CRATE BOARDS THE LENNON BUS
The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus is a non-profit, mobile recording studio outfitted with traditional musical instruments as well as current technological advances.
Since 1998, the Bus has provided free hands-on programs to hundreds of high schools, colleges, Boys and Girls Clubs, music festivals, concerts, conventions and community organizations. Working together with some of the biggest names in music—including Crate—the Lennon Bus encourages students to play music, write songs, engineer recording sessions and produce music video projects using the latest audio, video, and live sound equipment.
Crate has provided a gaggle of guitar amplifiers for the bus, in our quest to help young musicians learn more about making, performing and recording music. If you'd like to take a tour of the bus, go to www.lennonbus.org and check out the schedule of where the bus will stop next. There's also a virtual tour of the bus you can take, though it's not so much a magical mystery tour as it is a musical history tour. However you look at it, it's a great endeavor.
GERMAN SITE "MUSO TALK"
Muso Talk, a German website dedicated to music and recording, has posted a review of the Crate FlexWave 15R. In it, the two reviewers appear to be giving the amp a nice "thumbs up," though our German isn't good enough to know exactly what's being said. Check it out for yourself--we think their facial expressions tell the story, plus you can hear what the amp sounds like.
Check out the website: http://musotalk.de/archives/209
GERMAN ROCK SUPER STAR AND CRATE AMPLIFIER PLAYER MAX BUSKOHL OF EMPTY TRASH AT MUSIK MESSE 2007
German Rock Super Star and Crate amplifier player Max Buskohl attends the 2007 Musik Produktiv Haus Messe to sign autographs. Hundreds of adoring fans showed up to meet Max, check out the latest Crate gear and race RC cars around the booth.
INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC PERFORMANCE ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH AMPEG
The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance, widely known as Europe's finest school of modern music, and Ampeg, one of the most revered names in bass amplification, are delighted to announce a brand new partnership.
The Institute, originally known to bassists the world over as the Basstech, has long been the only serious destination for bassists looking to develop their playing and performing skills to the highest levels. With a faculty composed of some of the world's finest and most experienced tutors and located in state of the art facilities in London, UK, the Institute practically invented the concept of organized and formal training for the contemporary musician. Hundreds of students now study every year across a broad portfolio of professional courses, and Institute graduates can be found working throughout the music industry.
Ampeg, whose legendary amps are the stuff of dreams for all rock bassists, have for more than 50 years been at the forefront of developing amplification equipment that has been the choice of some of the most famous names of the last 50 years. Names like the Stones, Kiss, Beastie Boys, Billy Sheehan, Michael Anthony, Kiss, AC/DC, New York Dolls, Tony Levin and many more awesome bands and players have chosen Ampeg as their amp of choice.
Pete Whittard, Managing Director at the Institute, said:
'This is a great honour for us, since this is the first education-related partnership for Ampeg in the UK, and great news for all of our students. Having spent the last three years investing hundreds of thousands of pounds in the development of world class premises and the latest industry-standard equipment here at the Institute, our students can now count on some of the best-equipped facilities in the country. However, with the addition of Ampeg to our stable of world class partners, students will now have access to equipment made by one of the top names in bass amplification. Everybody knows that the Ampeg story is pretty much the story of the last 50 years of rock and roll!'
In addition to Ampeg, their sister company Crate will also be joining the roster of Institute partners with their great range of quality bass and guitar combos and practice amps. So if you are serious about playing and studying the bass and looking to develop a career in the music industry, there has never been a better time to enroll on a course at the Institute!
About The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance:
The Institute is widely recognised as Europe's finest school of modern music. Established over 20 years ago, the Institute has been developing and delivering cutting-edge courses to students of contemporary music for longer than any other UK-based school. Originally known as the Guitar Institute and Basstech, the school has built its reputation on providing world class teaching using the very best teachers and state-of-the-art facilities. It now offers a range of professional courses including a 3-year Degree (BMus), a fully-funded one year Diploma, a specialist one year Higher Diploma, plus a wide portfolio of part-time courses designed to meet a variety of training needs for guitarists, bassists, drummers and vocalists. Past or present Institute students can be found everywhere, touring with the likes of Katie Melua and Moby, playing with bands like Babyshambles and Radiohead and artists like K. T. Tunstall and Beverley Knight, working as teachers all over the world and achieving credits with the likes of Jamelia, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Carl Palmer, Blue, Westlife, Busted, McFly and Holly Valance.
ZZ TOP'S HONORABLE VEGAS STOP
Rock's most bearded threesome played a very special gig in Las Vegas on May 24th, as ZZ Top was féted at the VH1 Rock Honors show. Billy F. Gibbons, the celebrated iconoclast/guitarist for the group, did it up in his usual impeccable style with a celebratory set of Top chart toppers, played through a mammoth wall of custom Crate amps and cabinets.
Featuring twelve (12!) custom 4x12" Crate cabinets and six BV120 amp heads, the whole shebang was done up in gold-colored covering with white grill cloth sewn with gold threads throughout.
The band, celebrating a storied, honor-filled rock career, is out on tour this summer with Stray Cats and Pretenders. ZZ's guitar amp backline of choice? Crate, of course.