Guitars 2011

Today’s topic is Jan’s guitars. How many of them did Janick use during the last tour? I reckon 6 (even though I've seen just 5 of them live), and 2 acoustics.

1. His main Black Strat. Everyone knows (and loves :D) this one!



2. His main White Strat. With a very sexy bit of missing paint. Used for El Dorado and a couple more songs...



3. The second white Strat, used for Iron Maiden. Looks very old and battered :D And no surprise!




4. Brown/sunburst/whatever-this-colour-is-called Strat. Perhaps his less known guitar, 'coz I remember surprised comments on the IMOC back in summer, that perhaps Jan has a new guitar which is not black/white. It was used for The Trooper and The Wicker Man.



5. Another white/a bit yellowish Strat, looks brand new, and used without a cord for Running Free, when Jan finally goes to the other side of the stage and for fighting with Eddie :)



6. And yet another Strat, this time yellow and with dark red mother-of-pearl pick guard. I haven't seen it live, so I guess it's the alternative for the previous one.
Edit. After studying more pics, it turned out that this guitar was used instead of no.4 in Trooper, not no.5 :) Oh well, can't be always right :)




7. Are there any more Fenders? Don’t think I’ve seen any. So, onto acoustics. First one is black Gibson, which he used during The Talisman and Dance of Death.



8. What? This should cover everything, no? Nope! Another acoustic, used instead of that one ^^^ during The Talisman just on a couple of shows in the beginning of the tour for some reason. And it's a real acoustic unlike the semi-acoustic Gibson, so maybe that was the reason - for a more natural sound? But as we can see, it even required another stand, so it was scratched quite soon :)




...and funny how all of his guitars seem to have a tremolo bar, which he hardly ever uses nowadays :)


Ok, that was fun! More research to come, no doubt!

New Intro

Hello and welcome.... to the Janick Gers Appreciation Blog!

Yep, it's the man's birthday today (hope you have a nice one Jan!) and I decided to re-dedicate this blog I had for a while completely to him.

Why? Because this man deserves to be appreciated :)

My unconditional admiration for him comes from a simple fact that he always makes me smile. No matter how down I am, I need to watch a Maiden video, listen a song which he plays, look at a couple of photos or even talk about him for a while - and it always does the trick, my mood is great again.

I first saw him a bit less than a year ago, during the first gig of TFF 2011 tour, which I watched from the seats quite far away, because I have never been an Iron Maiden fan before, so I chose the cheapest tickets and went to the gig just 'coz I was bored. And that changed everything! The moment I saw Janick, I was completely hooked both to him personally and to the whole band. An instant convert :) Well, as a matter of fact, my first impression was "What the hell is he doing? Is this guy for real or what?" :D But when I saw that he was indeed for real, I was hooked!

The first thing that attracted me to Mr.Gers was his passion for playing. You can clearly see it on stage, that all his stage antics come from the heart, 'coz he just can't do it differently. And it is a very enviable thing :D And really great to watch!

Then I started to pay attention to the music Janick plays - as I never paid to anyone else's style of playing. The first thing that I found just breathtakingly beautiful were 4 notes that he plays in the beginning of Clansman over and over again. So simple and yet it touches something deep within my soul. And that harmony on the 5th fret he plays in the live version of FotD - what a beautiful thing and how incomplete the album version sounds without it.And I still remember the first solo which I realised was certainly his without looking it up or seeing the song live - No More Lies. Still one of my top favourites! And all these melody he plays that follow the vocal line - just love those! But more about the music will be written later at some point, this is just an intro :)

And besides, he just ticks most of the boxes in my idea about what a good looking man should look like :) And sound like - what an absolutely lovely voice, accent and the way of phrasing!

And we have the same taste in clothes (which doesn't say highly about mine, does it? ;)) And the same love for walking around towns snapping pics.

So, this is the place where I can share my views about this awesome man and the band he plays in :) Let the appreciation begin! :D

Always a dreamer :D

Saw a few Janick-Maiden related dreams over the last month... after a long break of not seeing anything :)

The first one was the weirdest by far :) Janick moved to Moscow, and lived just a couple of kilometers away from me. And he phoned me and ask to go and ride bikes with his kid, because he can't do it himself after his knee was damaged a few years ago. So, the most part of the dream I was looking after Dylan, his son, while riding my Mtb in the forest and saw Jan himself only when I went to pick up Dylan :) now, where did that come from, I wonder? :D and everything was so lifelike and perfectly natural. But why would Jan move to Msk ad ask me, of all people, to go ride bike with his son - was the first thing in my head once I woke up and recalled the dream :)

The second dream also featured an offspring of a Maiden member, this time it was Steve Harris's daughter :) And she was going to perform live in a small club, with Adrian and Janick on guitars. Naturally, I couldn't miss such an event :) the thing is though, that it wasn't Lauren, who has her band, but another daughter of Steve, that looked like an absolute copy of her father, down to wearing the baggy shorts on stage :) well, ok, doesn't matter, I was there to see Jan :) in the beginning of the gig though only Adrian came out and played some solo, then went backstage, leaving Steve's daughter on her own. And the public wasn't impressed by her solo performance, and it got her so disappointed that she decided to scratch the rest of the gig and went almost crying to her dad who watched everything from the side of the stage, standing in the door leading backstage. Most of the public already left, but I stayed, and caught a glimpse of almost every Maiden member behind Steve :) Saw Jan only from the back, and he looked as if he didn't dye his hair for a few weeks :D But I was really disappointed that the gig was cancelled, 'coz I quite like 'Arry's daughter performance and was so looking forward to Jan finally coming on stage :)

The third dream was the shortest. I was hanging out with some people near a bank on my street, obviously waiting for something, playing footy with a stone or a chunk of ice with one of them. I missed it when it was passed to me, and when I went to get it, I looked across the road and there, on the bus stop, was Jan, making a disappointing gesture about my football abilities :) I shrugged and showed him the tongue :) After some more gesticulation he crossed the street and asked, if there was a cafe nearby, 'coz it was damn cold and he wanted a cup of hot coffee. Nope, there wasn't any close enough to walk to it, but my home was just 3 minutes away :) Or my car is at his service, I can take him anywhere he liked 'coz waiting for a bus may take looooong here :) Dunno which option he chose - I woke up :sniff: