It is a story of belief and determination that has taken those behind it to some of the biggest stages in the world. Sammy Jones visits Blackstar Amplification, making a big noise after 17 years in the music industry.
SWAPPING the famous workshops of their former employer in favour of working from a garden shed in Northampton was quite the change for a group of Marshall Amplification staff.
But that was the situation when they decided there should be more to the business of sound-making and went all out to amplify their own careers.
What started as ideas bandied about across a pub table has, with the hard work, toil and sweat of those with the vision, gone on to become a leader in the field of guitar amp brands.
Today, Blackstar Amps are used by some of the world’s finest fret feelers.
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Main picture: Blackstar directors (l-r) Ian Robinson, Bruce Keir, Paul Hayhoe, Richard Frost.
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Obviously it wasn’t a rash decision to walk away from the gargantuan name of Marshall Amplification, but there must have been quite the self-belief that you could pull off the feat?
“You’re right, we always had complete belief,” says Joel Richardson, director of marketing with the brand, “Looking back at now, it seems a bit crazy how much belief we had, but we never considered we would fail.
“Having that initial association with Marshall was, and always has been, a huge upside for the business. We all cut our teeth at Marshall and the way that business was run you worked with complete autonomy.
“We gained huge experience in many different areas of business outside of our engineering, marketing and sales backgrounds. Our Marshall heritage gave us instant prestige in a crowded market. We all look back at our time at Marshall with fondness. For me personally, being the artist relations for Marshall Amps in my 20s was literally the best job in the world!” Joel considers.
“We knew we had a great team and truly great, innovative products. Bruce Keir [founder and technical director] and Ian Robinson [co-founder and managing director] had spent three years developing world-leading products in Ian’s garden shed.
“I was in a band with Ian at the time and he showed me the prototype of a HT Valve pedal which featured the ISF (infinite shape feature) control. I was blown away by this tone-shaping feature that opened up the tonal palette for guitarists, from a classic British tone to woody American and everywhere in between. It was clear to see, and hear, that these products were going to be groundbreaking. The guitar market took to them instantly.”
Undeniably, Bruce and Ian had a rock-solid reputation as amp designers, which meant that the market and the music instrument press were intrigued to see what they had come up with.
“When they heard the now patented ISF (infinite shape feature) control and DPR (Dynamic Power Reduction) features, news travelled fast and guitarists around the world wanted to use them,” Joel remembers, “The features are such useful tools for guitarists and our reputation grew quickly. I also had a good reputation with artists and the media, and was able to get our guitar amps and pedals into the hands of some big name artists – most still use Blackstar to this day, which is a real testament to the product design.”
The team that departed Marshall Amplification in 2004, cut loose their creativity in 2007.
Blackstar has some great brand ambassadors now. Who was the first one that made you think, ‘This is working’?
“It had to be when we endorsed Gus G,” Joel says, “He had just got the Ozzy Osbourne gig which elevated him to one of the most popular guitar players on the planet. Ozzy and Gus wanted a huge stage presence with 6 x 200 watt Series One valve heads and 12 x 4×12 speaker cabinets on stage. When I saw that rig on stage it was a really proud moment. That was back in 2010 so it happened in a really short span of time. We have so many long-standing artists working with us now, they are more like family. For instance, Steve Craddock from Ocean Colour Scene, Gaz Coombes from Supergrass, Jared James Nichols, Carmen Vandenberg and of course Gus. G are regular visitors to Northampton and tour the world using Blackstar products.
“It remains a ‘pinch me’ moment for all of us when we see Blackstar on a festival main stage or on a TV show like Jools Holland.”
If raw passion is your friend of business, complacency can be your enemy. How do you work to stay on trend and ahead of the curve?
“As a business we are continually innovating. We never release a product just to exist. We play to win. We identify an opportunity, benchmark against the best-selling products in that category then design the Blackstar product so it sounds better, has a unique, innovative feature set and sits at the right price point. Customers know Blackstar for great sound and innovation, which has always been and always will be part of our values.
“We constantly analyse the market and talk to our customers too,” Joel says. “We never design a product on a whim or an engineer’s preference. Once a year we host a product forum with our global distributors to assess the global market. From these meetings, we form a product roadmap for our next round of product development.”
How does the saying go? From small sheds, great brands do grow. We might just have made that one up but the sentiment is accurate.
Being based in Northampton makes staying in touch with their consumers a breeze.
“Northampton is very central and between the two major cities of London and Birmingham makes it easy for bands to come in and see us as they are either on the way or coming back from one of the major cities.”
With business booming, Blackstar now boasts a staff force of 45. Music isn’t just the job they do, it’s the lives they lead: “All of the staff are musicians. We naturally have a lot of guitarists, bass players and drummers, but also DJs and pianists.”
That passion even extends to the finance director: “He rides a Harley and plays classic guitar!” Joel smiles.
What does brand awareness look like to Blackstar?
“We never wanted to be a cottage industry brand. The goal was to be a globally recognised brand. “Firstly we wanted to be visible to guitarists. As the product catalogue has grown, we now produce world class bass amps, acoustic amps, pedals and software. We launched our first guitar amp plugin in 2023 and this is an area we will be expanding.
“To answer your question, brand awareness to us is to be in the consideration of musicians’ buying decisions.”
As the man behind the marketing, Joel’s role is integral to reaching out to music-makers. How do you do that?
“We take as much time on our marketing as we do on our product design,” he shares, “We have a marketing brain trust within the business that meets regularly to discuss our marketing.
“We have many creative heads in the business so ideas are never the issue.
“Blackstar is innovative, cool, edgy and not the establishment. We work within this criteria and keep saying the same things like our tagline from launch; ‘The Sound in your Head.’
“It’s not just a tagline for us, Blackstar Amps can give you any sound you are looking for. So to keep saying it makes complete sense. We also look at what other cool brands are doing outside of the music industry and look for trends that fit with our brand. This helps keep us fresh and relevant.”
Blackstar bagged a Queens Award for International Trade in 2011. But for all their success on the international stage, the brand strongly believes in giving back, so while they work hard to keep their A-listers happy, they backline venues The Craufurd Arms in Milton Keynes and Esquires in Bedford, and work hard to encourage the next generation, by donating gear to students.
“It’s really important for young musicians to have a good experience with our products as they are the customers and the stars of the future…”
The Blackstar story is an inspiring one of success. If someone is sitting reading this with what they consider to be a sound business plan, what advice would you give them?
“Look at the market place you are entering. Is there an opportunity for you to play to win? If the answer is yes, go for it! Blackstar has a new business plan for each financial year.
“As an executive management team we meet to discuss and decide the opportunities for the year. We set our targets and then measure our achievements monthly on our overall business objectives. It’s a great way to focus a busy team.”
When your business is your passion, it’s difficult to switch off – and not least when their business is encouraging people to switch their amps on! Is your time off a bit of a busman’s holiday?
“We have a Blackstar band so it is a bit of a busman’s holiday, yes! Ian and I have been in bands together for years and we still knock ideas around together. The band now focuses on indie covers with Ian Robinson on guitar, Alex Gee, head of products, on lead guitars, director of business operations Dan Wright plays bass with service engineer Ollie Sitford on drums.
“I’m on vocals and tambourine. We take it moderately seriously but also have a laugh. It’s a great way to test out new products in a live environment.”
17 years in, Blackstar Amplification is thriving. Can you look beyond the next 12 months, and imagine the next 17?
“We are still all very ambitious and see huge growth for the business. We are an innovative company not only in our products but also how the business is run. We continually look for new processes to streamline the business.
“Blackstar is ISO9001 certified. It’s a way for us to continuously improve and evolve in a structured way. The way musicians play live and record is constantly changing and we remain on the cusp of innovation when it comes to keeping up with the trends. Blackstar will continue to innovate and work with the biggest artists in the world…”
