Barrie Caswell writes:

These photos show Chris with his Fender Stratocaster, of which he was particularly proud. We bought it for his 14^th birthday and there is quite an interesting story behind it. His first electric guitar was a cheap second hand copy Fender. He wanted to compete with the rest of the boys in Plan of Action because they all had good equipment. So we agreed to get him a good guitar of his choice . He wanted an original American version of the Fender Stratocaster ideally with a sun burst coloured block. What we didn't know at the time was the Americans had stopped making them. There were however, plenty of good Japanese copies around made under licence and we trawled the music shops but Chris remained unimpressed. Fate then took a hand. Days before his birthday we went to a shop in Cwmbran near Newport, Gwent, which displayed a full range of new guitars from first class copies of the major makes as well as originals but as before not the elusive Fender. Reluctantly he tried one or two . The shop assistant sensed my frustration at his lack of enthusiasm and asked Kay if he could help. Embarrassingly she said "Thanks but I doubt it. He really wants something they don't make anymore. A Stratocaster from one the original Fender series". "You mean one like this" he said, and from under the counter he produced the Fender. Not new, but in first class condition. What was more incredible it had the familiar sun burst design on the block. Evidently, it was received only the day before not time enough for the shop to give it a proper sales promotion. We probably paid over the odds for it 23 years ago but it was worth seeing Christopher's reaction. It stayed with him ever since and not once did we hear him say I want to change my guitar. Jaime now has it on board Ocean Village.

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