Curated playlist

21st-century English guitarists

Keith RichardsKeith Richards, guitarist of the Rolling Stones, began his musical life by stretching toward an instrument he could not reach. His maternal grandfather, Augustus Theodore "Gus" Dupree, toured Britain with a jazz big band called Gus Dupree…
Paul McCartneyPaul McCartney traded a trumpet for a guitar and wrote his first song on it. His father had given him the trumpet.
Robert PattinsonRobert Pattinson is a British actor whose films have earned more than $4.7 billion worldwide. A teacher once advised him to stay out of his school drama club. He was born in London on the 13th of May 1986 and later ranked among the world's…
Jimmy PageJimmy Page was thirteen when a television host asked what he planned to do with his life. His answer had nothing to do with music. The year was 1957, and the programme was All Your Own, a talent show on BBC1 hosted by Huw Wheldon. Page had…
Pete TownshendPete Townshend helped make what the Guinness Book of Records once listed as the loudest concert ever. On the 31st of May 1976, the Who played Charlton Athletic Football Club, and a reading taken 32 metres from the stage reached 126…
Chris MartinChris Martin, the English singer and pianist born on the 2nd of March 1977, composed a three-minute instrumental called "Electric Thunder" when he was 12 years old. In February 2020, a former fellow pupil found it on a cassette tape.…
George HarrisonGeorge Harrison mortgaged his home to save Monty Python's Life of Brian. EMI Films had pulled its funding in 1978.
Eric ClaptonEric Clapton got the nickname Slowhand from a broken guitar string. Fans clapped slowly while he replaced it.
Brian MayBrian May climbed onto the roof of Buckingham Palace on the 3rd of June 2002 and played a guitar solo of "God Save the Queen." It was part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations for Elizabeth II. May, born in 1947, is the lead guitarist of the…
Matty HealyA paperback copy of Jack Kerouac's On the Road gave Matty Healy's band its name. Scribbles inside the book were dated "the 1st of June, The 1975", and in 2012 the group settled on that as its title. Healy was born Matthew Timothy Healy on…
Jeff BeckJeff Beck once rang his producer to ask for another try at a guitar solo, a couple of months after the album was finished. The producer was George Martin, and the album was Blow by Blow. Martin, bemused, answered: "I'm sorry, Jeff, but the…