Here’s a few shots of Westland Studios, Dublin, with some of Deep South’s best sounding Gitboxes hanging around in their new, temporary housing, on the wall of one of Dublin’s most historic and largest studio complexes. You can view some more pictures I took in the studio at the DS Facebook profiles and on the Westland Studios Facebook too. There will also be more DSvintage / Westland Studio collaborations coming soon… so I’ll keep you posted.

I past some time, (in an after hours lock-in), cranking some dirty old guitars through tubes and 4×12′s, with my old buddy Alwyn Walker – who now manages Westland and continues to produce and engineer all sorts of bands and artists from there. Westland has witnessed many great artists since it opened its doors in 1976. Some of the world’s most renowned musicians have worked on stuff at Westland, including U2, Thin Lizzy, Bob Dylan and Massive Attack to name but a few.

The Live Room is massive and has plenty of options, using sliding glass doors enable the creation of amp rooms and boothes, if you want it to be a little less massive. The control room is dominated by the SSL, the studios main feature and a big part of the Westland sound. Its a piece of 80′s history. When things were made to last. EQ & Dynamics on every channel, along with the classic SSL Bus Compressor deliver that unmistakable studio sound that is unattainable with software, laptops and computers alone.

I also loved the sound of the Baldwin Grand, the second best piano I have ever heard and thats only cause I got to hear the Grand that used to be in the Hit Factory when I was in New York. This baldwin has got a lovely strong tone and plenty of punch beef. Very cool  Hammond and Leslie setup too and a funky Philicorda and something called a Fun Machine hahaha.

Few nice bits of outboard, Urei 1176, AMS Delay & Reverb and Avalon Comp / EQ. Old Skool Otari 2Inch Tape… NICE. Pro Tools HD 10 and your usual Neumann‘s, AKG’s and all sorts of Amps’s and Noise boxes that you can play around with.

If anyone is interested in recording or booking the studio, please get in contact with Alwyn at +353 87 9668333 and he will be happy to give you all the details and a tour or just email westlandstudios@gmail.com.

I brought some of my favourite sounding guitars from the store – the Kapa Challenger, The Sillvertone Amp in Case, my killer Jesus Saves Custom and old Norma, which Alwyn fell in love with after a single note. Norma might become a permanent fixture on the wall at Westland.

We were using an Orange Dark Terror Alwyn had in for review and his lovely sounding old Marshall 4×12. The guitars sounded great with everything cranked; Kapa delivering the hottest signal known to man, Jesus delivering his signature killer bite and Norma delivering that savage, snappy response.

It was great to hear the stuff through a nice big cab, in a nicely treated room where the guitars really feel at home and become powerful tools to create really original sounding records. Thats what these guitars are all about. Hanging round studios delivering unique and original tones that make the end user sound different than the now regular, new buy, or overpriced Strat’s and Les Paul’s.

Tags: 1176, akg, alwyn walker, amek, amp in case, ams, avalon, baldwin, baldwin fun machine, bassman, Bob Dylan, bus compressor, control room, deep south vintage, dublin, fender, grand pianp, hammond organ, hofner, jesus, kapa, lexicon, live room, magennis place, marshall, massive attack, mesa boogie, neumann, neve, norma, ns10, orange dark terror, peavy, philicorda, philips, pierce street, queens, silvertone, ssl, studer, studio, Thin Lizzy, U2, urei, westland

Cafe Wha? opened in ’59 and is on the corner of Macdougal Street between Bleecker and West 3rd Street in the Greenwich Village about two blocks from Washington Square Park in Manhattan.

The club has been home to (and began the careers of) many musicians and comedians including Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Velvet Underground, Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen and Richard Pryor.

As a hangout for Ginsberg and the “Beat Generation” it became a stomping ground for many great artists at the start of their careers and known for its support of great talent.

Opened by Manny Roth – the uncle of David Lee Roth, frontman in 80′s Van Halen, the place was referred to by New Yorkers as one of the cities basket-houses - a den for intellectuals, hippies and aspiring folk and rock muso’s – who got paid whatever was chucked in the basket by it’s basket-case patrons.

Dylan’s first ever NY appearance was at Cafe Wha? in ’61 – his very first day in NYC. Roth hired him off the street and put him on as backing for Fred Neil (who later wrote songs for Harry Nilsson). Dylan would also play solo performances for Manny but only in the afternoons, “from twelve to eight,” Dylan recalls, also saying that it was tough to get noticed at Cafe Wha? because of the huge amount of performers that went through there and that it was usually just “tourists looking for beatniks in the Village.”

Jimi Hendrix was most famously discovered by Chas Chandler while playing at Cafe Wha? during the summer of ’66 with his short lived outfit called Jimmy James and The Blue Flames. Chandler (who was ending his time as bass player of The Animals) promptly signed Hendrix and immediately brought him to the UK to form a new outfit called The Jimi Hendrix Experience and get to work recording his debut album “Are You Experienced”.

Hendrix was suggested to Roth by Richie Havens, who also got his start at Cafe Wha?, and Roth hired Jimmy James and The Blue Flames for three months, from May thru till July, to play their psy-funked cover versions of tunes.

During their residency as the Cafe Wha? house band, the band also featured Randy Wolfe who Hendrix dubbed “Randy California” and who would later go on to found Spirit with his step-father drummer, Ed Cassidy. Randy California was only 15!!! at the time he was in The Blue Flame and it niggles me that he didn’t go to England with Hendrix and become part of The Experience, but still, Spirit are amazing, so it’s not all that bad.

A girlfriend of Keith Richards, Linda Keith, befriended Hendrix in New York sometime in ’66 and recommended him to the Stones flamboyant manager – Andrew Loog Oldham – but he wasn’t interested so she later recommended him to Chas Chandler who saw Hendrix at the Cafe Wha? on July 5th and reckoned he could make a killer single out of “Hey Joe”. The rest is history…

Although Hendrix and Dylan were Cafe Wha?’s most famous exponents, they only met once during that time in New York, at another village bar called The Kettle Fish.

Cafe Wha? is open to this day, although it was sold by Manny Roth in 1988, and is still supporting up and coming talent with its open mic nights and open door procedures.

Tags: 50′s, 60's, 70's, america, Andrew Loog Oldham, Are You Experienced, Bleecker Street, blues, Bob Dylan, Cafe Wha?, Chas Chandler, David Lee Roth, Ed Cassidy, Fred Neil, Greenwich Village, Harry Nilsson, Hey Joe, jimi hendrix, Jimmy James and The Blue Flames, keith richards, Lenny Bruce, Linda Keith, Macdougal Street, manhattan, Manny Roth, new york, new york city, New Yorkers, nyc, Randy California, Randy Wolfe, Richard Pryor, Richie Havens, sixties, Stones, The Animals, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Velvet Underground, Van Halen, Washington Square Park, West 3rd Street, Woody Allen

Staten Island Ferry to 200th Street on the Subway at Dawn from deepsouthvintage on Vimeo.

Tags: 1 train, 200th street, 911, america, Bob Dylan, desolation row, dyckman street, galleria, highway 61 revisited, inwood, manhattan, mta, music video, new york, new york city, north, north to south, ny, nyc, pelham 123, south, south ferry subway station, staten island ferry, subway, subway station, trains, tunnel, washington heights