Ex-Beatles was Surprised that I Treated Him like an Ordinary Bloke

 

The Day I Met George Harrison

Written by Christian Duffin

Harrow Observer (London, England)

December 30, 1998

    In 1974 George Harrison was having a few problems. His guitar may have been gently weeping, but his sitar was screaming for mercy. Its rich tone had disappeared, and Harrison needed someone to pull a few strings

. Sitar repairer Shambu Gupta was the man.  "I charged him £20," recalls Shambu, 56, at his home in Kingsfield Avenue North Harrow. "He said anyone else would have charged him £400. He was so surprised. He gave me a tour of his studios. He was pleased I treated him as a person and not as a Beatle."

     Shambu was impressed by Harrison's recording studio. "There were about 48 tracks. It was mesmerizing with all the lights flashing. It was very posh."

     The pair had met for the first time a few days earlier, a mutual friend and Sultan of the twang, Ravi Shankar held a private concert in his home to mark the birth of his grandson. 

    "We chatted about George's sitar," recalls Shambu. "He told me it needed fixing. So I said, 'Just bring it over'. George is a fine musician, but you have to use a sitar in a different way. Basically, he's a guitarist. I think his main contribution to the sitar is that he made it popular."

     Harrison was pleased with the results when Shambu returned the sitar after a "jawari," a resurfacing of the main bridge, and a restringing. "He said I'd done a good job. The strings had lost their resonance.  His sitar needed a complete service."

 Shambu wasn't at all inhibited by the fact that the instrument belonged to one of the world's best-known pop stars. "His sitar wasn't anything special. I was much more nervous, preparing Ravi Shankar's. That was far more valuable; it was worth £100,000." Now, that sounds like an instrument worth weeping over.