Andy Babiuk

Early years

Andrew Michael Babiuk was born on November 27, 1963 in Rochester, New York, United States. He is of Ukrainian descent and both his parents immigrated to the United States from Europe in the early 1950s. Interested in music from a very young age, Babiuk taught himself to play the guitar when he was nine years old.

Band member

At age 16 while attending high school, Babiuk landed a job at a local music store. There he connected with other local musicians and the garage band, The Chesterfield Kings was formed recording their first single in 1979. Babiuk, a founding member of the band, bassist and songwriter, toured with the Kings throughout the United States, Europe and Canada heralding rave reviews from the “Who’s Who” in the music industry as well as earning respected notoriety for helping to breathe life back into a fledging garage-band scene. The band recorded 11 albums, 15 singles in its 30+ years of existence and performed live on television shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Conan O’Brien and even made an appearance of the HBO hit show The Sopranos. The group disbanded in 2011. In 2014, Babiuk, together with Elliot Easton of The Cars, Clem Burke of Blondie and Wally Palmar of The Romantics formed super-group, The Empty Hearts, releasing their debut album in August, 2014 followed by an inaugural tour that fall of the United States and Japan. The Empty Hearts will be going out on tour in the US and Europe in the fall of 2015.

Author

In early 1990 while still performing with The Chesterfield Kings by night and working at the music store by day, Babiuk saw the need for a book about The Beatles' gear when he tried to emulate some of their recorded sounds for his own band, The Chesterfield Kings. Babiuk then embarked on six years of research for Beatles Gear: All The Fab Four’s Instruments, during which time he interviewed over 400 people who worked with or were closely associated with The Beatles, listened to hundreds of recordings, watched miles of film, and amassed a vast library of documents and historic photographic evidence of The Beatles using their instruments and equipment. Released in 2001, Beatles Gear remains a critically acclaimed, best-selling work and has earned Babiuk the respected title of the world’s leading authority on all the instruments and equipment used by The Beatles. As a result of the accolade, Babiuk’s expertise and notoriety as a vintage guitar expert grew in popularity in very important circles in the music industry. Fred Gretsch of Gretsch Guitars commissioned Babiuk to research and write the Story of Paul Bigsby The Father of The Modern Solid Body Electric Guitar, which was published in 2009. Babiuk continued his work with The Chesterfield Kings. As a follow up to his first book Beatles Gear, Babiuk worked for nine years researching and writing Rolling Stones Gear a detailed history of all the equipment used by The Rolling Stones that was published in 2014. As it happened when he did his research for Beatles Gear, Babiuk was once again granted unprecedented access to and worked directly with members of the Stones and their camp securing permission to photograph The Rolling Stones’ actual guitars and equipment.

Consultant

Babiuk served as the Associate Music Supervisor and Technical Consultant on the film, Not Fade Away a drama film released by Paramount Pictures, directed and written by The Sopranos creator David Chase. Babiuk is a staff consultant to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2013 he authenticated Bob Dylan’s electric guitar which Dylan first played at the Newport Jazz Festival. It sold at auction for just under a million dollars.

In 2015, he authenticated John Lennon’s Gibson J-160E that was lost for over 50 years.

Speaker/Lecturer

Having worked closely with The Beatles’ insiders, Babiuk’s presentation offers a closer, more intimate look at the Fab Four and their collective influence on music and pop culture. Appealing to all types of audiences, universities in particular often invite Babiuk to present to their students studying various disciplines ranging from music and audio technology programs to sociology and pop culture.

Personal

In 1990, Babiuk married Monica Rodrigues and they are parents to six children, four girls and two boys. Monica is Vice-President of Andy Babiuk’s Fab Gear.

Books

Albums

Singles

Bootlegs

Film

Television