Ah, the 90's, remember those days? Remember the big music stars. No? Well, here's who you couldn't get away from if you turned on the radio or Top of the Pops in the 90's - The Spice Girls, Boyzone, Take That, Westlife, Steps, Michael Bolton, Celine Dion, The Backstreet Boys, S Club 7, Five, Oasis, Bon Jovi, Puff Daddy, Will Smith and Bryan Adams. It was a decade filled with bad cover versions, over-ornamented white "soul" singers, cheesy boy/girl bands, commercial rap, cloying rock ballads and retro culture. I was a teenager between 1990 and 1996 and I despaired at the music I was hearing on the radio. I'll tell you what I wanted, what I really, really wanted in the 90's - better music!

There was of course an alternative music culture that produced some good music, but by and large the 1990's were a strange time for pop/rock music, especially guitar-based music. Aside from Grunge there weren't too many guitar-based musical developments. Though I enjoyed Grunge for a while it was a brief trend that never stuck with me. Grunge was huge but now it seems a distant memory, most Grunge bands seem to have been forgotten about, perhaps rightly so. 

The real 90's musical revolutions were in electronic music with Rave, Jungle, Electronica, Trip-Hop and Hip Hop. I took solace in some artists from those genres like Goldie, Missy Elliot, Bjørk and Massive Attack, but guitar music they were not! So for my rock/pop guitar fixes in the 90's, I was discovering music from previous decades.

Perhaps the reason for the lack of innovation in guitar music was because there was a big trend of 'retro' music, especially referencing the 1960's. As the decade went on the 60's revival was replaced by the 70's revival and there was even an attempt at an 80's revival as the 90's came to an end! 

All that is a long way of explaining how my 90's guitar hero playlists revolve around guitarists more associated with the 60's, 70's and 80's. Here's a Youtube and Spotify playlist of some of the music I was listening to and learning from then, followed by my thoughts on each guitarist.

Jimi Hendrix 

No guitar hero list would be complete without the greatest rock guitarist of them all. The 60's revival of the 90's brought a trend of releasing 'remastered' classic albums. Jimi Hendrix's music had a great renaissance then, especially after they produced a video for his cover of Bob Dylan's 'All Along the Watchtower'. The invention in his guitar playing was inspiring and I immersed myself in learning his music then. His diversity as a player is brilliantly illustrated in tracks like 'Castles Made of Sand' and 'The Wind Cries Mary'. His rhythm guitar playing was as inventive as his famed solos. The true rock guitar hero. Nothing more needs to be said!

The Police (Andy Summers) 

It was through listening to The Police in the 90's that I really transformed as a listener and musician. Andy Summers is probably the most important influence to me for that reason, as it was his guitar playing that really expanded my musical horizons. He played extended chords like no one else in pop or rock did. It all sounded so simple, but then you'd try to play it and your fingers would get sore because they had to stretch across more frets than any other music you'd played! My fingers stretched out to be quite long mainly because I learnt how to play Andy Summers' add9 chords from Message in a Bottle, Every Breath You Take and perhaps my favourite Police riff De Do Do Do. Some of The Police's best tracks weren't singles, so they aren't as well known. 'Secret Journey' and 'When the World is Running Down' feature some of Summers' finest textured playing. I composed my first classical guitar piece when listening to The Police. I called it Homage to Andy Summers as it used a lot of add9 chords. It's now called 'Elegy for Joan' in memory of my late Mum. Summers' isn't just a huge influence on me, his influence is basically heard across the entire pop/rock history since the late 70's! He could do more with one unusual chord and an effects pedal than most can do with all the guitar tricks in the box.

The Doors (Robbie Krieger) 

The 60's revival brought The Doors back into fashion in a big way, so much so that there was a big Hollywood movie about them. I was buying CDs by then and so I got all The Doors CDs. Of course Jim Morrison was an enthralling lead singer, but it was the understated and hugely versatile Robbie Krieger that really peaked my interest. He would move from screaming blues solos like in 'Peace Frog', to jazzy sitar-like playing as on 'Indian Summer' and Spanish guitar, like 'Spanish Caravan'.

Simon and Garfunkel (Paul Simon)

Simon and Garfunkel's music was always in the house, however as I matured as a guitarist I began to understand what a great guitarist Paul Simon is, so I started learning a lot of Simon and Garfunkel songs. They are great songs to learn fingerstyle guitar and are a bit of a bridge to classical and jazz guitar. 'So Long Frank Lloyd Wright' is a strangely beautiful song sung by Art Garfunkel to Paul Simon's gorgeous nylon string guitar part. This song introduced me to the Brazilian style of Bossa Nova which I'd grow to love. Simon's version of Davy Graham's guitar instrumental 'Anji' also introduced me to the world of solo folk guitar playing, which ultimately led me into traditional Irish music. 'Punky's Dilemma' has jazzy strums using major 7th chords, which became my favourite type of chords.

Joni Mitchell 

When you start exploring 60's folk songwriters like Paul Simon it isn't long before you discover Joni Mitchell, one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th Century. Though the most famous Joni album is 'Blue', the album that really captured me was 'Hejira', a sprawling jazz-influenced album about life on the road with a cast of wonderful musicians including guitarist Larry Carlton and legendary bassist Jaco Pastorius. It is also a great showcase of Joni's inventive guitar playing. She uses numerous alternative guitar tunings to sculpt beautiful accompaniment to her poetic lyrics. A true musical genius.

Neil Young

Neil Young plays harmonica on the 'Hejira' track 'Furry Sings the Blues'. In the 90's he had a big comeback and became a guitar hero to a new generation. His legendary MTV Unplugged set is perhaps the most memorable edition of Unplugged, I bought the tape when it came out in 1993. Unplugged introduced an almost forgotten 70's star to the 90's generation and he was labelled the Godfather of Grunge. The Unplugged album doesn't explain why he got this name, rather it's his work with his band Crazy Horse, with whom he played extended heavy rock jams, some featuring really epic guitar solos, like 'Down by the River', 'Cortez the Killer' and 'Cowgirl in the Sand'. Down by the River is notable for Young's 'one note solos', where he keeps playing the same note over and over before doing the same with another note. Minimalist rock guitar god!

Pink Floyd (Dave Gilmour) 

In 1994 Pink Floyd made a comeback with the album 'The Division Bell'. I'd been listening to them a bit before the Division Bell came out, having been introduced to the glories of their remastered back catalog of great albums like Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, Meddle and Animals. Dave Gilmour's guitar playing on these records is some of the best rock guitar there is, so he was a huge influence to me then. I never got to see Pink Floyd live, but I did see their legendary Live 8 reunion live on TV in 2005 and their performance of 'Comfortably Numb' brought a nostalgic tear to my eyes! The epic song 'Dogs' has incredible guitar playing throughout.

The Beatles 

It's hard to believe it now, but in the late 70's and 80's The Beatles were not a trendy band at all, they were seen as a relic of the bygone hippie era that the punks, goths and metal-heads were railing against. So, as a child, I didn't hear them much on the radio and I knew a lot more about the individual member's solo work than the band. Then The Beatles had a major revival in the 90's thanks to a host of 'new' bands ripping them off (hello Oasis!) and a huge marketing campaign around their remastered 'Anthology'. It was impossible to avoid The Beatles at this point, so I began seriously listening to their music. Hearing the albums 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band', 'Revolver', 'The White Album' and 'Abbey Road' made me and a lot of my generation realise they were one of the greatest of all pop/rock bands! Some of their non-album singles are among their best work, especially 'Strawberry Fields Forever' on which John, Paul and George each play different guitar lines. It was the 2000s before I got into their US equivalent, The Beach Boys, so they're not in my Retro 90's playlist.

Yes (Steve Howe) 

Another 60's/70's band to get a 90's revival was the Progressive Rock band 'Yes'. I was drawn into Yes' music by their virtuoso guitarist Steve Howe. I'd known their hit 80's song 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' but it was really through the publicity around their so-so 1991 comeback album 'Union' that I began to explore their back catalog.  At their best Yes produced really uplifting music which had a great balance between pop hooks and virtuoso musicianship. At their worst they were self-indulgent. The main Yes album I listened to in the 90's was the compilation "Classic Yes" which has the best tracks from their 70's heyday. Howe's guitar playing is tremendous throughout this compilation, as is Jon Anderson's distinctive singing. The epic 10 minute "And You and I" is a great showcase of their talents, moving stage by stage from a mysterious 12-string acoustic guitar intro to a folky pop song, to a psychedelic bit, a synth-orchestra interlude, a majestic vocal climax, another folky bit, some bluesy guitar, strange synth noodling from Rick Wakeman, a harmony vocal bit, another synth-orchestra bit and finally returning to gentle folkiness at the end. Genre-jumping at its finest!

The Clash (Mick Jones) 

Another band to get a 90's revival were 'The Clash'. Their revival was mainly down to 'Should I Stay or Should I Go' being used for a famous Levi jeans TV ad. My sister was a big fan of the band in the 80's, but I didn't really listen to them then. With their 90's revival I started listening to them and I began to really appreciate their diversity, they weren't just another punk band. They brought in influences from Reggae, Funk and Disco to develop into the best of the Punk bands. My favourite song of theirs is 'Straight to Hell', which has strange textures including some beautifully subtle guitar lines from Mick Jones. 'London Calling' and 'Rock the Casbah' are two other classics I like that were on MTV a lot in the 90's. Jones is kind of an anti-guitar hero as he doesn't do flashy guitar solos, but his guitar playing with The Clash was just perfect for what they were doing.

Addendum - Why No 90's Guitar Heroes? Where's Kurt Cobain and Jonny Greenwood?

So in this playlist of my "90's" rock guitar heroes, none of them are artists who first broke through in the 90's. To me that's a reflection of the fact that the 90's weren't a great time for guitar music. In fact, I remember one of the key aesthetics of 90's rock music was a reaction against the very concept of a rock guitar solo. Accomplished guitar playing wasn't cool anymore! Take for example thisBest of 1993 edition of the old MTV Indie music show 120 minutes - There's a lot of guitar playing on it, but most of it is pretty basic stuff which I find uninteresting. By far the most interesting musician there is Björk, and she doesn't use a guitar! That was MTV's idea of the best alternative music of 1993. Most of those bands are forgotten now, to me it was a pretty dull time for guitar music. Some people love this era though and that's fine by me, it's just not my idea of good guitar music.

The fact that Kurt Cobain is often cited as the main guitar hero of the 90's says a lot about the state of guitar rock then. I was a Nirvana fan briefly, but I got bored by them pretty quickly and though his influence on the 90's music scene is undeniable, the truth is Kurt Cobain was a pretty average guitar player and most of the things he did had already been done by The Pixies and other '80's bands (Just listen to "Debaser" and "Monkey Gone to Heaven" for proof!).

​The closest person to a 90's rock guitar hero I'd have would be Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead. I enjoyed their big album 'OK Computer", and would have learnt some of the songs, but it wouldn't be honest of me to list Greenwood or any other 90's rock guitarist as a major influence on me.

I'd also give an honourable mention to Graham Coxon from Blur. In the mid-90's the Blur V. Oasis battle was unavoidable. I'd be firmly on the side of Blur as their music is far more creative, thanks partly to Coxon's angular guitar playing. Saying that though, I saw them at a Belgian festival called Rock Werchter a few years ago and I found their music hadn't dated very well. The same is true of 'OK Computer'. Music that seemed fresh to me in the mid-90's now sounds very stale! It's like a less interesting version of The Beatles and Pink Floyd.

The 90's weren't all bad, there was some very inventive electronic dance music and hip-hop, but it wouldn't be until the late 2000's when some new guitar bands would emerge to peak my interest and bring me back to rock music. Due to this my playlists over the next few weeks move to other genres because the late 90's and early-mid 2000s were a time when I moved away from pop and rock music and focused my attention on classical, trad, jazz and African music styles.

​When I was 12 I saw Iron Maiden on Top of the Pops and thus began an obsession with Heavy Metal that lasted most of my teenage years. I don't listen to it much anymore, however I credit my Heavy Metal guitar heroes for pushing me to develop my guitar skills and opening a door into classical, folk and jazz guitar. Some of the below tracks have hints of those genres. I've deliberately picked some pieces which show the mellow side of metal, and also some thunderingly heavy tracks. The playlist demonstrates how bands like Iron Maiden, Slayer and Metallica prepared me for some of the big powerful orchestral works that I came to love. Stravinsky, Bruckner, Holst and Shostakovich have moments that sound just like heavy metal to me. Just sample some of these symphonic masterpieces, before you delve into my heavy metal playlist! 

Bruckner - Symphony No.9 'Scherzo' (1894) - Pounding Metal Power Chords in the 19th Century!

Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring 'Dance of the Adolescents' (1913) Russian Metal!

Holst - The Planets Suite i. Mars (1916) - The First Wave of British Heavy Metal!

Shostakovich - Symphony No.11 (1957) - Heavy Metal Riff Extravaganza in Movement 2!

The Playlists
Now, on to my playlists - The Youtube Playlist tracks are described below, The Spotify playlist has a lot more pieces on it, just to give a wide overview of the variety that can be found in the heavy metal genre.

Iron Maiden - Infinite Dreams (live)

Iron Maiden were the first metal band to really grab my attention when I saw them play 'Infinite Dreams' on Top of the Pops when I was 12. The song was epic, the twin guitars of Adrian Smith and Dave Murray were straight out of the Thin Lizzy playbook and singer Bruce Dickinson a fantastic showman. I'd actually heard Iron Maiden before that without knowing, as their song 'Phantom of the Opera' was on a famous Lucozade Ad with Olympic athlete Daley Thompson. My Dad hated heavy metal, but even he liked that music!

Black Sabbath - Planet Caravan

Black Sabbath are the originators of Heavy Metal. Tony Iommi's guitar playing was the definition of heavy. Yet he could be mellow too, such as this otherworldly song, which even has a jazz guitar solo. These kind of mellow metal moments opened my ears to classical music, folk and jazz. I finally got to see Black Sabbath at an Austrian festival in 2015, they were by far the oldest band there, yet also the heaviest, they made some of the younger speed demons sound pathetic!

Led Zeppelin - Ramble On

Led Zeppelin aren't strictly Heavy Metal, but they hugely influenced the genre and their famous 'Immigrant Song' is definitely heavy metal. Despite this heavy edge they are the band that really opened my mind to acoustic music. Initially drawn in by the raw power of Jimmy Page's guitar, John Bonham's drums, John Paul Jones' bass and Robert Plant's vocals, I soon became obsessed with their largely acoustic third album. It was through this album that I began to learn about alternate tunings, like the Open-G tuning used in 'That's the Way'. I use Open-G to this day when backing Irish trad music.  Possibly my favourite Led Zep song though is 'Ramble On' a song about 'The Lord of the Rings'. It shows the versatility of Jimmy Page, who plays folky acoustic guitar, melodic electric harmonies and heavy power chords.

AC/DC - Back in Black

AC/DC are one of the few bands who cross-over between pop/rock music fans and metal fans. They are heavy, yet also write pretty conventional 'boy wants girl' rock n'roll songs. In Angus Young they have a charismatic lead guitarist who is worshipped by bedroom guitarists the world over. I used to be one of them and learnt how to play all the classic AC/DC songs, including their biggest hits 'Thunderstruck' and 'Back in Black'.

Ozzy Osbourne and Randy Rhoads - Diary of a Madman

When Ozzy Osbourne left Black Sabbath he discovered an unusual guitar virtuoso, Randy Rhoads. He was an unconventional metal guitarist at the time because he studied classical guitar. Apparently he would seek out classical guitar teachers in every town when he was on the road. The intro to 'Diary of a Madman' is hugely influenced by a classical guitar etude composed byLeo Brouwer. I learnt it as a teenager without knowing this, only discovering the fact years later when studying Brouwer's music. Lots of Metal guitarists since Rhoads followed his example and studied classical guitar, thus spawning the sub-genre 'Neo-Classical Metal'!

Guns N'Roses - Welcome to the Jungle

The late 80's were probably the high-point of heavy metal, especially when Guns N'Roses burst onto the scene with an almost punk-like attitude. They were different to any other Metal band, more about sex, drugs and rock n'roll than the fantasy and literary driven world of Iron Maiden and their like. Slash and Izzy Stradlin were a formidable guitar partnership and I still admire the way Stradlin plays off of Slash's epic leads on the album  'Appetite for Destruction'. They also did mellow acoustic ballads too, like 'Patience', which every bedroom guitarist in 1989 learnt!

Metallica - One

Another seminal Top of the Pops moment for me in 1989 was seeing the video for Metallica's 'One'. The song is a bit of a rock cliché now, but back then it was really ground-breaking. The mix between mellow, almost classical guitar lines and extremely heavy music paved the way for the Grunge revolution that would soon follow. I spent hours playing the guitar lines of Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield from then until my mid-teens. Other Metallica songs that have this mix of classical mellowness and thrash metal power include 'Battery', 'Fade to Black', 'Welcome Home - Sanitarium'' and  'To Live is to Die' which begins with an Early classical music intro, before getting very heavy indeed.

Joe Satriani - Flying in a Blue Dream

By 1990 I was fully immersed in epic metal guitar solos. I was getting Rock Guitar magazines and teaching myself all the riffs from guitar tabs. It was in these magazines I heard about Joe Satriani, then I saw him on MTV and his guitar playing blew me away. His 'Flying in a Blue Dream' album was a constant in my life back then, I had the guitar TAB book. The title track is one of the best rock instrumentals for driving down the highway. He makes beautiful use of controlled feedback here. He could rock hard but also play classical-influenced mellow pieces in his virtuoso 'finger-tapping' style, such as 'Midnight', 'Days at the Beach' and 'The Forgotten Part 1'.

Megadeth - Hangar 18

Megadeth were the next band to listen to after anyone discovered Metallica, because frontman Dave Mustaine used to be in Metallica. Their 1990 album Rust in Peace was a firm favourite of mine for a couple of years and their hit single Hangar 18 sees Mustaine and Marty Friedman playing riff after riff of metal guitar heaven! Funny story about Megadeth I heard back in the day. They played in Dun Laoghaire's Top Hat Theatre in the 80's, an audience member was badly injured when he did a stage-dive at the end of the show when everyone was leaving, no one was there to catch him!
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Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss

It doesn't get much heavier than Slayer and so I guess it was natural that by the time I hit puberty and full-on teen angst at 13 I would seek out the heaviest of metal bands. When I saw 'Seasons in the Abyss' on MTV I was transfixed by the awesome power of it, and the haunting clean guitar arpeggios, straight out of Flamenco! Many years later I brought my teenage half-sister to a heavy metal festival in Austria as she had become a metal fan too. Slayer were there and they momentarily brought me back to my 13-year old self, the power of their performance was astounding! 

Conclusion

I hope this playlist and blogpost goes some way to explaining how a heavy metal teenager could become a trad and classical guitarist and composer. I'll end with an excerpt from my 2nd String Quartet 'The Cranning', which is meant to sound like Metallica played with violins, viola and cello!

This year is turning into the year of the guitar for me. Most of the music I'll be working on this year heavily involves the instrument that brought me into music and inspired me to begin composing. In my current role as Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Musician in Residence I'm composing a guitar ensemble piece to record with my good friend Ciaran Swift and his students of the Guitar Training Centre in Dún Laoghaire.

As part of the residency I'm sharing a Youtube & Spotify playlist once a week featuring music that inspired me since I first picked up the guitar.  The playlists each have a different theme, from childhood pop/rock favourites to classical, jazz, trad, African, Funk, Indie music and my Heavy Metal teenage years! There are some different tracks on the Spotify and Youtube playlists to lend variety and because some tracks on Youtube aren't on Spotify! I start with my childhood guitar heroes.

The Stranglers - Golden Brown

This is the first song I remember hearing as a young child that really caught my attention. I heard it on the car radio and wondered what it was. It took me a while to find out, maybe a few years, we didn't have the internet back then! When I finally tracked down a tape of The Stranglers I played this song over and over and quickly learnt Hugh Cornwell's beautiful, jazzy guitar solo. I also learnt to transfer the main harpsichord part onto guitar. My first transcription!

Dire Straits - Single Handed Sailor/Follow Me Home

​Mark Knopfler was my first guitar hero. My Dad liked Dire Straits, so I heard classics like 'Sultans of Swing' and 'Romeo and Juliet'. In 1985, when I was 8, they released the 'Brothers in Arms' album and 'Money for Nothing' propelled Knopfler to superstardom. The album that really stuck with me is 'Communique', which I got on cassette then. It's one of their least known albums, but I love the dual guitar playing, like on 'Single-Handed Sailor' and the hypnotic 'Follow Me Home'.

Paul McCartney (with Dave Gilmour) - No More Lonely Nights

When I was a child Paul McCartney was huge. He was, in my mind at least, bigger than The Beatles, because the only thing I knew of the Beatles was the records in my Mum's vinyl collection that rarely got played. It wasn't until my late teens that I 'discovered' the magic of The Beatles. I loved Paul McCartney's music as a kid and remember when 'No More Lonely Nights' was on Top of the Pops. The guitar solo really stood out to me. I think then I thought it was Paul McCartney but several years later found out it was Dave Gilmour from Pink Floyd.

Kate Bush (with Dave Gilmour) - Running up that Hill (live)/Love and Anger

Kate Bush was an amazing artist for a young child to behold in the 80's. Her videos for Cloudbusting and Running Up That Hill were like nothing else. Then I saw her play the track live on TV, little knowing that the brilliant guitarist was the same guy playing with Paul McCartney. Gilmour doesn't play on the album version though, but he does add his distinctive guitar to her song 'Love and Anger' from 1989's 'Sensual World' album. I also unknowingly saw Gilmour playing with Bryan Ferry during Live Aid. Of course then there were also Pink Floyd songs on the radio like 'Another Brick in the Wall' and 'Learning to Fly'. Looking back I can see Gilmour's guitar sound was embedded in my mind long before I knew who he was!

Eric Clapton - White Room (live)/Behind the Mask

Another of my Dad's favourites, I became a big Clapton fan too, though I rarely listen to him anymore. I remember hearing 'Behind the Mask' on the radio when I was a kid and I also remember his Live Aid set with the Cream classic 'White Room'. My Dad brought me to Wembley Stadium to see Clapton in a double-header with Elton John in 1992. 15-year-old me didn't like Elton John's music so I was pretty bored by his set, but when Clapton came on I was transfixed. Funnily enough, nowadays I'm more likely to listen to something from Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road than any Clapton though!

Thin Lizzy - Still in Love with You/Jailbreak (live)

One day my parents brought me to a ballet performance that my sister was in. I had no interest in going, but all that changed when word got around that Phil Lynott was there. My Mum brought me up to meet him, I'll never forget that moment, he had such a kind, generous smile and deeply penetrating eyes.  Not long after that we were listening to the radio and heard the terrible news that he'd died. That was my first experience of someone I'd met dying. I listened again and again to Thin Lizzy's 'Live and Dangerous Album' after that. 'Still in Love with You' is a song I used to skip as a child, as an adult though I just love the song and the brilliant dual guitar playing of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson.

Queen - One Vision (live) - Bohemian Rhapsody/Radio Gaga (at Live Aid)

It's hard to underplay the impact Live Aid had on me and so many others. It was an incredible event that my 8-year-old brain cells still remember vividly. Queen's set stole the show of course and I begged my parents to get me their next album 'Live Magic' when it came out. Brian May's guitar playing is so powerful on this live album it surely gave me an ear for the heavier side of rock music that I'd turn to in a few years. I also loved 'Radio Ga Ga' and the Live Aid version is glorious.

Paul Simon - Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes/Under African Skies

My parents both loved Simon and Garfunkel, my Dad's party-piece was singing 'The Boxer'. When Paul Simon made a big comeback in 1986 with his Graceland album it united my family's musical taste for one rare moment! It's difficult to explain to people who weren't alive then how new it was to hear and see a White American singing with amazing musicians from Apartheid-era South Africa. Simon almost single-handedly opened up the world to African music. Years later I would delve deep into the numerous guitar styles that spring from Africa. Graceland was my first taste of those chiming guitars.

Run DMC with Aerosmith - Walk This Way

Hip-hop was quite a fresh, new thing in the mid-80's and Run DMC were the biggest hip-hop group of their day, thanks mainly to this huge hit with Aerosmith. They practically invented a new genre with this mix of rock guitars and rap. This song made me simultaneously get interested in Rap and Heavy Metal and I bought tapes by them both. You Be Illin'!
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Fleetwood Mac - Big Love

Fleetwood Mac were another of my Dad's favourites and I would have liked hearing the great guitar solo inThe Chain as a child, without knowing who the guitarist was. Then in 1987, when I was 10, they made a big comeback with the Tango in the Night Album and the wonderfully weird single 'Big Love'. The guitar playing on this track is incredible. In later years I'd really learn to appreciate the talents of Lindsey Buckingham, perhaps the most underrated guitarist in rock music. I've seen him live with Fleetwood Mac twice, he's an astounding performer, as his live solo version of'Big Love' testifies to.

It's been quite a while since I updated this blog page. I thought it'd be good to share some guitar videos I've recorded at home during the Covid-19 lockdown. I call these Dave Flynn's Lockdown Tunes - They are a mix of Irish trad, brazilian music and original compositions and improvisations I recorded over the last month or so. I hope you find some joy from this playlist. Stay safe and well friends.