Tell me straight

SEEMINGLY OUT OF nowhere, the Darkness swooped out of Suffolk, England, and onto the international music scene in 2003 with their high-voltage debut, Permission to Land. At a time when hipster bands i

Amid the mayhem of his European tour, Joe takes time out to give us a guided tour around his 2025 live gear, delivers the lowdown on some of his more storied guitars, and tells us why his mighty multi-amp rig has to run at breaking point in order to make the earth move and those riffs resonate…

Few guitarists are loved as equally for their acoustic work as their electric playing but such is the unique talent of Richard Thompson . We meet him to find out how he’s preparing to go head-to-head with Tommy Emmanuel, chat about the end of his touring days, and talk alternative tunings

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

With 28 albums’ worth of songs to choose from, “hopefully there will be some surprises”.

The instrument that featured on the cover of Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms is still very much in use.