Britpop. Who was the most impressive guitarist in your eyes.

Blaendulais

I reckon, after seeing them live, Steve Craddock in Ocean Colour Scene.  Great musician

vasselmeyer

Graham Coxon without a doubt. He's so innovative and imaginative in terms of rhythms, melodies and counter melodies. I never really liked him at the time, but listening in retrospect, he's fabulous.

octatonic

Dominic Chad from Mansun.

not_the_dj

Bernard Butler for sure, and John Squire (if the Second Coming can be classed as britpop)

gusman2x

Loads of great players when you actually think about it. Graham Coxon is a good shout, as is Jonny Greenwood.

James Dean Bradfield is also a fantastic guitarist. Maybe not as innovative as the other two, but backs of energy, great melody and solos. Plus a great live player.

english_bob

Graham Coxon for me as well. Stuff that sounds throwaway simple is often very crafted and almost always perfect for the song. Some of it is simple, but that's always perfect for the song too. No need to be clever for its own sake.

Such a broad range of influences too- he's very vocal about his love for the Beatles but you can hear XTC, King Crimson, punk and American alt-rock in there too. If you haven't already, watch the Pedal Show episode with Coxon to get some idea of how his mind works.

I was very taken with Richard Hawley's playing on the first Longpigs album (The Sun Is Often Out) too- considering how smooth and retro he tends to sound now it's surprisingly angular and aggressive.

Radiohead wouldn't thank you for the "britpop" tag (to be fair, they predated britpop and have long outlived just about any other band of that time), but you'd be hard pushed to name another band of the last 30 years who have done more to push guitar music somewhere else than it was before (whatever your opinion on where they've taken it).

...and I defy anyone to find a guitar solo on a britpop track more perfect than Andy Miller's on Dodgy's "In A Room".

Rickyd

octatonic said:

Dominic Chad from Mansun.

I worked with his dad about 10 odd years ago and although I'd never heard of the band he got me listening and yes I agree, he was a really talented player. He had given up playing by then and was training to be a paramedic I think.

Wazmeister

english_bob said:

Graham Coxon for me as well. Stuff that sounds throwaway simple is often very crafted and almost always perfect for the song. Some of it is simple, but that's always perfect for the song too. No need to be clever for its own sake.

Such a broad range of influences too- he's very vocal about his love for the Beatles but you can hear XTC, King Crimson, punk and American alt-rock in there too. If you haven't already, watch the Pedal Show episode with Coxon to get some idea of how his mind works.

I was very taken with Richard Hawley's playing on the first Longpigs album (The Sun Is Often Out) too- considering how smooth and retro he tends to sound now it's surprisingly angular and aggressive.

Radiohead wouldn't thank you for the "britpop" tag (to be fair, they predated britpop and have long outlived just about any other band of that time), but you'd be hard pushed to name another band of the last 30 years who have done more to push guitar music somewhere else than it was before (whatever your opinion on where they've taken it).

...and I defy anyone to find a guitar solo on a britpop track more perfect than Andy Miller's on Dodgy's "In A Room".

Andy Miller is a GOOD shout !

Philly_Q

Britpop was never my thing to be honest, but is Liam Tyson from Cast worth a mention?

DrCornelius

vasselmeyer said:

Graham Coxon without a doubt. He's so innovative and imaginative in terms of rhythms, melodies and counter melodies. I never really liked him at the time, but listening in retrospect, he's fabulous.

Almost word for word what I was about to type !

english_bob

octatonic said:

Dominic Chad from Mansun.

Fair play to him, he was certainly doing his own thing. Mansun were never particularly my thing, but they didn't sound like anybody else, and Dominic Chad put his stamp on that Whammy pedal.

Wazmeister said:

Andy Miller is a GOOD shout !

I put my Dodgy albums on a while ago when I was ripping CDs to go on to a network drive. Dodgy had some cracking tunes, and it never felt like they got their due back then. Perhaps they suffered from the "Shitty Beatles" effect.

MagicPigDetective

Nick McCabe deserves a mention; a master at creating sonic soundscapes (A Storm in Heaven, A Northern Soul), using delay, reverb etc. I'm not a fan of Urban Hymns where his skills sonic were under-utilized, but the first two albums are masterworks.

not_the_dj

Philly_Q said:

Britpop was never my thing to be honest, but is Liam Tyson from Cast worth a mention?

I really need to go back and listen to his stuff with Cast. I love what he plays with Robert Plant but don't remember much apart from some jangly strumming in Cast (admittedly I've never really listened to them, only hearing the odd track on the radio).

english_bob

Philly_Q said:

Britpop was never my thing to be honest, but is Liam Tyson from Cast worth a mention?

Personally I find the stuff he's doing now with Robert Plant's band more interesting than Cast, but I guess that still makes him an impressive guitarist from the britpop era, sort of...

stickyfiddle

MagicPigDetective said:

Nick McCabe deserves a mention; a master at creating sonic soundscapes (A Storm in Heaven, A Northern Soul), using delay, reverb etc. I'm not a fan of Urban Hymns where his skills sonic were under-utilized, but the first two albums are masterworks.

Came here to say this. Him, Craddock, Greenwood, Coxon and Bradfield are top of the class for me. All in very different ways, obviously.

IvisonGuitars

Kenwyn House - Reef. He was/is a superb guitar player.

fretmeister

So far I have never knowingly listened to any of the mentioned players.

KKJale

Outside Britpop really, but always thought Gaz Coombes was a great player of that era. 

Philly_Q

english_bob said:

Philly_Q said:

Britpop was never my thing to be honest, but is Liam Tyson from Cast worth a mention?

Personally I find the stuff he's doing now with Robert Plant's band more interesting than Cast, but I guess that still makes him an impressive guitarist from the britpop era, sort of...

I only know him from the Plant connection really, but I knew he was in Cast and presumably he was already a good player then.  But Cast could sound like the Archies for all I know.

DrJazzTap

I always rated gaz coombes from supergrass 

Philly_Q

miserneil said:

Kenwyn House - Reef. He was/is a superb guitar player.

I always thought of them as more of a hard rock band, at least to begin with.

But I guess there was a Britrock thing going on at the same time as Britpop - Reef, Terrorvision, 3 Colours Red, Feeder, The Wildhearts, Ash…. even The Almighty in one of their many incarnations.