A piece of rock and roll history up for grabs in a charity auction

Ever wished that you could own a genuine piece of rock and roll history? Well now you can thanks to Ethical Superstore, the UK’s leading online ethical retailer, who is auctioning off an environmentally-friendly electric guitar – signed by indie rock band Reverend and the Makers – for charity.

Guitarist Tom Jarvis strummed away the Simon Lee Cyclotron Webster at several of this Summer’s festivals including Glastonbury, T in the Park and V. The guitar is hand-made of crushed CD fragments seized by Trading Standards during a raid on illegal production facilities. The fragments are suspended in translucent plastic from office water cooler bottles and the back of the guitar has been signed by the members of the hit Sheffield band who burst on to the scene last year with their album ‘The State of Things’.

Last month, the first guitar torched on stage by Jimi Hendrix was sold for whopping £280,000 at a London auction of rock memorabilia. Not many of us have that kind of cash to splash so how about instead visiting Ethical Superstore to bid on this special lot?

All money raised will be donated to the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Unit at St. James’s Hospital Leeds which is a cause close to Tom’s heart, he says: “One of my closest friends, whom I was in a band with, receives her treatment there and I have visited the ward on a few occasions and seen what an amazing job they do.

I loved playing the eco guitar on the festival circuit this year. I’ve played it a couple of tracks on our next album, “French Kiss in the Chaos”, which will be out next year and I didn’t really want to part with it but the auction’s for an extremely good cause. Whoever, wins the auction will find themselves with a cool looking, great sounding rock guitar. I may even put a bid in myself!”

Rachel Metcalfe, ward manager of The Adult Cystic Fibrosis Unit commented, “We would like to express our sincere thanks and gratitude to Ethical Superstore and Reverend and the Makers for choosing our unit to benefit. We currently care for 360 patients with Cystic Fibrosis and despite recent advances in treatments the average age of survival remains at 39 years. There is therefore, much work to be done and we are grateful for all the help we receive. The staff and patients appreciate this very special gesture.”

The auction ends on Sunday 19th October at 8pm so get your bids at the ready and bag yourself an authentic (and recycled) piece of British rock and roll history.

Check out Ethical Superstore for the rest of the range of eco-guitars made by Simon Lee. Unlike conventional guitars often made from endangered hardwoods, these are produced from recycled materials – from Factory reject yoghurt pots to off-cuts from industrial pipes – using environmentally sound processes wherever possible.

Each guitar is made to order for each person and rockers can choose between the Cylotron Benton – a more traditional telecaster shape for £815 – and the Cyclotron Webster which is a bold new design using the timeless combination of three single coils for £850.

Click on the link and scroll down to view a clip of Tom playing the Simon Lee eco-guitar.

Tags: charity

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 12th, 2008 at 11:18 am and is filed under Ethical Pulse. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.