Who remembers this guy

[AFD5]

My story starts the night before this footage was filmed. OK so it's August 18th 1988 1 day before my 29th birthday & 2 days before my 1st Donington Festival. Now earlier in  the week i'd been to a gig at Newcastle City Hall & was flicking through the program during the interval waiting for the main band to come on. Sometimes in the program's there'd be adverts for local bars music & record shops etc. Now 1 tiny advert caught my eye it read "junior Jimi Hendrix to play gig" it went on to say the gig was on 18th August at The Percy Arms in Newcastle now this intrigued me. So I thought i'd have a couple of early birthday drinks & see who this kid was.

                                                                              The Percy Arms back then was a bikers pub & on Friday, Saturday & Sunday night there would be a big row of bikes lined up outside . Anway i go into the bar order a can of Red Stripe & make my way up the rickety stairs to the room were a can hear a guitar being played. I walked into the room & my jaw nearly hit the floor. There was this little kid with a Ibanez Gem Floral 7 string guitar playing Tobacco Road now i was impressed by that but then he started finger tapping I was amazed. I stood next to this guy who had a big grin on his face it turned out to be the kids dad.

                                                            The kid came over to his dad & asked him would he take him downstairs to the bar so he could play the "Super Hang On" machine. The dad asked me if i'd look after the guitar while he took the kid downstairs while he played the machine. They both came upstairs & I got talking to them both it turned out the kids name was Thomas he was 9 years old he told me his names was Thomas Mclaughlan but his stage name was going to be "McRocklin" I asked Tom's dad John were he got the guitar as i'd only ever seen a picture of a guy called Steve Vai holding one.

                                    John told me he was an antiques dealer & had been to New York were he'd seen the guitar in a music shop. John walked in & bought the guitar the manager asked John if he'd like to try the guitar John said it was for his son back in England . How old's your son asked the manager John replied 9 & the manager started laughing. So they arranged for the manager to ring John & Tom would play the guitar down the phone for him. This was before the internet. The manager was blown away. 

As I said at the beginning this was Thursday night, Donington was on Saturday on the bill was David Lee Roth with Steve Vai on guitar.I said to John it was a shame he couldn't get Tom down to  Donington to meet Steve Vai. I said he'd be amazed John asked we're Donington was I told him its in Leicestershire I shook hands with John & wished him all the best. I gave to the Van Halen T shirt I was wearing to Tom & said "if your going to be a rock star then you'll have to start dressing like one (little did I know. We said our goodbyes & that was that or so I thought. About 2 years later I was watching a program on BBC TV about "the history of heavy metal" Right at the very end of the show the above footage was shown.

                                                           For anyone who doesn't know it's The Moira Arms pub at Donington I sat amazed John had took my advice & managed to get Tom to Donington I was pleased. Only much later on did I find out that was just the tip of the iceberg. It turned out that Steve Vais roadie was in the Moira Arms that night & asked John if him & Tom could come & meet Steve (Vai) the following day. Apparently the next day they were taken backstage to meet Steve in his caravan Tom plugged in & started playing & Steve was blown away. Within a few short week's Tom was whisked over to America were under Steve's guidance Tom began rubbing shoulders with rocks finest Ozzy, Zakk Wylde, Eddie Van Halen, Blackie Lawless etc etc.

                                                      Tom appeared as "Little Stevie Vai" in The Audience Is Listening" video Steve sent him the gold disc for that. Whilst in America Steve helped Tom form a band of kids called Bad4Good they appeared a few times on MTV & Headbangers Ball. Eventually the band split up & Tom returned back to Newcastle Upon Tyne in England. He turned his back on his musical career as he didn't like the way the industry was changing. Fast forward to the current day & Tom is all grown up & a manager of a music shop in Newcastle & has just recently kickstarted his recording career having recently released an EP under the name "McRocklin" 

                                                          Tom & Steve (Vai) are still great friends & Tom still owns a couple of famous guitars given to him by Steve 1 is the swirled Ibanez on the front of Steve's Passion & Warfare album. Also Steve gave Tom the flame guitar that Steve played on David Lee Roth's video for "Going Crazy" i've managed to make contact with Tom via facebook Tom's hoping to start playing gigs again soon & we've agreed to meet up at one of his shows. 

There's loads of Tom's stuff on YouTube from when he was a kid to current day check it out & thanks for letting me share another one of my stories with you cheers Stevie aka AFD5

 

                         

 

[Len Cnut]

Ladies and Gentleman, we have another geordie!  Hows it goin' fella?

[Len Cnut]

You can never have enough Corkhills!

[AFD5]

10 minutes ago, Len Cnut said:

Ladies and Gentleman, we have another geordie!  Hows it goin' fella?

Whey Aye young 'un I'm canny how's yourself 

[AFD5]

All grown up

[31illusions]

Growing up on MTV, of course I remember him in Steve Via video and the Band Bad 4 Good. Not that they ever went anywhere, but it's a nice little foot note in rock history.

[spunko12345]

On 21/01/2019 at 4:09 PM, lukepowell1988 said:

One was enough 

I even thought that was a bit excessive.