Vagrant Guitars And Effects

Stockton’s Green Dragon Yard has been dubbed the heart of Stockton’s creative sector. It is best known as the location of the town’s famous Georgian Theatre which sits up a slight incline at the north end of the yard (established in 1766 after being converted from a tithe barn, and one of the oldest surviving provincial theatres in the country which, since 2006, has been home to Tees Music Alliance). The theatre is boxed in on three sides by a mix of repurposed historic warehouses four stories high including Green Dragon Studios, The Green Room and cheap starter offices for young creatives while the famous mural of Saint George the Dragon Slayer, by artist Zac Newton, adorns the south wall…

Now, a new specialist guitar shop is set to become the latest addition to the yard’s post-industrial roll call. Vagrant Guitars and Effects will open in September, promising one-offs, classics and the full range of guitar accessories, taking its place in a small unit next to the theatre itself which was most recently Tuk Tuk Thai takeaway.

Co-proprietor Jim Riggall’s name may be familiar as a local musician of some repute whether in solo guise as JP Riggall or as the singer/guitarist in a number of successful local bands, most notably Weathership and The Broken Broadcast who are both veterans of regional music festivals including Twisterella and Stockton Calling. Vagrant Guitars and Effects is the joint project of Jim and Broken Broadcast and Weathership lead guitarist ‘Snowy’.

I caught up with Jim and Snowy who have spent the last couple of months juggling their day jobs with builder and electrician schedules getting Vagrant Guitars and Effects ready to open and they were keen to tell me how the pandemic inadvertently played a part in the pair getting the project off the ground. Jim: “I started looking into it during lockdown [when I] decided to buy a new guitar and try some pedals. I found some on eBay that weren't up to scratch but got them working again and sold them for a profit.”

Snowy: “We are both quite creative and I think the motivation stems from wanting to help people in a similar situation. There is a good scene at the minute with some young bands playing regular gigs at the small venues we have [in Stockton] but we haven't had a local guitar shop for a few years so the timing was right for us. Hopefully we can help the music community by being a source of advice and be able to provide some interesting guitars or effects that may spark some inspiration.”

Jim: “We want guitars that are both classic and stand out so we will have some one-offs in terms of discontinued guitars we'll hunt down and I'll be putting some together myself too as that is a hobby of mine. The tuning I use [when playing live] originally put me in a position to learn how to set my guitars up so they're useable, I guess that was the very start of my love affair with delving deep into guitars.”

Both Jim and Snowy are keen the boutique shop will also serve as a social hub for aspiring guitarists, marking out the shop as an ethos as much as a business and following in the footsteps of Sound It Out Records and, more recently, Middlesbrough’s Press On Vinyl. Snowy: “We're both excited by being able to talk about guitars all day. I think Sound It Out and Press On both embody the spirit that if you have a passion for something people can see that and actually want to drop in and spend time chatting about their shared interest.” Jim: “And we've got a brilliant location in Green Dragon Yard too thanks to Tees Music Alliance and Stockton Council.”

So, how easy has it been to get to this point of the project, I wondered? Snowy: “It is definitely a learning curve! It was easy to reach the point where we actually needed to get the ball rolling although the hardest part is actually being patient whilst all the paperwork and physical work that has gone into getting the shop ready is completed. We've both had to grab a paint brush at some point!”

Jim: “We've had a massive amount of encouragement from those around us and those in the know. If we can get it to where we think we're going, then I think it'll be pretty amazing. We're hoping that we will eventually see a big wall of some very special guitars and a cabinet full of the most useful pedals a guitarist can own.

"If we can get to the point where we have some beautiful boutique guitars as well as your traditional favourites, then we'll be doing well. Hopefully we'll be able to get our hands on some special guitars that'll go on to become a local musician’s favourite instrument. Or maybe even a youngster’s first ever guitar. Those are the guitars that live long, and you never forget your first or favourite guitar.”

Jim and Snowy’s obvious passion for their guitars is impossible to deny while their enthusiasm for filling a gap in the local music community in such an inspiring location is equally admirable and should see Vagrant Guitars and Effects a successful addition to Stockton’s creative sector.

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Header Image: Jim and Snowy playing live (Image Hazel Littlemore)