Vox Wah-Wah
When Hilary Menos got together with guitarist Andy Brodie she found herself sharing space with a 1967 Gretsch Double Anniversary, a 1962 Vox AC30 and an array of guitar pedals with names like Dr Scientist Reverberator, Nocturne Dyno Brain and Rozz Super Baby Flanger. Soon she could tell a Tele from a Strat and a humbucker from a P90, and in the eternal conversation about where rock’n’roll came from and who did it best, she got game!
Frank Sinatra said rock’n’roll was ‘the most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear.’ Frank is between these covers, as are Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, Karen Carpenter and Etta James, among others. But this is not just a celebration of rock’n’roll greats. Menos explores the stories behind iconic moments in rock history, the impact of sound on the body and the joy of reckless abandon. The poems in Vox Wah-Wah suggest how to live, how to love and (with a bit of help from Elvis) how to leave this world.
These playful, sad and tender poems explore our present by examining icons and objects of our past. This is more than simple nostalgia, though – sometimes counterfactual, always sparkily imaginative, these are poems which help us see ourselves in the slipstreams of flared-out and faded-away legends of rock’n’roll, Hollywood, and widescreen cultural history. Vox Wah-Wah has, at its heart, a deeply touching study of love, ageing and maturing which is beautifully deft. — Antony Dunn
Vox Wah-Wah cuts a deep precise slice through the popular culture of its age with expertise, intelligence and humour and, finally, with tenderness for music fading into distance, the passing of time. — Philip Gross
These poems crackle and spit like chestnuts roasting. Approach with caution. — Helena Nelson
Used & Vintage
His first was a Fender Squier made in Japan
which he part-ex’d at Mansons in Exeter for an Epiphone
which he traded for a pretty little Rickenbacker Jetglo
which he swapped for half a car and a Gibson Les Paul Studio
which he lost to the drummer in a late-night drunken bet
so had to sell his half car, at a loss, to buy the Gretsch
which he kept for decades until one night on Instagram
he saw, fell in love with, and bought the blue Dan Dunham
which he ditched last year for the blonde Tele here in his lap —
ash body, maple neck, just starting to open up
the way tone woods do, like sycamore, spruce, mahogany,
the grain settling in sweeter patterns the more you play
so with use and age comes depth and resonance
and I look at him and think, yes.