Henry Yates

2 weeks ago | guitarworld.com | Henry Yates

John Sykes belonged to that exclusive club of musicians – a golden circle whose members also include David Crosby, Ronnie Wood and Dave Grohl – notable for their vital roles in not one but two major bands. Unlike those galacticos, there’s a case that the former Whitesnake and Thin Lizzy guitarist, who died in December aged 65 after battling cancer, never became as famous as his talent deserved (‘underrated’ being the key word in the tributes paid).

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Henry Yates

Christopher Neil, producer/writerI was a pop producer working with the likes of Sheena Easton and Dollar. Mike Rutherford was a prog rock musician with Genesis. But the band’s publishing company thought the two of us – the yin and yang – would do well together. And they were right. We hit it off immediately. Mike likes to have a cassette rolling all the time and put everything down there: not fully formed ideas, just little sketches, odds and sods.

2 weeks ago | loudersound.com | Henry Yates

Of all the postwar blues giants, John Lee Hooker was the rock star. The bluesman’s rebel streak was already in evidence when – aged just 14 – he ran away from the Mississippi farm of his childhood and a minister father who “thought the guitar was the Devil’s work”. Yet Hooker’s true rebellion was his blood-oath to play the blues his way. Defying genre dogma and mangling song structure, his hypnotic riffs and acetate-ancient voice won him fanboys from Keith Richards to Carlos Santana.

2 weeks ago | loudersound.com | Henry Yates

No wonder Mick Fleetwood has the best stories – he has the best view. For more than 40 years, the towering drummer has looked down on rock’n’roll landscape from his lofty perch on the Fleetwood Mac drum stool, observing the great, the good, the drunk and the doomed – and frequently hopped off to partake in the festivities. Like many of his vintage, Fleetwood has weathered the personal storms of bankruptcy, divorce and cocaine addiction, but he emerged with his memory and sense of humour intact.

1 month ago | guitarworld.com | Henry Yates

Antics marked a turning point for Interpol – a dynamic, gutsy portrait of a band at the peak of their powers, and the perfect antidote to the mass of identikit indie bands that dominated in the year 2004. Guitarist Daniel Kessler has already given us his side of the making of the landmark record – including the tragic loss of his favored Epiphone Casino – and now frontman Paul Banks is sharing his memories with us.