Legendary shoegaze band My Bloody Valentine returned for what's turning out to be some of the most acclaimed and sought-after gigs of 2008, and their revolutionary and NOISY sound continues to inspire...

The story of My Bloody Valentine has become part of indie-rock folklore. After releasing "Isn't Anything" in 1988 and kick starting what became known as the (sometimes maligned) shoegaze  movement -with several bands obsessed with distortion pedals and other FX, usually not doing much onstage - My Bloody Valentine went on to record one of the most classic albums of the early 90's, "Loveless" which cost over £250.000 to record and almost brought their former label Creation to the brink of bankrupcity (Creation was only saved from certain doom by signing a band called Oasis...)

"Loveless"(released in 1991) could be considered a "Pet Sounds" of Alternative Rock. It took years in the making ,and genius guitarist/ songwriter Kevin Shields could be compared to Brian Wilson, in his sometimes insane search for perfection, sometimes spending weeks and thousands of pounds to achieve a certain guitar sound no one else seemed capable of noticing.

The end result was a classic album, and its layered guitar sound served as an inspiration to many. Even though "Loveless" was far from a success, it earned My Bloody Valentine a major record deal to Island Records, the same label as U2.

They spent all their cash advance (£500k) building a recording studio, but problems and attempts to fix them caused the band to go into "semi-meltdown", according to Shields, and My Bloody Valentine never released any new music again.

Slowly, the reclusive Kevin Shields started to show up from time to time - recording a song with the Manic Street Preachers, playing with Primal Scream and writing the soundtrack for Bill Murray cult-hit "Lost In Translation".

Finally, last year, after 16 years, My Bloody Valentine announced they'd be back. All UK tour dates for the reunion tour sold out almost immediately. They were not forgotten...in all those years, their legend only grew.

So far, the reviews have been  unanimous - unlike other bands' reunion tours, it was like those 16 years never happened. They looked the same as 1991, played the same songs, and sounded the same. No...louder!

At the venues, free earplugs are distributed, along with the warning that attending a My Bloody Valentine concert without earplugs could cause serious damage.

They are not joking - the noise My Bloody Valentine makes is monumental. Kevin Shields himself uses between 7-8 various 100w amps onstage, and in a venue like the Londoon Roundhouse or Manchester Apollo, the amplified sound from those amps, through the PA, hits you like a tidal wave. Set closer "You Made Me Realise" always ends their set, morphing into a 20-minute long white noise freak out (which they call "the holocaust") that makes heavy metal bands sound like Neil Diamond and inevitably drives part of the audience to leave the venue, such is the loudness...

Read a recent The Guardian live review, and you'll have an idea!

Kevin Shields has been voted by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the Top 100 best guitarists of all time, due to his creativity, distinctive use of the tremolo arm of his favourite guitars - Fender Jazzmaster and Jaguar - and for exploring new possibilities of sound, using digital reverbs and playing his guitar as loud as humanly possible. For years, fans have been intrigued by his setup and even today it's hard to unveil all his tricks and FX...no wonder, because the amount of gear he brings onstage is astonishing!

If you want to sound like My Bloody Valentine, there are lots of FX units that Kevin Shields use that can be found on Dolphin, such as:

Z-Vex Seek Wah II; Boss GE-7 Equalizer; Electro Harmonix Big Muff; Boss SD-1; Boss Delay (DD-3?); Boss DD-20 Giga Delay;  Z-vex Super Hard-On; Z-Vex Tremolo Probe; Electro Harmonix Q-Tron

One of his trademark sounds has been the "reverse reverb" effect, which you can get from the Alesis Midiverb 4 (an update on the Midiverb 2, used by Shields). If you want to explore the possibilities of reverse reverb but don't want to fork out for a Midiverb, you should try the Marshall RF-1 Reflector, which has great reverb sounds including reverse reverb.

Get a good valve amp and crank it really loud! Amongst the amplifiers My Bloody Valentine use you'll see Marshall stacks, Fender and Vox. If you want an affordable all-tube stack, our suggestion is the Hayden Peacemaker Stack, 60w of tube tone and simply amazing...

Of course, having a Fender Jazzmaster or Jaguar guitar is essential! The unique tremolo arms of those guitars provided one of the most important inspirations for Kevin Shields, who said:

"I always just wanted to be like Johnny Ramone. Just be really good at one thing. I think because I was never dexterous, and because I never really learned how to play a scale, or lead guitar, or anything, but because I still wanted to be expressive, that made me use the tremolo arm, which gave me something to work with for a long time. I really get off on hearing, I can't even really describe it, the difference between hitting the same chord one way or another way, and the subtleties within that. So in that respect, more so than flashier guitar players, I can play and it sounds like the amp is turned down real low, and then play and it sounds like it's on really loud. Control."

The new range of Jazzmasters and Jaguars are worth a look too...

For complete My Bloody Valentine tour dates, view the official website

And let's leave you with the classic My Bloody Valentine videos:

"Only Shallow"

"You Made Me Realise"