In the summer of 1968, musician and electronics designer Cliff Cooper, aka Mr Orange, opened a music shop to support his basement recording studio in London’s West End. Little did he realise that his humble business venture would become one of the industry’s most recognisable brands in the years that followed. ”It was a big shot,” Cliff remembers. ”I only had about £50 in those days and I was in a band so I decided to sell off the group’s equipment to help finance and build the studio.” When no one in the district would agree to supply him with any stock, he decided to source second-hand equipment such as guitars and amplifiers to be sold. ”Then we had to come up with a name we called it Orangeand that was how it all started. We painted the shop orange, which was a bit unusual in those days, and we had complaints from everybody but we overcame that and now I can say that we have been very fortunate with the success we’ve had.”
By the time autumn came around that same year, Cliff had started to design his own range of Orange amplifiers and recruited an external business to produce them. The result was a new type of sound that resonated with guitarists and a product that was easily recognisable thanks to its vivid colours, sci-fi-looking controls, and distinctive crest. Loud-speaker cabinets were soon added to Orange Amplifications repertoire and people started to take notice. Guitar luminaries such as Peter Green and Paul Kossoff plugged into early prototypes, before some of the biggest names in music took Orange equipment to the stage. These included icons such as Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Wonder, and James Brown.