The Heartbreaker and the Killer

When news was announced recently that the ‘Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses’ exhibition is to open next year and feature rare and unseen photos of the band it brought two images to mind that we at Warwick hold precious.

The pictures to the right are rare photos taken in the early Nineties that show Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic with his Warwick Dolphin and the left-handed Cobain himself playing the Dolphin upside-down during a radio show session in Holland.

It is always a pleasant surprise and a special occasion for us at Warwick HQ when photos of this kind are unearthed, the caliber of the artists only confirm to us how much the Warwick and Framus brands are respected by top musicians and it really adds to our ever growing legacy. 

Other gems we have dug up in recent months concern the artists Ron Blair of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Arthur ‘Killer’ Kane of the New York Dolls. 

Ron Blair was the Heartbreaker’s original bass player in the ’70s and played on most of Tom Petty’s classic albums, but he left the group in 1982. Twenty one years later, he rejoined the Heartbreakers and has been with the band ever since. That’s one hell of a hiatus. The Framus bass pictured on the right is the very one Ron rocked on stage with Tom Petty at Colorado’s Red Rocks amphitheater in ’05. It is now proudly treasured and displayed in the Hard Rock Café in Dallas, Texas. 

The story surrounding Arthur ‘Killer’ Kane’s ownership of an early Framus bass is less solidified in fact but perhaps more steeped in legend. The bass in question now hangs on the wall of its proud owner’s hallway in New York ‘like  a work of art’. Purchased at a yard sale in Woodstock, NY, the current owner claims he bought the bass with the understanding that it previously belonged to ‘Killer’. And as he rightly says, ‘if the seller were going to lie, surely he'd have chosen a musician higher up the fame scale’.

Apparently the Framus cost its current owner just 45 dollars, was missing a pickup and had a sloppy hole cut in the back through which some inept electrical repair had been abortively attempted. It also supposedly has Arthur Kane’s belt buckle inserted underneath the bridge, talk about the personal touch.

Unfortunately we could not track the owner down to get an original photo of this until now hidden gem but to the right is a picture of the exact same instrument and what it must have looked like in its youth.

For other historic gems check out: www.framus-vintage.de