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Edward Box Review of 2007
2008 looks like being an incredibly busy year for all of us at Alloutguitar.com with the imminent launch of Guitar Idol - not to mention many of us having new personal challenges and musical career opportunities. In the first of a series, AOG regular contributor and guitar great Edward Box gives us a personal look back at 2007.
THE LAUNCH OF VENDETTA
2007 was a good year for me professionally and the decisions I made in 2006 certainly began to pay off take fruit. I recorded the album 'Tyranny of Minority' with my band Vendetta in the summer of 2006 so there was quite a bit of paralysis as to what to do at the end of the year but after much consideration we decided to get any drummer we could lay our hands on and to get the album out. 
I negotiated a pretty good deal with my usual label Lion Music and we got all the album art together over the summer. In March we played our first proper gig with a new drummer Chris Higgins but although it went well the next few were not so good. This created a lot tension so we parted company with Chris and I managed to get a hold of Lee Lamb who slotted in really well.
His second gig was the All Out Guitar Fest in Northampton so there was no pressure there! Fortunately we were able to carry on gigging and maintain the momentum we had been gathering. The All Out gig went really well and our album had come out the day before so we sold a good deal of merchandise on the day. This was just as well as I had invested a lot of money in the band over the proceeding year and I needed to recoup all of it.
It has been a real learning curve but I'm glad I took the step because the amount of people you can reach and play in front of doing vocally orientated music is far greater than guitar instrumentals which really are a niche market. We sold more copies of Tyranny of Minority in three weeks than I sold of Plectrumhead (my first instrumental album) in five years! The reviews have been generally very positive and people have reacted to my vocals fairly well, although I always concede that I am no Ronnie Dio! At the end of the year we played the Carling Academy 2 in Newcastle and we sold nearly 300 tickets. This vindicated all the hard work we had put in over the year but now we have to do it all again and take Vendetta up another step.
The London Guitar Show april 27,28,29 2007
This was a hoot as usual but I must confess that I, like many others, preferred the vibe of Wembley. The All Out crew were there in force and as usual we drank far too much but I think the show helped to raise our profile even more and we are all set for next year to be a really defining moment for the magazine. It was great to meet Mike Blackburn, Ben Mcdonell and Mark Robinson to go along with my other sparring partners. As usual, Andy James destroyed all in his path and Jonny Highland played some great guitar on the PRS stand. I managed to sell a few CD's (which always helps!) and we had a great curry night which turned into a real adventure. I ventured back to Newcastle with a heavy head!