Russ Parrish (Satchel of Steel Panther) at 16 in Mike Varney's Spotlight column in Guitar Player mag

DLM

Just raided my back issues and uploaded this for the Racer X forum posse to stick in their new Wiki and thought a couple of Satchel fans on here might like to see it, too:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4297/35916619020_d0385a3c47_k.jpg

This was when he was at GIT studying with Paul Gilbert. He was living only ten minutes' walk from Musicians' Institute going by that address.

LaCathedrale_UK

I've been re-listening to Steel Panther's "Lower the Bar", definitely a fantastic album. Obviously they are very self aware, and it makes it for me - party retro rock with an attitude of having fun and not taking life so bloody seriously. 

If you haven't seen the rig rundown he did for Premier Guitar, it's a masterpiece:

DLM

I should have posted the URL for the new Racer X Wiki: http://racer-x-band.wikia.com/wiki/Racer_X_Wiki

@WilliamAyerst I've seen that Rebecca Dirks interview a couple of times at least. Time for a re-watch!

Probably oughtta pick up the latest two Panther albums. I've just been attending the concerts and watching them on YouTube.

bazxkr

DLM said:

@WilliamAyerst I've seen that Rebecca Dirks interview a couple of times at least. Time for a re-watch!

ha......I've watched that video half a dozen times and only just noticed that Satchel is in it as well LOL

bingefeller

Amazing find.  Have you seen that video of him on Youtube practicing licks around 1990 / 1991?  He would have only been playing around 6 or 7 years at that stage.....amazing stuff. 

Philly_Q

I appreciate he's a very fine player, but I really can't stand Steel Panther.  Does he also have any boring serious bands where he doesn't wear a wig?

bingefeller

Philly_Q said:

I appreciate he's a very fine player, but I really can't stand Steel Panther.  Does he also have any boring serious bands where he doesn't wear a wig?

Yeah, check him out in a VH cover band called The Atomic Punks, there are some videos of them on youtube.  He nails Eddie's tone and phrasing.   He was in Rob Halford's band Fight, Jeff Pilson's War and Peace and played on Kevin Gilbert's Live at the Troubadour album.

LaCathedrale_UK

@DLM Lower the Bar is definitely the best since 'Feel the Steel' - I saw them live at Brixton and it was great fun. 

Philly_Q

bingefeller said:

Philly_Q said:

I appreciate he's a very fine player, but I really can't stand Steel Panther.  Does he also have any boring serious bands where he doesn't wear a wig?

Yeah, check him out in a VH cover band called The Atomic Punks, there are some videos of them on youtube.  He nails Eddie's tone and phrasing.   He was in Rob Halford's band Fight, Jeff Pilson's War and Peace and played on Kevin Gilbert's Live at the Troubadour album.

Yes, I've got the first Fight album, which is OK, and I think I listened to War & Peace once.  I've seen some of the VH cover stuff (isn't that where SP evolved - or devolved - from?).  I'm pretty sure I also saw some clips of him playing in a very good Rush cover band a few years back (he hadn't bothered trying to look like Alex Lifeson). 

But I was more wondering if he had any recent projects playing original material.  I guess Steel Panther is pretty much full-time nowadays.

bingefeller

Philly_Q said:

bingefeller said:

Philly_Q said:

I appreciate he's a very fine player, but I really can't stand Steel Panther.  Does he also have any boring serious bands where he doesn't wear a wig?

Yeah, check him out in a VH cover band called The Atomic Punks, there are some videos of them on youtube.  He nails Eddie's tone and phrasing.   He was in Rob Halford's band Fight, Jeff Pilson's War and Peace and played on Kevin Gilbert's Live at the Troubadour album.

Yes, I've got the first Fight album, which is OK, and I think I listened to War & Peace once.  I've seen some of the VH cover stuff (isn't that where SP evolved - or devolved - from?).  I'm pretty sure I also saw some clips of him playing in a very good Rush cover band a few years back (he hadn't bothered trying to look like Alex Lifeson). 

But I was more wondering if he had any recent projects playing original material.  I guess Steel Panther is pretty much full-time nowadays.

Ah right, I'm not sure about any recent bands.  As you say, Steel Panther probably takes up all of his time these days. 

DLM

bingefeller said:

Have you seen that video of him on Youtube practicing licks around 1990 / 1991?  He would have only been playing around 6 or 7 years at that stage.....amazing stuff. 

Yeah, beautiful picking technique. @bingefeller

@Philly_Q I think Steel Panther is too much of a steady day job for him to do anything else.

axisus

I remember seeing Ritchie Kotzen and Brian Carroll (Buckethead) in that column as well. 

Philly_Q

axisus said:

I remember seeing Ritchie Kotzen and Brian Carroll (Buckethead) in that column as well. 

Yngwie Malmsteen and Paul Gilbert (aged 15) were in a couple of the very earliest columns.  Also Vinnie Moore, Jennifer Batten, Ron Thal, Greg Howe, Shawn Lane, Tony Mac Alpine, Scott Henderson... he wasn't a bad talent spotter, that Mr Varney.

FarleyUK

bingefeller said:

Philly_Q said:

bingefeller said:

Philly_Q said:

I appreciate he's a very fine player, but I really can't stand Steel Panther.  Does he also have any boring serious bands where he doesn't wear a wig?

Yeah, check him out in a VH cover band called The Atomic Punks, there are some videos of them on youtube.  He nails Eddie's tone and phrasing.   He was in Rob Halford's band Fight, Jeff Pilson's War and Peace and played on Kevin Gilbert's Live at the Troubadour album.

Yes, I've got the first Fight album, which is OK, and I think I listened to War & Peace once.  I've seen some of the VH cover stuff (isn't that where SP evolved - or devolved - from?).  I'm pretty sure I also saw some clips of him playing in a very good Rush cover band a few years back (he hadn't bothered trying to look like Alex Lifeson). 

But I was more wondering if he had any recent projects playing original material.  I guess Steel Panther is pretty much full-time nowadays.

Ah right, I'm not sure about any recent bands.  As you say, Steel Panther probably takes up all of his time these days. 

He was also in Electric Fence in the 90's (so not recent) ..... with Paul Gilbert (who he shared rooms with - and co-taught with - at GiT).

bingefeller

FarleyUK said:

bingefeller said:

Philly_Q said:

bingefeller said:

Philly_Q said:

I appreciate he's a very fine player, but I really can't stand Steel Panther.  Does he also have any boring serious bands where he doesn't wear a wig?

Yeah, check him out in a VH cover band called The Atomic Punks, there are some videos of them on youtube.  He nails Eddie's tone and phrasing.   He was in Rob Halford's band Fight, Jeff Pilson's War and Peace and played on Kevin Gilbert's Live at the Troubadour album.

Yes, I've got the first Fight album, which is OK, and I think I listened to War & Peace once.  I've seen some of the VH cover stuff (isn't that where SP evolved - or devolved - from?).  I'm pretty sure I also saw some clips of him playing in a very good Rush cover band a few years back (he hadn't bothered trying to look like Alex Lifeson). 

But I was more wondering if he had any recent projects playing original material.  I guess Steel Panther is pretty much full-time nowadays.

Ah right, I'm not sure about any recent bands.  As you say, Steel Panther probably takes up all of his time these days. 

He was also in Electric Fence in the 90's (so not recent) ..... with Paul Gilbert (who he shared rooms with - and co-taught with - at GiT).

Their slow version of Sacrifice is amazing.  Paul plays a Danelectro baritone guitar on it. 

Bennyboy-UK

Awsome! - and obviously amazing guitar as well. I've shared this picture on the Hamer Fan Club, and referenced the link back to this forum - let me know if thats not OK.

Cheers,
Ben.

DLM

@Bennyboy-UK Naw, man, that's fine. You can send the Hamer lads over to the Racer X forum and the new Wiki for more information.

bingefeller

@DLM is the Racer X forum active again? 

DLM

@bingefeller It is active, but rather b0rken. As long as it remains up, and there is anything to keep talking about, I'll continue to post there. The second iteration of that board was when I first started foruming as we now know it.

bingefeller

DLM said:

@bingefeller It is active, but rather b0rken. As long as it remains up, and there is anything to keep talking about, I'll continue to post there. The second iteration of that board was when I first started foruming as we now know it.

They need to fix it and maybe people will come back.  Does Sean Baker and the surgeon still post there?

DLM

Sean Baker (stringskipper) logged on in January, I don't think the surgeon has been on in years.

I see James, the chap who bought PG's pink Mockingbird, around on Twitter and Instagram occasionally: https://www.instagram.com/guitaristjames/ https://twitter.com/smileyjim68?lang=de

The problem is that no one has really taken over running the community. Ken Hower is long gone, I think his big thing became all-terrain quads. No one really filled his shoes. Big Tom from Leeds has kept the place online, which is great, but I'd not be at all surprised if he didn't think the current traffic levels didn't justify the amount of work he'd have to put into making everything functional again.

If you've listened to the Double Stop podcast, you'll have heard Jeff Martin and Bruce Bouillet say why Racer X isn't doing anything: PG wants to do other things. With the new Mr. Big album and his solo stuff, I'm sure he has more than enough work on, and makes enough money with the teaching products to feel no great pressure.