Guitars
Adam J Hodgson's music career began back in the early 80's when he bought his first a guitar with his newspaper round money from a Freeman's catalogue. On a satellite guitar and using a SoundCity 10w amp he started bashing out House of the Rising Sun.
His first band was formed in Lincoln with school friends and later reformed to create BlackTide. Mostly Heavy Metal in style, they had reasonable success on the local band circuit and performed in a few quite high profile Lincoln Art College end of term parties.
Adam has always been interested in the more progressive side of rock music. The earliest memory of this was listening to Jeff Waynes War of the Worlds at 8 years old, this really sowed the seed of what could be achieved with rock. Later the Yes LP 90125 was a real turning point, refocusing his attention from the mostly heavy metal scene to one that was progressive in style. "I remember being given an old copy of 90125 by my brother-in-law, I could not stop listening to it, I think it was in my Walkman for 2 weeks solid". Yes and Van Halen were a strong influence and these two styles created an interesting mix of heavy rock and progressive twists.
BlackTide ended when Adam went to the University of Hertfordshire to study Model Making and Special Effects. Disappointed not to find like-minded people at university Adam concentrated on a solo project which was named South Side of the Sky (SSOTS), after the Yes track on the Fragile LP. This consisted of mostly instrumentals, large scale rock / progressive compositions.
During this time he became involved with Jesus Wept (JW), an up and coming college band with a modern guitar / drum machine driven industrial sound. Taking on recording and production duties he produced four albums and with the guitarist from JW, Martin Colborn, played a few "one off" SSOTS live concerts. A JW track was featured on the CD for Future Music magazine and was credited Demo of the Month award.
During this time Adam also joined a funk metal band called Zinomorph, replacing their guitarist, This was an enjoyable reprieve, but short lived. Jesus Wept finally broke up and then Adam, Martin and programmer Stevie Stamper formed -Core, a rock / dance style band. Later they were joined on vocals by Jo Ramsden and Mark Webber on bass. They gained good success on the local circuit and doubled up with Club Karma for various gigs. Most notably, Core played Leicester Theatre Royal and had a festival gig televised on local cable television.
The next band to be formed was Slippy. This was a coming together of some ex Jesus Wept members together with Adam on guitar. This band was heavier dance rock with big ambient sections, very influenced by David Sylvian's New Day album. Playing a showcase concert at London's Rock Garden, in Covent Garden, this line up was very well received, this might have led to greater things but inter band conflicts caused the end of this project.
Adam then concentrated on solo SSOTS work and has written and recorded soundtrack sections for the Shock Horror Probe, a small independent film company making low budget horror movies. Also taking time out from live work spend with his wife and young family.
Also designing and producing artwork for CD covers, which he has just completed for the progressive rock band Magenta's albums Seven, Home and The Gathering DVD through F2 Music.
Feeling the need to perform with a band again, Adam answered an advert for Rob Cottingham's band Touchstone and after a meeting and rehearsal session, Rob and Adam discovered that they both had the same dreams for a band and the new Touchstone sound was born.
"This is the band I have been waiting for, wonderful soundscapes, major guitar riffage all wrapped up in good songs...what could be better...?"
Equipment:-
Electric Guitar:-
Ernie Ball Music Man,EVH
Ernie Ball Music Man,Axis
Charvel Model B
Amp:-
Hughes & Kettner - Switch Blade
Effects:-
Boss, Guyatone, Morley
Acoustic:-
Ovation Elite special USA
Washburn Classic semi acoustic
20 essential listening:-
1. Yes, 90125 + Anything by Yes
2. Van Halen, 1 + Anything by Van Halen (except Van Halen III)
3. Anderson, Wakeman, Bruford, Howe
4. Joe Satriani, Flying In A Blue Dream
5. Asia, Asia , Alpha and Astra - (only)
6. Trevor Rabin, Can't Look Away
7. Esquire, Esquire
8. Mr Bungle, Mr Bungle
9. Faith No More, The Real Thing
10. Tesla, Mechanical Resonance
11. Ian Gillan, Magic
12. David Sylvian, New Day
13. King Crimson, Thrak
14. Lindsey Buckingham, Out Of The Cradle
15. Jon Anderson, In The City Of Angels
16. Peter, Paul and Mary, 10 Years Together
17. Genesis, Genesis
18. Cardiacs - anything
19. Simon and Garfunkel, Greatest Hits
20. Sky, Toccata