Indigo Foxtrot…

I don’t remember when it was that I first became aware of music (by which I mean popular music) but I do know that by the time I was about 10 years old I was “getting into” music. This was around 1975 and the three bands I recall from that time are Abba, ELO and Queen.

Queen were one of my dads favourite bands and their ‘Live Killers’ album was one of the few LPs (if you don’t know what and LP is, ask your parents) that had made the long trip to South Africa with us (see .personal page for information about my South African adventure), although it did arrive a few months after we did because it went by boat whereas we flew down.

I don’t know how or why I came to be “into” Abba but I suspect it must have been in part because my mother was listening to them around the house. All I know is there were cassette tapes of their music in the house and I would play them regularly on the tape player in my bedroom. Funny how these things happen but there you have it!

I arrived back in England shortly before Christmas 1979 when the #1 single was Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick In The Wall’. I remember at the time watching episodes of ‘Top of The Pops’, thinking how good that song was, and how dreadful some of the other music was! I was exposed to so many different musical genres within such a brief period of time and I just didn’t know which way to turn - mod, ska, punk, metal, rockabilly, new wave, and the rest! Memorable songs from early 1980 are ‘Going Underground’ by The Jam and ‘Too much Too young’ by The Specials. I remember local news bulletins of the era “introducing” new bands like Duran Duran and U2 (I remember listening to their Boy album almost daily for several months at a friends house when he “discovered” them), two bands who as we all now know went on to global superstardom. I remember also being introduced to heavy rock (or heavy metal if you prefer) and it was this that changed my world!

Two bands started my rock odyssey, AC/DC and UFO. A friend at school had the AC/DC album ‘Highway To Hell’ on a portable cassette player and I remember listening to this time and time again at school, trying to figure out the lyrics so we could sing along!

I soon went and bought other AC/DC albums like ‘Let There Be Rock’, ‘Powerage’, ‘If You Want Blood’ and ‘Dirty Deeds…’. These were played many times and were soon joined by UFO’s classic live album ‘Strangers In The Night’, which introduced me to arguably the greatest and certainly one of the most underated rock guitarists of all time, the legend that is Michael Schenker.

Michael Schenker is one of those guitarists with a sound and style all his own - an innovator rather than an imitator. Many guitarists these days are lauded for their ability to “shred” up & down the fretboard at amazing speed regardless of how relevant or emotive. Michael Schenker plays with feeling. Fast at times, always fluent & fluid, sometimes slow & plaintive but always with feeling. His songs, solos and instrumental pieces demonstrate an amazing creativity and variety of style, tempo and mood in his playing.

Over the years I have grown to appreciate many other guitarists and their distinctive styles but it is Michael’s ability to bring such feeling to guitar playing really got me hooked on great guitar players and I am still always looking for new and exciting rock and blues based guitar players to listen to.