Charlie Watkins (audio engineer)

In 1949, Watkins and his brother Reg opened Watkins Electric Music, a record shop in Tooting Market, London. Two years later the brothers relocated the shop to Balham and began selling accordions and guitars. Realizing the increasing need for guitarists to be able to amplify their instrument for live performances, Watkins experimented with building amplification systems for acoustic guitars. Encouraged by the popularity of Skiffle music, Watkins designed and introduced the Westminster guitar amplifier in 1954, later followed up by the V-fronted Dominator.[2]

In 1958, inspired by the Marino Marini Quartet's song "Come prima", Watkins had the idea for a simple, affordable, portable tape echo unit. With the help of engineer Bill Purkis, the Watkins Copicat was designed and manufactured. Watkins' shop sold the entire first production run of 100 Copicats on the first day, including the very first Copicat sold to Johnny Kidd of Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, whose guitarist used it on the group's UK hit song "Shakin' All Over".[3] The Copicat would become one of the company's most successful products, with various different Copicat models released over more than 50 years.[4] By the end of the 1950s, Watkins' company, now branded with a shortened acronym of WEM, was one of the top 3 companies of the U.K. music trade,[2] selling guitar amps, echo units, and a line of solid-body electric guitars designed by his brother Reg.

Watkins was the first to build PA systems with multiple slaved solid state amplifiers driving various loudspeaker stacks, beginning with the Windsor Festival in 1967.[5] WEM PA systems in the kilowatt range became standard for British festivals in the 1960s and 1970s, such as Stones in the Park on 5 July 1969 at the Isle of Wight Festival (with Dylan in 1969 & Hendrix in 1970) and Glastonbury.