Sunderland-made guitar inspired by Tim Burgess raising thousands for charity

Business partners Keith Robson and Mark Lamaq opened their Cloud 9 Guitars workshop last year after transforming an empty unit in Beatrice Terrace, Shiney Row, to create a factory where they build guitars completely from scratch, starting from £600 for their C9 range through to bespoke, high end classical guitars.

Their expertise in the field has seen them racking up a number of orders for their hand-made guitars, as well as creating pieces for collaborations with some of the country’s most well-known indie musicians, including Tim Burgess from The Charlatans, former Oasis guitarist Bonehead and Stone Roses bassist Mani.

Now, a striking yellow and black guitar based on the distinctive jacket Tim wore in the band’s How High video in the late 90s, is being raffled off in aid of The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, a charity who in the past took care of Tim’s good friend, Oasis founder member Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs during his battle with cancer.

There’s only 15 C9 guitars in the world, with Tim owning one, and the competition gives the winner the chance to win one of the UK-made hand-crafted, limited edition How High guitars.

Cloud 9 teamed up with music legend Tim for the raffle which is being run through The Gear Giveaway website – and it’s already raised more than £7,000 for charity.

Keith and Mark have worked in the music industry for decades, working for some of the biggest brands and factories in the world, but have combined their talents to create an independent business that only uses North East or British materials.

Speaking about how they began working with Tim, Keith said: “I’d put out a random tweet on a Saturday night that we were in the process of setting up, which got picked up by Tim. We’ve hit the ground running, but we have a really quality product, so we believed we would.”

He added: “It is our pleasure to work with artists we love and respect for excellent causes. We had a great time creating and building this guitar.”

The pair can produce around 30 guitars a month and have plans to open an on-site bar and retail space, where people can come along, listen to live music and get a feel for the guitars.

Tim Burgess and The Gear Giveaway have collaborated before to raise money for charity.

Tim said: “We worked with The Gear Giveaway with a super rare John Lennon record that his estate wanted to be used to raise money for good causes. It was an amazing way to do it, so when the guitar project came up, we knew exactly who to speak to.”

Tickets for the How High guitar are £5 each. They can be purchased by visiting thegeargiveaway.com. The competition is live now, and runs until 8pm on Thursday, May 11.

Cloud 9 is open for business and is appointment only for people interested in ordering a guitar – more at c9guitars.com