Vegas, The Finest Country Duo in the UK

Rob Childs: All the things you ever (or never) wanted to know

Rob has been playing guitar all his life but only took up lead guitar seriously when the lead guitarist in Greta & The Stray Shots left shortly before a tour of the North East in 1991.
Rob played his first pedal steel gig on New Years Eve 1989, and until recently played it onstage and on records for the Country Rock band The Coal Porters and still does on Vegas' backing tracks and recordings, and as Myron T. Buttram in Otis Lee Crenshaw & The Black Liars. He has recently played the steel on sessions for Alternative rock band The Lisp, American Alternative Country singers Greg Trooper and Russ Tolman, and on a track called Sailors & Soldiers featuring Sid Griffin and Billy Bragg.

Rob is the proud owner of a 1971 MGB GT which he has renovated over the last few years (visit the MG Owners Club). After a hard year of working, touring the motorway system of Britain, Rob's idea of a break was to take the MG through France, Switzerland and Italy as far as Venice, then to come back through Austria, Germany, Belguim and France on the way home. Talk about a glutton for punishment! Rob reports the car was perfect from start to finish.

Rob is mad on motor racing and will happily stand in the rain to watch any kind of car racing around a track. He is most keen on historic and classic events and took part in the RAC Classic Car Run with his cousin in his Austin Healey 100M. Rob entered the MG in the 1999 Regency Run from Crystal Palace to Brighton, and it was an exhibit in the Chigwell Classic Car show. He hopes to do more of this kind of thing, gigs permitting.

Rob has quite an impressive guitar collection which at the moment includes his 1973 Emmons Double Neck Pedal Steel, three Fender Telecasters, a 1974 Martin D-35, a 1982 Les Paul Junior, his custom made Telecaster with a B-string bender fitted, a Fender Stratocaster, a Les Paul, Fender Jazz Bass, Yamaha Electro-Acoustic, Fender Mandolin and a Dobro. Rob recently managed to construct a whole new Telecaster from various spare parts he had lying around; he calls this his Frankencaster and not surprisingly it isn't the most attractive guitar in his collection. He also has a Casio Midi Guitar which plugs directly into his studio computer system. This enables the guitar to sound like any instrument and is very useful for recording the bands' backing tracks. His latest addition is a Gretsch Baritone guitar, piched half an octave lower than a regular guitar, it's the sound you hear at the start of the Desert Rose Band's One Step Forward and Clint Black's Killing Time.. Rob also has a couple of cheap Fender copy basses, an Aria electric 12 string guitar, and a Variax Line 6 guitar, which has the capability of emulating around 50 vintage guitar sounds. Rob's Telecasters are the guitars that he uses most; the Parsons/White B-Bender guitar that he uses most often; it has an internal mechanism to raise the pitch of the B string, which is operated by pulling down on the guitar strap and was made in California in 1973 by guitar maker Dave Evans, who also made Albert Lee's original B-bender guitars. Rob was recently talking to Albert after a gig and Albert offered to buy it on the spot! Rob's other Telecasters are Fenders, a black and white one with a maple neck, which was made in 1972, a 1994 Nashville and a 1982 Sunburst model with a rosewood neck and white edge-binding. Amplifier-wise Rob uses a Vox AC30 (just like the Beatles) and a Peavey Classic 50; although for most Vegas gigs he prefers to use a Line 6 Pod XT Amp simulator..