Treasured Designer Tom Dixon’s most prized possession

TREASURED /

TOM DIXON

The British designer on the guitar that played an instrumental part in his early career

Iwasplayingmusicwithmyfriendsfromaround14,andourdisco band,Funkapolitan,reallytookoffwhenIwas21.Theguitararrived somewhere in-between. It was a 1973 Fender Jazz Bass with achequeredhistory–ithadbeenstolenbyaSexPistolsroadieand sold to me. Then it was stolen again from me in a nightclub I used to run called The Titanic. I was so nostalgic about that guitar but really, it was karma. I’d bought it in questionable circumstances. Sixyearsago,weplayedaconcertattheInternationalContemporary Furniture Fair at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and I wantedaguitarfitfortheoccasion,soIboughtoneonEbay.Sometimes you hanker after these things and it’s never quite as satisfying as the original, but it’s the same colour, same year, same everything. It’s doing just as good a job. There’s something about music that allows you to really commune with people on a different plane. It’s likespeakinganalternativelanguage.Bassguitarisslightlysimpler, butthedownsideisyoucan’treallydoitonyourown.It’sasupport instrument, the goalkeeper of the band. That suits me rather well.

Thattimetaughtmeaboutself-determination.Inabandyoumake up your own music, book your own gigs, make your own posters – it’s a little business you create with your ideas. That’s something I transferredintodesign.Ihadnoconventionalteaching,butthemusic businesshadgivenmethatbeliefingettingonwithit.Thatideaof creativity without formal training is very British. I never learned how to play music either. I’m actually quite bad. tomdixon.net

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