This is my Anorak page,
purely indulgent.....maybe?, exercise in ego.......certainly!
INFLUENCES
I started to play guitar at about 7, and was shown the
basics by my brothers Alan and Kevin. We had one guitar
album in the house. "Guitar Spectacular" which was all
Latin American. This was probably my first introduction to
an electric guitar. Years later I still listen to that album and it still brings out those same emotions. I just imagine a bunch of guys rippin up and down on semi's.
My brothers listened to a lot of Folk music, but I could never
get away with the discipline of finger picking, so when I heard
the opening bars of Free's "Alright Now" I knew I'd been hit by
something. The first time I held an electric guitar , I shook.
We only had real crappy tranny amps back then with no distortion or reverb. So when my brother bought a brand new
H H VS Musician, I thought I'd died and went to Heaven, I guess thats probably where my love of Transistor amps come from. As a confirmed Gallien Kruger user since 86, it is still such a part of my sound.
Playing in the 70's effects wise was crude, Electro Harmonix effects were industy standard for all aspiring guitarists. You have to remember that the closest we got to these pedals were the catalogues. Electric Mistress,Memory Man and who could forget Big Muffs (though I could not see the innuendo at that time!).
So armed with my brothers Les Paul copy and H H amp I acquired a Memory Man Echo/Chorus and hit the stage running. Rock was playing pentatonics as fast as you could. Then it happened...........VAN F......... HALEN !
The late 70's were such an exciting time guitar wise
Michael Schenkers playing with UFO, preceded alot of the neo classical arpeggio studys. Gary Moore's often neglected forays with Collesium Two with his linear modal keyboard lines and manic fretboard bursts were interesting. Rush introduced alternate time signatures into mainstream rock and Alex Lifesons textured approach was inspiring to all.
Randy Rhoads gave us some fantastic riffs and solo's but for me the most innovative guitarist had to be Eddie Van Halen.
Nobody knew how he done it, a good friend told me that he had seen a guy in a local band do it, I was wanting to do it!
what am I talking about?............ TAPPING.
And so it came to pass that everybody and even their Grandma's were doing it. So before you could say "Customsed Strat" everyone was taking bits out, adding bits on and if you could find a fill in any song,regardless of whether it required it you did the right thing....
TAPPED ALL OVER IT!
purely indulgent.....maybe?, exercise in ego.......certainly!
INFLUENCES
I started to play guitar at about 7, and was shown the
basics by my brothers Alan and Kevin. We had one guitar
album in the house. "Guitar Spectacular" which was all
Latin American. This was probably my first introduction to
an electric guitar. Years later I still listen to that album and it still brings out those same emotions. I just imagine a bunch of guys rippin up and down on semi's.
My brothers listened to a lot of Folk music, but I could never
get away with the discipline of finger picking, so when I heard
the opening bars of Free's "Alright Now" I knew I'd been hit by
something. The first time I held an electric guitar , I shook.
We only had real crappy tranny amps back then with no distortion or reverb. So when my brother bought a brand new
H H VS Musician, I thought I'd died and went to Heaven, I guess thats probably where my love of Transistor amps come from. As a confirmed Gallien Kruger user since 86, it is still such a part of my sound.
Playing in the 70's effects wise was crude, Electro Harmonix effects were industy standard for all aspiring guitarists. You have to remember that the closest we got to these pedals were the catalogues. Electric Mistress,Memory Man and who could forget Big Muffs (though I could not see the innuendo at that time!).
So armed with my brothers Les Paul copy and H H amp I acquired a Memory Man Echo/Chorus and hit the stage running. Rock was playing pentatonics as fast as you could. Then it happened...........VAN F......... HALEN !
The late 70's were such an exciting time guitar wise
Michael Schenkers playing with UFO, preceded alot of the neo classical arpeggio studys. Gary Moore's often neglected forays with Collesium Two with his linear modal keyboard lines and manic fretboard bursts were interesting. Rush introduced alternate time signatures into mainstream rock and Alex Lifesons textured approach was inspiring to all.
Randy Rhoads gave us some fantastic riffs and solo's but for me the most innovative guitarist had to be Eddie Van Halen.
Nobody knew how he done it, a good friend told me that he had seen a guy in a local band do it, I was wanting to do it!
what am I talking about?............ TAPPING.
And so it came to pass that everybody and even their Grandma's were doing it. So before you could say "Customsed Strat" everyone was taking bits out, adding bits on and if you could find a fill in any song,regardless of whether it required it you did the right thing....
TAPPED ALL OVER IT!
GUITAR HERO'S
I think the earliest was a local "Hells Angel" who was a friend of my brothers who used to come round and play 12 string ragtime pieces in our kitchen....awesome.
I fell in love with the harmony guitar of Queen and Thin lizzy,
there were no guitar videos back then but there were plenty of books, Oh boy were there plenty of em!. In one of them you had to paint your nails different colours and the diagrams to explain a pentatonic scale looked like a physics exam.
The tapes were no better, "Play Lead Guitar Now" where you could hear the guy put on the records in the background.(He
also sounded like the "Yorkshire Ripper")
My whole playing changed when I saw a real good blues guitarist called "Big Pete Morrison" he turnrd me on to Eric Clapton's playing with the "Bluesbreakers" so Hard Road became the album. I also got into Freddie King, Rory Gallagher and Paul Kossof.
Rock was still my main love and spent most of my time learning off records. There was not the guitar teacher scene then, that is present today-we jammed alot.
My Jimmy Page phase was interesting, even so much as having a C.S.L. Doubleneck (Playing along to the whole of "The Song Remains The Same" at least twice a night does nothing for your back. But Zepplin and most of all Page had those killer riffs and chordal structures.
I attended a Music college in Newcastle (academically the worst student they've ever had) but was able to learn so much through jammin with more older,experienced players,it was like "I'll show ya the flash stuff, if you show me how to do a ll v 1 walking bass"
I got exposed to a whole different set of music there, notably
Jazz Rock/Fusion. So I bought a 335 and tried to get serious!
"Tits on a bull" more like, I did learn the jazz standards which came in handy when I had to busk. But this Hep Cat had other ideas. The college was such a great melting pot of great players but it was time to leave (before I was asked to)
The exposure to differnt types of idioms and genre's, was good for my playing. As the early 80's dawned, nobody was
touching the work of Eddie, who with every new album,seemed to have a new trick or technique.
Gary Moore was also blazing a trail with strat induced songs such as White Knuckles and End of the World. my tastes also diversified some notable guitarists who had a great influence on me were Peter Haycock from the Climax Blues Band. Pete had a unique style of blending bluesy/jazzy phrases into a song. Also Pat Thrall from Pat Travers Band, his collaboration with Glenn Hughes on Hughes/Thrall album still stands up today-check out "Hold out your life". Neil Geraldo from Pat Benatar is another often overlooked guitarist checkout "Promises in the Dark" Neil combined an imaginitive use of diminshed licks with chromaticism, all in commercially viable songs.
With the onset of the "Guitar Shred" drenched late 80's, it was sometimes hard to tell who was who. The heavyweight such as Satch and Vai had such a profound effect, but did not have the sheer sonic appeal of Eddie.
I think everybody attained a bit of technical profficiency during that time. I certainly had to go back and learn how to pick cleaner and develop as a player. I guess we will be approaching a time where Lydian will be so "Retro" rather like my own parody of 70's rock cliche's
Of the guys who are around today, most of the metal players leave me cold with the exception of Dimebag (Ed head)
I adore Brian Setzers playing, I think Nuno still has got alot to offer and Jeff Beck well that guy just never stops pulling
tricks out of his bag.
I think the earliest was a local "Hells Angel" who was a friend of my brothers who used to come round and play 12 string ragtime pieces in our kitchen....awesome.
I fell in love with the harmony guitar of Queen and Thin lizzy,
there were no guitar videos back then but there were plenty of books, Oh boy were there plenty of em!. In one of them you had to paint your nails different colours and the diagrams to explain a pentatonic scale looked like a physics exam.
The tapes were no better, "Play Lead Guitar Now" where you could hear the guy put on the records in the background.(He
also sounded like the "Yorkshire Ripper")
My whole playing changed when I saw a real good blues guitarist called "Big Pete Morrison" he turnrd me on to Eric Clapton's playing with the "Bluesbreakers" so Hard Road became the album. I also got into Freddie King, Rory Gallagher and Paul Kossof.
Rock was still my main love and spent most of my time learning off records. There was not the guitar teacher scene then, that is present today-we jammed alot.
My Jimmy Page phase was interesting, even so much as having a C.S.L. Doubleneck (Playing along to the whole of "The Song Remains The Same" at least twice a night does nothing for your back. But Zepplin and most of all Page had those killer riffs and chordal structures.
I attended a Music college in Newcastle (academically the worst student they've ever had) but was able to learn so much through jammin with more older,experienced players,it was like "I'll show ya the flash stuff, if you show me how to do a ll v 1 walking bass"
I got exposed to a whole different set of music there, notably
Jazz Rock/Fusion. So I bought a 335 and tried to get serious!
"Tits on a bull" more like, I did learn the jazz standards which came in handy when I had to busk. But this Hep Cat had other ideas. The college was such a great melting pot of great players but it was time to leave (before I was asked to)
The exposure to differnt types of idioms and genre's, was good for my playing. As the early 80's dawned, nobody was
touching the work of Eddie, who with every new album,seemed to have a new trick or technique.
Gary Moore was also blazing a trail with strat induced songs such as White Knuckles and End of the World. my tastes also diversified some notable guitarists who had a great influence on me were Peter Haycock from the Climax Blues Band. Pete had a unique style of blending bluesy/jazzy phrases into a song. Also Pat Thrall from Pat Travers Band, his collaboration with Glenn Hughes on Hughes/Thrall album still stands up today-check out "Hold out your life". Neil Geraldo from Pat Benatar is another often overlooked guitarist checkout "Promises in the Dark" Neil combined an imaginitive use of diminshed licks with chromaticism, all in commercially viable songs.
With the onset of the "Guitar Shred" drenched late 80's, it was sometimes hard to tell who was who. The heavyweight such as Satch and Vai had such a profound effect, but did not have the sheer sonic appeal of Eddie.
I think everybody attained a bit of technical profficiency during that time. I certainly had to go back and learn how to pick cleaner and develop as a player. I guess we will be approaching a time where Lydian will be so "Retro" rather like my own parody of 70's rock cliche's
Of the guys who are around today, most of the metal players leave me cold with the exception of Dimebag (Ed head)
I adore Brian Setzers playing, I think Nuno still has got alot to offer and Jeff Beck well that guy just never stops pulling
tricks out of his bag.
FAVOURITE SOLOS
(No Order)
1. Tell Me I'm Your Man - ROBBEN FORD
2. Always Gonna love You- GARY MOORE
3. Outta Love Again EDDIE VAN HALEN
4. Cast Away Your Chains ULI JON ROTH
5. Still In Love With You BRIAN ROBERTSON
6. Blue River LARRY McCRAY
7. Blue Is Green JEFF BECK
8. Precious Time NEIL GERALDO
9. I'm A loser MICHEAL SCHENKER
10.River Quay PAT METHENY
(No Order)
1. Tell Me I'm Your Man - ROBBEN FORD
2. Always Gonna love You- GARY MOORE
3. Outta Love Again EDDIE VAN HALEN
4. Cast Away Your Chains ULI JON ROTH
5. Still In Love With You BRIAN ROBERTSON
6. Blue River LARRY McCRAY
7. Blue Is Green JEFF BECK
8. Precious Time NEIL GERALDO
9. I'm A loser MICHEAL SCHENKER
10.River Quay PAT METHENY
