Orange Spotlight: This Summit Fever

Who are This Summit Fever?
This Summit Fever are a heavy fuzz rock duo from the Midlands in the UK. Gareth Ayres (Gaz) plays the drums and I (Andy Blackburn) play the guitar and sing. Gaz is new to the band but we have known each other for about 25 years and despite playing in many different bands, this is the first time we have been in the same band. We released our debut album through Majestic Mountain Records in April 2025 on vinyl, CD and digital.
The band name was inspired by a book I read called ’In To Thin Air’ by John Krakauer. He used the term Summit Fever to describe alpinists who have such a strong obsession with reaching the top of Mount Everest that they will literally risk dying in the process. I thought it was a gnarly sentiment, so I went with it.
What inspires This Summit Fever?
For me (Andy) music and art in general is about communication. It’s a way for us to cross language barriers and connect with others on a higher level. I have always been drawn to songs which convey something about the human condition which either makes me feel less alone or teaches me a different way of looking at the world. When I write music and lyrics they are a sort of therapy for me. A way of dealing with a particular difficulty or a melancholy period in my life. We can’t all be happy all the time and I think sadness and anger are important emotions because they give happiness perspective. How can we understand happiness if we don’t experience sadness?

What Orange gear is important to This Summit Fever?
I started off with a Tiny Terror amp and I love it. It’s the Brent Hinds signature one. I used that in conjunction with a huge pedal board and an upright 2X12 Orange speaker cabinet for a few years. Unfortunately the pedal board weighed almost as much as I do so carrying it up and down stairs at venues became a job I didn’t want to do anymore. I took a gamble and got a Line 6 Helix and an Orange Pedal Baby. I love it! It’s the perfect combination for me now. I don’t risk a hernia when I am moving my gear around and it sounds absolutely amazing. I love my 2X12 upright cabinet too because it’s one of the newer light weight ones. The speaker cones are lovely and clear and can handle low and high octave pedals incredibly well, which is crucial for me. And trust me, I have played through hundreds of different cabinets in my life and none of them have been as good as my Orange 2×12.
Future Orange amps?
My set up consists of; my guitar, which goes in to my Line 6 Helix. The Helix splits the signal and one side goes to the Orange Pedal Baby for the guitar sound via some effects and the other half of the signal goes through a low octave pedal and in to a standard bass amp. The 4 things I really would like are; one of the Orange Terror Bass heads with one of those
huge OBC 8X10 cabinets which completely contradicts what I said about my guitar amp / cab set up. Those bass cabs are the business. I used one at Stoomfest 2024 and it knocked my socks off! I would also love to have a 1X15 to use in conjunction with my guitar cab, so in effect it would be a kind of Orange stack, just not the typical one you see on most stages. My guitar sound is quite low frequency focussed so I think the 1X15 would add some more low end oomph to my guitar sound. It could be over kill of course, but it would wicked to try it. Finally I would love to have one of the new Orange Gain Baby amps. It’s awesome that the ‘baby’ amp range has been developed further because a lot of folks want to travel light these days. Orange seems to be one of the brands that is listening to it’s artists and adapting.

What does Orange mean to you?
The first time I saw an Orange amp was the Black Sabbath live performance of Paranoid on Beat-Club. Certainly striking in look but also sounded the business. I am a huge Black Sabbath fan, so that started my interest in the Orange brand. Since then I have seen the likes of Andreas Kisser from Sepultura with his Orange amps and of course Matt Pike of Sleep and High On Fire. I am also a big Marcus King fan and his signature amp is brilliant. As a young guitarist I couldn’t afford an Orange unfortunately – or any valve amp for that matter, so I think it’s awesome that the Crush amps have been developed for the folks on a budget. I would have had one of those as a youngster, they are cracking amps. When I see guitarists and bassists that I respect using a particular piece of gear, I am interested to find out more. Orange design and manufacture some of the best amplifiers and speaker cabinets in the world and they are solid, so I feel confident that my gear will deliver what I need it to.
What’s the most memorable This Summit Fever moment?
For me getting a record deal with Majestic Mountain Records, as a man in his forties, this is a huge achievement and perhaps the most memorable moment so far. In 2025 it’s not easy for bands at any level to exist as anything more than a hobby, and that is totally cool too, but it was a dream of mine to have an album made and manufactured on vinyl. And to see videos of it spinning on people’s record players all around the world is just insane.

What’s on the horizon for This Summit Fever?
We have been playing live shows to promote our album and we have more planned for later in the year and in to 2026. As we only released our debut album in April 2025 we have a lot of work to do to get it in people’s ears, so this will keep us busy for a while. That being said we are starting to write some new material for the next release too.

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Photo Credits – Christian Soden and G Parris