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BEHIND AN UNMARKED door in a nondescript West London street, you’ll find the recording studio of the world’s most reluctant rock god. Do this job long enough and you’ll learn to spot the artists who p

THERE ARE VARYING degrees of guitar hero, but Carlos Santana is a name you’d expect to find near the top of any list. Like Jimi Hendrix, Brian May or Slash, Santana has transcended guitar music and pe

WE WERE THE first band of our generation that started to grow up,” Billy Corgan says, reflecting on the making of the Smashing Pumpkins’ 1995 grand opus, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. “The b

In 1974, Mike Oldfield defied the critics and hit the top of the UK charts with Hergest Ridge, the ambitious follow-up to his unexpectedly successful debut Tubular Bells . To coincide with the release of the 50th-anniversary edition, the musician, his siblings and collaborators recount the story of an album created by an overwhelmed 21-year-old taking refuge near the Welsh borders.

AL JARDINE WILL be the first to tell you he didn’t play much guitar for the Beach Boys in the Sixties. Early Beach Boys albums — like Surfin’ Safari (1962) and Surfin’ U.S.A. (1963) — feature plenty o

PETER GILES