Highlights from the final day…

A glorious London International Music Show came to an end yesterday, and a quick glance through day one’s, day two’s and day three’s highlights (not to mention day four’s must-see content below), proves what a stella year 2009 turned out to be.

We’re leading the final day with a shoe-tapping performance from Albert Lee and some ‘ingenius’ new product in the shape of the Mark Bass MoMark. And, of course, one or two oddities from the show floor… see you next year!

Day four highlights

VIDEO: Albert Lee live!
We crashed another aftershow party! This time it’s the Strings And Things/MusicMan ‘Knucklehead Bash’ and Albert Lee’s incredible country-blues chops

VIDEO: Mark Bass modular bass amps
introducing the ‘ingenious’ MoMark system and the brand-new Little Mark III amplifier…

The weirdest stand of the show award goes to…
Moose Guitars! The brand-new luthiers that ALMOST made it

The Pacemaker: a metronome in disguise
A metronome in the shape of a mini kick drum to ‘recreate the feeling of jamming with a real drummer’… one that doesn’t answer back!

Shure PG27 USB: LIMS’ best freebie?
Our favourite piece of show swag is this Shure USB stick, closely followed by a box of lollies…

Guitar Idol 2009 winner announced
Jack Thammerat from Thailand kicks ass, takes home a high-end PRS guitar, Marshall JVM amplifier and double stack cabinets

From the basement…

SpongeBob SquareBand

The most blingin’ headphones award goes to…

We caught up with Mark Bass’s Pete Ward who talked us through the MoMark system and the company’s other new amp, the Little Mark III.

Moose Guitars! The brand-new luthiers that ALMOST made it…

“We had this brilliant idea to work hard to get our show stocks ready in time for LIMS,” reads the sign next to a guitar wrapped in brown paper on Moose Guitars‘ barren stand. “We shot, and we missed.”

The people behind Moose Guitars, you see, used to make one-off custom guitars and basses on commission only. They were half-way through this Tele-shaped beauty below, when the draw of doing it full-time became too appealing to resist…

So, Moose Guitars was born… they just don’t have any stock, yet: “Look out for Moose Guitars England, launching [again] on July 1.”

While the mother of all metronome videos was caught at NAMM 09 with the birth of ‘Metronomica’, Sonic Ventures brings its own take on beat-keeping to LIMS 09.

The Pacemaker is a metronome in the shape of a mini kick drum. It uses ‘realistic bass and snare sounds’, runs on a 9V battery and you can customise the skin with your own artwork.

According to the guys on the Sonic Ventures stand, The Pacemaker’s inspiration came from last year’s show. They wanted to recreate the feeling of jamming with a real drummer. A portable one! Nice…

Check out Sonic Ventures’ official site for more.

What did we tell you! It’s the weekend, and the rockstars have arrived. While Roland’s Juno-Di synth and Peavey’s Revalver III update continue to fly the flag in the new gear corner, Steve Vai, Guthrie Govan and The Commitments

Oh, and please do pull up a chair (or a stool) and join us in our favourite new hobby: finger drumming. Now, where did we leave that NanoPad…

Day three highlights

VIDEO: Roland Juno-Di
We liked this performance-friendly synth so much we swung by Roland’s stand, video camera in hand, to learn more…

VIDEO: Steve Vai interviewed!
Steve granted us a private audience to talk Alien Guitar Secrets, Naked Tracks and his upcoming live DVD, Where The Wild Things Are

VIDEO: David ‘Fingers’ Haynes rocks a Korg NanoPad
A finger drumming legend shows LIMS how it’s done. Triggering Toontrack’s Superior Drummer 2.0 along the way

VIDEO: Guthrie Govan live
If you want to watch a ludicrously-talented guitarist showing off in front of dozens of awe-gurning fans, this is the video for you

VIDEO: The Commitments live at Peavey’s LIMS party
We snuck in to catch this legendary band performing Mustang Sally… long live aftershows!

VIDEO: Peavey ReValver Mk III + RTAS support
Peavey’s Tom Allen gives us a whistlestop tour of ReVavler Mk III… this time in Pro Tools!

From the basement…

Walls of sound

Travelling to LIMS 09… Robot guitar style!

If Peavey made stools… oh, hang on

‘Behind’ the scenes

Check out the video below, in which Peavey’s Tom Allen gives us a whistlestop tour of ReVavler Mk III… this time in Pro Tools!

You might remember 1991’s film adaptation of Roddy Doyle’s novel of the same name: The Commitments. In a nutshell, it’s about a soul band. That same group took to the stage at Peavey’s party on Thursday night… and MusicRadar snuck in a video camera.

So apologies about the audio quality, but it was filmed by a camera small enough to fit into a trilby with a hole cut into it. Here’s Mustang Sally…

If you want to watch a ludicrously-talented guitarist showing off in front of dozens of awe-gurning fans, this is the video for you.

Ok, so maybe showing off sounds a bit negative. But to be fair, we are extremely jealous.

Not-so-unsuspecting, because seats at the workshop are scarce and sold quickly – although this is hardly surprising: lucky ticket holders will be privy to Steve’s expert teachings gleaned from 30-odd years as one of the world’s leading guitarists. Steve will cover everything from the music business to finding your own musical identity, and some fans will even get the chance to jam with the triple-Grammy-winner.

But that’s today. So what was Steve Vai doing yesterday? Well, chatting to MusicRadar, of course. Video camera-in-hand, we were ushered into a private room to film an exclusive interview – on Alien Guitar Secrets; on Naked Tracks; on his upcoming live DVD, Where The Wild Things Are; and on, erm… beef yoghurt (Steve brought it up, not us).

We were also treated to a sneak preview of the new DVD – although, despite our best hidden camera efforts, MusicRadar was unable to film any of it. But it was impressive stuff none the less: expect crazy visuals, dazzling arrangements, virtuoso violinists, a strap-on drum-kit complete with smoke-breathing skull (really) and, naturally, plenty of brilliant guitar playing.

Here’s our interview.