Curated playlist

English male guitarists

David BowieDavid Bowie died two days after releasing his final album. He planned Blackstar as a parting gift while privately dying.
John LennonJohn Lennon was ordered to leave the United States in 1973. His anti-war activities had alarmed President Nixon.
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…
Ed SheeranEd Sheeran bought a thirty-pound guitar two days after hearing Eric Clapton. He was eleven years old.
Cat StevensCat Stevens sold more than 100 million records before he walked away from pop music. A 25-year break followed.
Mick JaggerMick Jagger was carrying records by Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters on Platform Two of Dartford railway station on the 17th of October 1961. The man he met there was Keith Richards. The records revealed a shared passion for rhythm and blues,…
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…
Thom YorkeThom Yorke was born on the 7th of October 1968 in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, with a paralysed left eye. By the age of six he had undergone five operations on it. The last, in his own word, was "botched", and it left him with a…
David GilmourDavid Gilmour, the English guitarist born in 1946, once watched 120 of his own guitars go under the hammer in a single evening. On the 20th of June 2019, Christie's in New York held the sale, and it raised $21,490,750. The star lot was his…
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.
Ronnie WoodAt Live Aid in 1985, Ronnie Wood handed Bob Dylan his own guitar. Dylan's string had broken mid-song.
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 LynneJeff Lynne helped finish John Lennon's demo "Free as a Bird" for the Beatles. George Harrison asked him to join in 1994.
Robert Smith (musician)On the 14th of October 2024, Robert Smith of the Cure said he plans to retire in 2029. His reasoning was tidy. He turns 70 that year, and 2029 marks 50 years since the band's first album, Three Imaginary Boys. Smith added a caveat: he has…
Julian LennonJulian Lennon's nursery school painting inspired a Beatles song. It showed his classmate Lucy O'Donnell among stars.
Tony SheridanTony Sheridan is the only non-Beatle to sing lead on a charting Beatles single.
Syd BarrettSyd Barrett walked into Abbey Road Studios on the 5th of June 1975, and the men inside did not know him. He had shaved off his hair and even his eyebrows, and he was overweight. He was 29. The musicians were Pink Floyd, the band he had…
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…