The Smashing Pumpkins have been backed by ‘Puppitos’ onstage on their summer 2019 European tour, and Billy Corgan has announced that they will miss upcoming show due to an accident.
“Sadly, our Puppitos were in an accident this night (thankfully, no one was seriously injured) so no Puppitos in Austria. @smashingpumpkins.”
Smashing Pumpkins touring keyboardist Katie Cole left a tearful comment, “😐😩😢😭.”
Corgan later wrote on his Instagram story, “Truck was in an accident from Florence to Austria, so though undamaged were stranded on the road with our lights.”
Billy Corgan recently got back his Gish era guitar after 28 years earlier this year, and Patch have up a new article on how he got it fixed.
“I’m literally gonna take it somewhere, and get it fixed up,” Corgan told Rolling Stone.
That’s pretty much how the story ended, until now.
As things turn out, “somewhere” is a converted auto-repair garage at 1828 West Belmont in Roscoe Village, home to Chicago luthier Geoff Benge’s guitar shop.
There’s a reason the “Gish” guitar ended up at Benge’s place. If you’re looking for a Chicago guy to fix your most precious guitar there’s probably nobody better, according to people who know about these things.
I first met Benge in 2008 at his fix-it shop’s former Lake View location. He told me about the one-armed guitar player who brought in a Regal guitar that had been carried across Europe during WWII, and now rested in pieces in its case. Benge fixed it up so good that when the owner first pressed his fingers against the neck, he cried. At home, the man said with joyful tears, his wife would do the strumming.
“If I can’t fix it, it’s not broke,” Benge says with a laugh.
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