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Francis Dunnery

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VaiaiVaiai Frets: 530
The man is a legend but he is funny too! Mentalist just posted this on FB:
https://www.facebook.com/FrancisDunnery/videos/10154935046356249/

Ignore the silly dancing - listen to Francis saying how if his support band guitarist is better than him he'll "fucking drag him off the stage and dress him in tranny gear" lol brilliant
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Comments

  • I always thought that his tricks were impressive, but that the It Bites music was arranged so that there's a few bars in which to display one trick, then a few bars for him to rest and get his head together, then another few bars in which he could display another trick, etc. Whereas guitarists like Andy Latimer could pull one trick out of the bag after another all in the same solo.

    This may be unfair, but it's what I gathered from what I saw on broadcast TV during the time I was watching broadcast TV
    "Working" software has only unobserved bugs. (Parroty Error: Pieces of Nine! Pieces of Nine!)
    Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
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  • Haha, I doubt many Guitarists would be better than Francis Dunnery.
    Only a Fool Would Say That.
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  • DrBobDrBob Frets: 2998
    Very funny but are we sure Francis is still off the sauce ? 
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  • Strat54Strat54 Frets: 2331
    Wow...he's still around. Saw It Bites in 1986, don't remember him being that great a player. He was obnoxious and on the sauce back then for sure. Pass.
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  • John_PJohn_P Frets: 2744
    He is a great talent for sure - trying to play some of those lines while singing is ridiculous. 

    It bites were were one of those bands that just needed to pause and carry on instead of imploding.     His solo stuff is very good though. 

    Id have gone to one of these gigs if I could make it - a shame there aren’t more dates. 
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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    Big fan of both him and his guitar playing. He's a monster player when he wants to be

    So frustrating that the London gig is at the weekend, I'm there all week but it's just not practical getting back Sat or Sun.

    Once around the World is in my top 10 albums ever.
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  • KebabkidKebabkid Frets: 3301
    edited January 2018
    His solo and acoustic stuff is just great.

    A few years ago, a friend up in York booked him for one of the 'Home Concert' performances he was doing. He said he was excellent but also very funny, engaging and talked a lot about astrology. 
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  • IvisonGuitarsIvisonGuitars Frets: 6838
    tFB Trader
    I was guitar tech on the more recent It Bites reunion tours with John Mitchell taking Franks place. Incredible musicians all of them.
    http://www.ivisonguitars.com
    (formerly miserneil)
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  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10357
    I saw It Bites at their peak a couple of times, the 2nd time was probably one of the best live band sounds I have ever heard. Francis's playing and singing was top notch, superb band too. He also did a one man show in Portsmouth just sitting on a chair talking about his past and the music biz, very engaging funny guy 
    www.2020studios.co.uk 
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  • DrBob said:
    Very funny but are we sure Francis is still off the sauce ? 
    Yep, he definitely is - he did a home gig at my dad's house a few months back, spoke to him at length about it.

    Funny guy, but definitely didn't take it well when I told him I'd ditched the glass bottles for a Helix...
    <space for hire>
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  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10357
    DrBob said:
    Very funny but are we sure Francis is still off the sauce ? 
    Yep, he definitely is - he did a home gig at my dad's house a few months back, spoke to him at length about it.

    Funny guy, but definitely didn't take it well when I told him I'd ditched the glass bottles for a Helix...
    That's pretty awesome, I remember now you mentioning it a while back, I would have loved to have been there
    www.2020studios.co.uk 
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  • p90foolp90fool Frets: 31368
    I had no idea who you were talking about, having pretty much ignored the 80s so I googled It Bites.

    Are you guy fucking serious, really?


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  • p90fool said:
    I had no idea who you were talking about, having pretty much ignored the 80s so I googled It Bites.

    Are you guy fucking serious, really?


    Not got time to show you how wrong you are right now, but trust me...you're wrong ;)

    That's probably one of their worst tracks - I get the feeling "Just make it radio-friendly" was the brief.
    <space for hire>
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  • Most people's introduction to Francis Dunnery was on the 1980s C4 documentary on the electric guitar (which also had a section on Jerry Donahue). He was very engaging and played some wonderful runs all over the neck on a Squire. 
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  • TheMarlinTheMarlin Frets: 7744
    He’s not aged well. 
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  • He recently re-recorded some It Bites classics in a more organic-sounding way - "Vampires". I avoided IB when they were active but like this quite a lot. His solo gigs playing songs written after that period on an acoustic are really quite special. Has a potty mouth, though.
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  • usedtobeusedtobe Frets: 3841
    Fucking loon!
     =) 
     so if you fancy a reissue of a guitar they never made in a colour they never used then it probably isn't too overpriced.

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  • axisus said:

    Once around the World is in my top 10 albums ever.
    Yeah me too. Amazing album.  


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  • OctafishOctafish Frets: 1937
    Most people's introduction to Francis Dunnery was on the 1980s C4 documentary on the electric guitar (which also had a section on Jerry Donahue). He was very engaging and played some wonderful runs all over the neck on a Squire. 
    That's where I came across him a few years ago (doc is available on Youtube). Can't say I liked any of the It Bites stuff - hated 'Call All The Heroes' at the time and their other stuff doesn't sound much better to me - but as you say he seems an engaging guy. He later went onto play with Robert Plant in the early 90s.

    Also found out his older brother (Baz Dunnery) was in the early 70s band 'Necromandus', who Tony Iommi showed some interest in. Apparently Iommi was due to produce their debut album, but it was abandoned due to Iommi's Sabbath commitments and Baz Dunnery left and the band fell apart. Sounds a bit tragic, none of them members ever really made it and all but one of them has died.

    Anyhow, I quite like this more recent Dunnery track.....



    ... and some Necromandus. A bit meandering at points, but like the guitar stuff under the vocals.



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  • uksaint7uksaint7 Frets: 308
    OK well I think Francis is ace. I first saw him in about 1988 and he was amazing, I saw him again very early 2000s and it seemed like he was maybe struggling a bit (with his playing at any rate) but then saw him last year and he was most definitely back to his best. A fantastic musician- an excellent singer, guitar player and songwriter and a funny guy to boot. So I had a few video clips from last year on my phone, have just uploaded one especially for this post!


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