Sheffield-based singer – songwriter Philippa Hanna should be forgiven for feeling highly strung after a well-known Scandinavian Airline failed to take care of her prized guitar. Her White Falcon Gretsch acoustic was so badly damaged, the manufacturer’s repair shop has said ‘it doesn’t look like an accident to us’.
Having toured with Little Mix across Europe in 2016, Philippa was invited to perform a string of her own concerts in Norway which led to more than one stressful challenge. After one airline lost her luggage on a connecting flight via Amsterdam and nearly missing a gig, irreparable damage to her guitar was the last thing she could have wished for.
The singer who has toured in nearly thirty countries around the globe and written for Grammy-nominated artists in Nashville said she was ‘absolutely gutted’ to find her treasured possession in pieces. With air-travel being a regular part of life for musicians, fans were shocked to see her lose her 2nd guitar at the hands of baggage handlers in less than three years.
With another big tour just around the corner, Gretsch who are part of the same group as Fender offered to fix the guitar as a goodwill gesture for the singer who believes she is ‘made to fly’ , according to the lyrics of her latest song, Arrow. Having employed their best efforts to fix the instrument, the suggestion has been made that it must have been taken out of the case and either stood on or had something balanced on the neck. So baffled by the untimely death of the Falcon, the company has delivered a brand new replacement just in time for Philippa to support Marti Pellow on his current tour. Catch Phillippa alongside Marti at Wales Millennium Centre this evening (March 19).
- Visit http://www.wmc.org.uk for ticket details
- Read a Q&A with Marti Pellow about his Mysterious album and Cardiff show