James brandishes his ’63 SG Junior alongside Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders at 2023’s Great Escape Festival
PHOTO BY LORNE THOMSON/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES
What was the first serious guitar that you bought with your own money?
“It was a Guild D-25 that I bought from Andy’s guitar shop [at number 27] on Denmark’s Street. I think it was £400 at the time. I learned quite a bit on that guitar – just acoustic, you know. I was very much into bluegrass and stuff back then, so I’d play a lot of that on that guitar. But I eventually lost it a few years later. We were playing in New York and I left it in the back of a taxicab. It was the start of a tour – I was only about 20 or something and I remember feeling unwell and so I took Night Nurse in the middle of the day. Played the gig and left it in the back of a cab never to be seen again.”