Finally we come to the top 20 of this listing of 100 instrumentals by 100 favourite guitarists of mine. I like lists. They make sense of things. 20. Nic Jones, ‘Planxty Davis’ Nic Jones had the most distinctive and admired style of guitar playing. In simple terms, it sounds like more than one person isRead More
Here is the fourth of five posts listing a top 100 favourite guitarists of mine, from number 100 to number one. All of the pieces are instrumentals – I decided that there should be nothing to detract from the guitar itself. It is a personal top 100, selected more by sentiment than science. There areRead More
Here is part three of a series of five posts listing 100 favourite guitarists of mine, from number 100 to number one. All of the pieces selected are instrumentals – I decided that there should be nothing to detract from the guitar itself. It is a personal top 100, selected more by sentiment than science.Read More
As said, over five posts I am listing a top 100 favourite guitarists, from number 100 to number one. All of the pieces I have picked are as much favourites irrespective of the performer, as much as they are examples of their best work. All are instrumentals – I decided that there should be nothingRead More
What is it about guitar music that I find so compelling? The interest has been not so much in the guitar as one feature of a group, but as a solo endeavour, where all is stripped away that detracts from letting the instrument speak for itself. There is pleasure in the sound of the guitar,Read More
If I’m not writing as much as I would like to, it’s because I’m working on a great many things, and when it gets to the evenings I’m just tired. But I hope it’s all going to be worth it. One of the projects is a small exhibition of infographics, to be held this AugustRead More
It was the day after the United Kingdom left the European Union (for the time being), and I went to London’s centre for Italian art, the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art. The Estorick is one of the most pleasing art galleries in the city; small, to be sure, but greatly charming, and always bigRead More
If you visit the Lake District, there is one name in particular that is both omnipresent and yet almost completely invisible. There is much that promotes, celebrates or otherwise exploits the names of Wordsworth, Potter, Coleridge, Wainwright, but what of Rawnsley? What visitor to the Lakes knows of him. Yet go the central town ofRead More
Shortly after hearing the sad news that Neil Innes had died (on 29 December 2019), I sought out some of his music. The first tune that came up was the theme to The Innes Books of Records, his BBC Two television series that ran 1979-1982. A simple, ghostly figure on a jangly piano sets upRead More
Last in this series looking back on 2019 is the year in some favourite images (mostly mine). This was the year in which I visited Greece, the Lake District (twice), walked many miles through the Kent countryside, took part in the digitisation of many newspapers, visited art galleries and snapped the other visitors, and continuedRead More