In September 2009, Matt  ‘Murph’ Murphy, bass player Tord Overland-Knudsen and drummer Dan Haggis started a European tour - a tour on which Murph proudly unveiled his customised sky blue tolex Orange stack:
 

 

“I had this idea that baby blue with white speaker grill would look really good. So that’s what I’ve got. And it does!”

 

 

 

 

The band first hooked up as music students at Sir Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Institute For Performing Arts (LIPA – pictured below left) and formed The Wombats in 2003.

Orange Amplification was, and still is, a sponsor at LIPA and Murph has vivid memories of going to the Institute to rehearse: “In my third year I wasn’t really there much.  I was concentrating more on writing songs at home and touring with the band. But we occasionally went into LIPA to rehearse and there were these rooms full of Orange gear – it was a great sight for us Orange nerds!” says Murph with laughter.

The first Orange amplifier Matt ever tried out belonged to Tord who played guitar in as many as seven bands on the Liverpool scene before becoming The Wombats’ bass player full-time:  “Tord used to be a guitarist in other bands. I was using my dad’s battered old Fender which was great but it wasn’t a very cutting sound or new.  then borrowed Tord’s Orange for a few gigs and I really got into that new valve thing. So I got myself an Orange AD30 with two 2×12 cabs and that has really become an integral part of the band’s sound.”

If we’re touring abroad and I can’t take my rig with me I always get hold of whatever Orange gear I can on hire -sometimes a Rockerverb. But I really need the two channels so I can use a distortion pedal for the quieter sounds and then the other channel set up high for the louder band sound.”

 

Guitar-wise Murph is a Telecaster man:  “I’ve got five Telecasters now and a Gretsch Country Gent and I’ve just bought a Fender Mustang. But Telecasters just feel right for me.”