Guitar Hero

A long time ago, at primary school in Birmingham, Molly had guitar lessons and her own acoustic guitar. But, like children do, she stopped when we moved up to Pocklington.

(I'm assured it's children and not just our child who start something with great passion and commitment and then slowly lose interest. Or is it just Molly?)

So, we come to Pocklington the guitar went by the wayside. There was some interest in drums, even getting so far as to have Grandpa's drum kit take up seemingly permanent residence in our garage, but various things have stopped that one taking off. And then we had the trumpet. We always said we'd support her in any musical, sporting or generally worthwhile endeavour but, in retrospect, neither Louise or I are sure that the trumpet was the best idea we ever supported.

Fast forward a little while. Molly's finishing off primary school and it's becoming obvious she's absolutely no interest in trumpet anymore. With perfect timing, we finally have the "I don't want to do trumpet anymore about 2 years and 1 month after buying the thing. So much for the idea of 80% of the money back if she gives it up inside 2 years. Have you ever tried to sell a trumpet on ebay? It's not the easiest of things.

Fast forward again. About half a term into secondary school. Now she wants to do guitar lessons. Fair enough, have a cheque and enjoy. Now she wants an electric guitar because her acoustic isn't good enough. We'd obviously wised up at this point. Or maybe I was still smarting over the money lost on that damn trumpet. And we told her to either put it on her Christmas list or save up for it.

Well, it took her nearly 5 months of saving up, but she did it. And now she's the proud owner of this:

Guitar, amp, accessories provided by the great Pocklington Music. Guitar hero posing and dreams of stardom - all the models own.

Pocklington Music were absolutely marvellous with us. Sure, we could have gone to Argos at York and got a cheaper package. But the package deal we got going with the local shop (guitar, amp, strap, bag, stand, lead) was very, very good. Plus we got to stick to the principle we decided on last year - where we can buy it independently and locally we will. Any excess in terms of price should be written off as a payment to keep the town vibrantly independent and full of shops. In the end we decided it was a small price to pay.

And you know what, a couple of weeks later, as I'm leaving the house and the owner of Pocklington Music walks past and asks me how Molly's getting on - you don't get that at Argos. Likewise, when Molly has trouble, she can pop into the shop for a tune-up, advice, or just to show off how she's doing. That's what local is all about.