Gerry Shephard's STAR GUITAR story!!

Perhaps the one most memorable icon of all 'Glitter' and 'Glam' music throughout the 70's was the novelty of custom made guitars, we had Slade's Super Yob, and Mud' Heart shaped guitar but the first and none more famous and memorable than Gerry Shephard's star shaped guitar, which was introduced in 1972 at the start of the 'Glitter' days. The guitar represented the larger than life symbolism of that era.

The first Gold Sparkle Star Guitar was made for Mike Leander, as his protégé '"Gary Glitter's" first record 'Rock n Roll Pt2' soared up the charts. The idea for the guitar was a brain wave of Mike's, and he gave the guitar as a surprise to Gerry Shephard moments before taking to the stage in the Top of The Pops studios, who can remember Gerry struggling with the guitar strap during that particular performance? As John Rossall recalls “Gerry’s face was a picture when Mike walked in with the guitar for the first time, Mike opened the case and we all looked in amazement at this bright gold glittering guitar, needless to say Gerry thought Mike was having him on about using it properly and there was some persuading to get Gerry to use it”, Gerry confirms "I think Mike was offended at first as he had gone out of his way to have this guitar made by someone who couldn't make guitars!, it wasn't the right scale length for a guitar, so I said so!, it was silly of me at the time but I was young and agreed to use it"

The origins of the gold guitar remains quite a mystery, no one knows for sure, however Mike Leander's colleague and friend Eddie Seago thought that Mike had it built by a friend of his in the BBC props department, but no one can be that positive about it's origins although a few have laid false claim to it’s manufacture. Gerry was never quite sure just where it came from, although Gerry says “When I first plugged it into an amp it was useless, but nothing that a couple of new Gibson pickups wouldn’t cure” The guitar was used on stage throughout the world as 'Gary Glitter' reached the pinnacle of his success. The guitar was, however, not one of the best around and would quickly lose it tuning during performances, Gerry recalls "Anyone who went to our early shows may recall a roadie nipping onstage and taking it off to be re-tuned, about four or five times during the show!" Due to this problem it was never used in the recording studio by Gerry. Gerry adds “Basically the guitar was a kind of stage prop-ish and so it was always in it’s case travelling with the rest of the equipment for stage shows, when we had time for recording we just used whatever we could, even hiring guitars from the local music store, for anyone interested the slide guitar sound on our early hits (and Gary's) was reproduced on a Gibson SG, as this gave more depth to the sound in the studio” On stage there were always three guitars, a fender which was tuned up normally and used by Gerry, the Star which was tuned to 'A' and used by Gerry and sometimes Harvey, and a Gibson which was tuned to 'G' for a couple of Gary's songs which used a different key. Latterly the band had four guitars, where Harvey also had a Gibson tuned to 'A' as Gerry says "The Star Guitar always used to be in it's stand in front of Tony's drum kit, so for Harvey to keep coming to the opposite side of the stage for it meant a lot of wires (no wireless amps in those days), and as you know platform boots and trailing wires don't mix!"

The gold guitar even made two film appearances, with Gary Glitter's 'Remember Me This Way' and the Glitter Band's 'Never Too Young To Rock'.

It was on a Tuesday night in Tiffany's club in Bournemouth that the gold guitar made it's last appearance on stage, as Tony Leonard recalls "It was near the end of the show and we had come on stage for an encore, when two fans got on stage and grabbed Gerry, Gerry lost his balance and fell over" Gerry continues "Yeah I remember falling and instinctively held onto the guitar to break my fall and that was that, it snapped in two!" "It had had one knock too many by this time, I mean a couple of the points had been knocked off in the past but this seemed a bit too much, Mike wasn't amused at all and so to make it up to him I took the guitar to a good friend of mine who had repaired it in the past and asked him to fix it up, which he did and it seemed fine when I called to collect it, so I packed it for our tour of Australia" John Springate adds "Oh yes, I remember landing in Australia and waiting at the baggage carousel when I heard one of Gerry's famous "Oh F******g Hells", the huge case that held the case was busted, Gerry looked inside and there it was, broken in two, again" "I was a bit annoyed" says Gerry, "the repair hadn't been cheap and it hadn't worked either, plus it meant I needed another guitar now so it was off to buy another Gibson for the short tour, this was now the second guitar of mine destroyed by the baggage handlers in Australia, thanks chaps!"

Gerry then found himself, 'Star Guitar Less'!. The remnants of the original guitar were placed in a holdall and after much discussion the decision was taken to have a replacement built, Gerry made some frantic phone calls to Rob Davies, his friend from MUD, who suggested Gerry contact Midlands guitar maker John Birch.

Star Guitar Mk2, (the silver one) came into existence in Birmingham in July 1975, as Gerry had decided to have it built by legendary guitar maker 'John Birch', who had created custom guitars, such as "Mud's" heart shaped guitar built for Rob Davies, and Dave Hill's (Slade) Super Yob guitar and Roy Wood's 'Spade' John Birch also made standard guitars for the like of Brian May and other top players. However the pressure was on John Birch and his team of John Diggins and Ala Hexley as Gerry needed the guitar for the release of 'Love In The Sun' in August of that year.

The broken gold guitar was rebuilt and tacked together by John Birch, and was handed to his partner John Diggins as a template for a new one. John Diggins carefully constructed the new guitar, it was John's idea to incorporate the fancy decorative headstock at the top of the guitar neck. The cost of the guitar?, a cool £400, which in 1975 was a lot of money!.

Harvey recalls “We went to pick the guitar up from John Birch’s offices, Gerry wasn’t too happy with it at first as it played too well, and Birch’s technicians had to do some work with it before we would take it, the case was huge, and as we put it in the car we had no space for the old gold one, so Gerry broke it back up put it in a holdall and slung it in the boot of my car. It was in the boot for weeks, one of the roadies saw it and took all of the hardware off it leaving just the wood and Strings, where that lot went is a mystery! Gerry was also moaning about the colour, as it should have been a silver flake finish, why Silver anyway?, Gerry said that Silver was more 'glitter' than gold!!"

The new silver guitar joined the 'Glitter Band' for Top of The Pops in August 1975, one of the first things Gerry did was remove the bridge and replace it with the one off the gold guitar!, why? "John Birch's bridges were pretty crap" says Gerry.

The Silver Star worked with Gerry until the band split in 1977, where it remained in a lock-up, owned by CBS records, along with the band's other equipment. It was in 1978 that CBS decided to clear out the Lock-Up and sell the gear, as they needed to recoup some money that was lost on the re-launch of the ‘Paris Match’ album.

A former band roadie recognised the case for the guitar and he swiped it into the back of his van and took it over to Gary Glitter's flat, Gary in turn then got it in his head that HE owned the guitar. As Gary was in the middle of his Silver Star cabaret tour he used it as a prop at the back of the stage and then gave it to Ollie who was Gary’s guitarist for the tour. After the tour had ended Gary gave the guitar to his son Paul, who put it under his bed and that is where it remained for over a year.

It was in 1980 when Gerry returned to join Gary that Gerry asked where the guitar was, no one knew except Mike Mingard (Gary’s manager) who had noticed it in Gary’s son’s bedroom, Mike and Gerry set off to get the guitar.

Gerry recalls “The guitar was in a right mess and at first I thought I’d leave it where it was! the original pick-ups and control knobs had been removed and the guitar converted to play left-handed. I managed to find an original pick-up to place back on the guitar, and several repair/paint jobs were carried out as the guitar had suffered some damage through the years. I then took it back home in readiness for the 'Circus' tour and beyond"

"The guitar was damaged again in 1984 when Gary was posing with it he dropped it and one of the star points fell off, I taped it back together with a couple of stickers a roadie gave me, which seemed to hold it quite well! a couple of months later a friend told me that he had found another original John Birch pick-up, so I took the guitar to a shop in London where they repaired the star point and fitted the new pick up, it also had another respray!”

The silver star was also used in the studio and did make it onto the band's recordings after Love In The Sun, whilst in the studio recording 'Until The Next Time' the guitar was spotted by Adam and the Ants guitarist Marco Perroni, Marco offered Gerry a straight cash deal to buy the guitar, but after some careful consideration Gerry turned the offer down, however, Gerry did allow Marco to use the guitar in one of the videos being recorded for Adam and the Ants 'Apollo 9' single.

In 1996 the guitar was taken to 'Ray Cooper' an eminent guitar repairman for a full refurbishment programme. The paint and varnish were stripped off and the body of the guitar and the neck were both dismantled and painstakingly rebuilt, the electric's were also replaced, and finally the guitar was resprayed in it's new large flake glitter finish which Gerry had originally wanted, the repair work cost £1,000.

Gerry continued the use the guitar up until he announced his retirement in 2002, although Gerry would never admit it he did once let slip that he was immensely proud of the guitar, fans who wanted pictures taken with the guitar knew that Gerry was quite protective over it, unless they persisted!!

Over the years there have been a few attempts at copies, some good some awful, Gerry says "You know people would trace around the star with a thick marker pen and always get a guitar that was too big and cumbersome, but I always had to be polite as these people had spent good money on copying something that was unique which was mine so I should feel rather flattered" "The best copy and most original replica was built by Chris Shaw, a guitar maker in Manchester in 1998, the scale was correct as was the fret board etc etc, yeah I was impressed with that one" enthuses Gerry.

The Guitar is now in full retirement following Gerry's passing and is cherished and cared for every day, I bet it could tell some stories if it could talk!

The Star Guitar Story -- Gerry Shephard Feb 2002, with contributions from John Rossall, Harvey Ellison, John Springate and Tony Leonard.

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Read Paul Stradden's John Birch History