rock guitarists the world over. The guitar in the window is of the type played by that exciting batch of new bands who were doing stuff that was fresh and exciting: The Smiths, Orange Juice, Lloyd Cole et al. He shrugs and enters the pawn shop. He leaves the pawn shop with the red semi-acoustic guitar, amazed that they had been prepared to do a straight swap for his cheap Les Paul copy. His step quickens in case a mistake is identified.
Not long after acquiring the guitar the boy joins a band where he is the bass player and the red semi-acoustic guitar is relegated from use and eventually consigned to the attic.
Jump forward almost thirty years. The boy is now me. I'm in a work meeting in a different world from the one inhabited by the boy in 1988. I'm with a colleague who mentions that he plays in a Ramones tribute band. The talk turns to guitars and I mention the red semi-acoustic from the pawn shop in Stockbridge, Edinburgh which I still have and cherish.
"You're kidding me. The Epiphone?" he asked, surprised.
"Yeah. It is an Epiphone" I reply.
"I saw that guitar in the shop window too. I ran straight home to get the money to buy it and when I returned it had gone! Can't believe you beat me to it!"
I can't believe I beat him to it either - must have been by minutes. Slivers of each other’s existence looping out into the cosmos from that point in time to reconnect seemingly by chance decades later.
Jump forward a few more years and I've had the guitar refurbished. It's an Epiphone 5102TE from 1974, a forerunner of the Riviera. Tremolo arm replaced, pick-ups repositioned, pots cleaned, rewired. Beautiful. I step out with it for the inaugural gig of the Richard Buchanan Trio. What future chance connections lie in wait for us now?
You can see and hear the red semi-acoustic guitar in the video of that inaugural gig on my 'The Richard Buchanan Trio' post.
