(Vocal/instrumental group, 1968–76, 1984–present) Deep Purple have sold over 100 million records in a 38-year career – continuous apart from a hiatus between 1976 and 1984 – so are one of the more commercially successful rock bands in history. Though classed as contemporaries of fellow early 1970s trailblazers Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, Purple were distinctly different, ...
A consummate guitarist in an extraordinary variety of styles, including jazz, classical, country, rock and heavy metal, Steve Morse also has the compositional skills and the improvising genius to match. He has played with, among others, Dixie Dregs, Kansas and Deep Purple, while also maintaining his own band. Morse was born in ...
More than any other hard-rock or heavy-metal duo, Iron Maiden guitarists Adrian Smith and Dave Murray (b. 1956) set the standard for twin-guitar harmony lines and riffs. Indeed, their killer riffs and epic songs have helped to make Iron Maiden one of the most influential metal bands of all time. Murray was born in Edmonton, England. Inspired by ...
The last of the triumvirate of guitar legends who played with The Yardbirds, Jimmy Page became an icon of rock guitarists in the 1970s with Led Zeppelin. Elements of his playing style have been copied to the point of cliché in the years since Led Zeppelin dominated the rock world, but as the originator, Page developed the heavy-metal ...
(Guitar, b. 1956) Satriani was an influential teacher – students include Steve Vai, Kirk Hammett of Metallica and Primus’s Larry LaLonde – before becoming a recording artist in his late 20s. He is not simply a stunt-guitarist, even though some of his playing on his debut Surfing With The Alien (1987) is jaw-dropping. It reached the US Top ...
American guitarist Joe Satriani is widely credited with pioneering the rock-instrumental style in the 1980s, opening up the genre for guitarists like Steve Vai, Eric Johnson and Yngwie Malmsteen. His talent for creating highly evolved music, using a pop-song structure with tuneful melodies before applying his own virtuoso skills, has made him one of the most successful ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1995–99, 2005–present) Crispian Mills (vocals), Jay Darlington (keyboards), Alonza Bevan (bass) and Paul Winter-Hart (drums) formed with the sole intention of making music that sounded as if it had been recorded in the 1960s. Their debut album K (1996) delivered this vision in spades and hits included a cover version of Deep Purple’s ‘Hush’. By second album ...
Lita Rossana Ford (b. 1958) was born in London. After her family settled in Los Angeles in the 1960s, she took up guitar at the age of 11, inspired by Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore. When she was 16, she met novelty-music producer Kim Fowley, who helped recruit her, along with Joan Jett, Sandy West, ...
Mark Tremonti (b. 1974) rose to fame as the lead guitarist of Creed, enjoying enormous success at the turn of the twenty-first century with metal-influenced songs that crossed over to the pop charts. Tremonti’s tasteful power has garnered him many fans. His instructional DVD The Sound And The Story adds tips from several guitarists, including Michael Angelo Batio, ...
His contemporaries Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck might receive more time in the spotlight, but guitarist Ritchie Blackmore (b. 1945) has been similarly influential and innovative during his 40-plus-year career. Born in Weston-Super-Mare, England, in April 1945, Blackmore was given his first guitar at the age of 11 and began taking classical lessons, ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1976–present) A trailblazing outfit responsible for the first British punk single, ‘New Rose’ in 1976, and album Damned, Damned, Damned (1977), the original line-up of Dave Vanian (real name Letts, vocals), Brian James (guitar), Captain Sensible (Ray Burns, bass) and Rat Scabies (Chris Miller, drums) disintegrated after the second album Music ...
Driven by a fierce intelligence, a relentless pursuit of social justice and a wide-ranging taste in sounds and songs, Tom Morello (b. 1964) was the driving force behind the bands Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave. Morello has won Grammys and performed around the world inspiring and uniting people with music. Known for innovative guitar solos and varied, ...
A leading figure of 1980s ‘neo-classical’ rock guitarists, Yngwie Malmsteen (b. 1963) learned his breakneck arpeggios and baroque composing style from classical composers and performers as well as rock artists. His own sweep-picking technique, his use of harmonic scales and pedal tones and his aggressive playing have helped create his distinctive style. Born in Stockholm, Sweden, Malmsteen’s ...
The rise of arena rock began in North America during the mid-1970s with a surge in the popularity of bands like Journey, Foreigner, Boston and Styx. Embraced by a network of FM radio stations, these bands and others like them became so profitable to their record companies that they almost represented a licence to print money. The formula ...
Hard rock is a cross between rock’n’roll and blues, but played louder – everything on ‘11’ or ‘one louder’, as guitarist Nigel Tufnell in spoof rock band Spinal Tap would say. The electric guitar is the prominent instrument in hard rock, and most hard rock songs are based on a guitar ‘riff’. The classic example of a hard rock ...
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An extensive music information resource, bringing together the talents and expertise of a wide range of editors and musicologists, including Stanley Sadie, Charles Wilson, Paul Du Noyer, Tony Byworth, Bob Allen, Howard Mandel, Cliff Douse, William Schafer, John Wilson...
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Classical, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country and more. Flame Tree has been making encyclopaedias and guides about music for over 20 years. Now Flame Tree Pro brings together a huge canon of carefully curated information on genres, styles, artists and instruments. It's a perfect tool for study, and entertaining too, a great companion to our music books.
David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.