Rotosound Music Strings

Rotosound endorsee Gerry McAvoy is part of the Band of Friends, a three-piece band who came together to celebrate the music of Rory Gallagher. Rory Gallagher reached a massive audience across the globe in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, and fans the world over felt the loss of his tragic death in 1995. The band’s line up (Gerry McAvoy, Ted McKenna and Marcel Scherpenzeel) have all played with Rory – in fact, Gerry played with Rory for 20 years and has a massive insight into Rory’s music. The band will be touring and appearing at summer festivals throughout this year. Follow them on Facebook by clicking here.

Want to meet some visionary bassists? Get yourself along to the London Bass Guitar Show (weekend after next at London’s Olympia) where we’ll be joined by Doug Wimbish and Bruce Foxton. You can meet Doug and chat with him at 1.00pm on Sunday 4th March on the Rotosound stand, or catch Bruce Foxton at 2.00pm on Saturday 3rd March. You’ll also be able to see all the latest new products including our new range of accessories. Plus pick up a leaflet on the stand, answer three simple questions and you could be in with a chance to win a years supply of Rotosound strings. We will see you there!

We’re proud to launch our brand spanking new, patented string cleaner for guitar and bass. It’s a totally unique and revolutionary tool, offering 360 degree cleaning to revitalise your strings helping maintain that crisp ‘new string’ sound. It’s really easy to use too – just open the cleaner, slide it under the strings then close it and slide it back and forth. It takes just a few seconds and cleans all of the strings as well as the fretboard – the microfibres in the cleaning pads get into all of the nooks and crannies removing dead skin, dirt, oil and any other gunk that may be lurking in your strings without the need to use chemical cleaners. When the microfibers get dirty you can just wash them under the tap with warm water and a bit of the soap, so they’ll last for ages.

Regular use of the cleaner every time you play will extend the life of your strings, making them last 3 or 4 times longer than usual. It’ll also keep your strings nice and clean, preserving the tone and giving you a great sound for longer.

We’ve produced the string cleaner to suit guitars and basses (including 5 string basses!) and made them small enough to fit in your guitar case. Buy yours at your local music store and let us know how you get on.

Not long now til the London Bass Guitar Show (3rd & 4th March 2012, Olympia). The show boasts a plethora of amazing bass talent over two days – you’ll get up close and personal with the latest gear and best instruments and will see some of the world’s greatest bassists in action. Promoting the art of bass to the UK bass public will be a host of incredible musicians (last year we saw the likes of Mark King, Stu Hamm, Gary Willis, Troy Antunes and Dave Marks take to the Live Stage and Masterclass Suite). Among all these names will be some of the leading bass retailers and manufacturers around – the Rotosound team (joined by Rotosound endorsees, Bruce Foxton and Doug Wimbish) will be in the company of Orange, Yamaha, Tanglewood, Mansons, Elixir and loads of others. Tickets are £15 (£20 on the door); book yours here.

Looking for a band who capably cover the metal, reggae, punk, rock and electronic genres? One who can do all of this and do a mean cover of Tinie Tempah’s Pass Out? No, we’re not losing our marbles, this band really does exist. And their name is Skindred. You’ve probably heard of them, if you’re one of the cool crowd (although you may not have known they covered Tine Tempah; which was big news at Download festival in June 2011). They’re quintessentially British, and have risen like a phoenix from the flames at the turn of the millennium, fronted by Benji Webb (he’s obsessed with Elvis, apparently) and accompanied by bassist Dan Pugsley (big fan of jungle/grime/ electronica), Mikey Demus (all about the riffs) and drum prodigy Arya Goggin. This is a band who aren’t fazed by the massive changes in the music landscape. Happy to get totally intimate with the up-and-coming genres set to be huge this year, Skindred are more than happy to get all intimate with dubstep, bassline and drum n bass. The band is a completely bonkers melting pot of a whole heap of influences, and it seems to be doing pretty nicely for them with their forthcoming tour including Brixton Academy Sold Out. Currently on their fourth album, Union Black, they have an army of dedicated fans and an impressive discography spanning almost 14 years. We’re pleased to have Mikey Demus from the band on board who uses our Rotosound Pure Nickel strings. For more information and Live dates go to www.skindred.net – or check out the video for their new track, Doom Riff.

Rotosound endorsees The Vaccines have been nominated for a Brit under the Best British Breakthrough category, voted for by BBC Radio One listeners. Lead singer Justin Young said “We don’t belong in places like this. It’s nice when so many people have been talking about the death of guitar music and rock ‘n’ roll, that a rock ‘n’ roll band’s being noticed and connecting with people.

“I guess we feel really happy that we’re just doing what we’re doing and it’s connecting with people and we’re being recognised by what is essentially quite a mainstream event.” The Vaccines released their first album, What Did You Expect from the Vaccines? In March last year and are currently working away on new material. Good luck guys.

We’re proud to announce that Rotosound will be supporting the Rock The House 2012 competition.

Rock The House 2012 is the live music competition founded by MP Mike Weatherley last year to celebrate the best of up and coming unsigned British bands and the live venues that support them. This competition is open to solo artists, bands over 18 and under 18 entrants who perform their own music.

A completed application must be with their constituency MP before 16th March 2012.  The winning artists in each category will get a chance to play on the Terrace of the House of Commons. The overall winner will get to play at the Download festival and as part of the prize package, Rotosound has offered a year’s supply of Guitar and Bass strings to the competition winners. What are you waiting for? Get entering…

The Jam’s Fantastic Mr Foxton will be on the Rotosound stand at this years London Bass Guitar Show at the Olympia Conference Centre.

The former Jam bass player has recently been working Paul Weller’s in the studio on a new album with his band From The Jam featuring Russell Hastings on Guitar and Big Country’s drummer Mark Brzezicki. Paul Weller also guests on the new album, along with Steve Cropper and Ray Davies. The album will feature tracks made famous by The Jam as well as new original music from Bruce and Russell.

You’ll be able to chat Bruce at 2pm on Saturday 3^rd March on the Rotosound stand and also be able to see all the latest new products including their new range of accessories. Our team will be on hand to answer any questions, plus running some special promotions on products purchased at the show. Find out more about the show and get your tickets by clicking here.

Check out this vintage ad from our archive featuring Scottish rock guitarist and vocalist, Davey Johnstone.  Davey is best known for his work with Elton John, but has played with an impressive range of musicians including Meat Loaf and Alice Cooper. He met Elton John in the 70′s and used Rotosound strings on Elton John’s 1971 album Madman Across the Water. Since joing Elton John on that album, he became a full member of Elton’s band and hasn’t been far from Elton’s projects since, most recently working as his musical director. And from what we hear, he’s still rocking with Rotosound strings…

As you’ll probably know if you follow us on twitter and facebook, we’re currently in LA at the annual NAMM show; the place where music merchants from all over the world get together to show off their latest gadgets and gear. Here’s the photos from the show so far…