Fifty years on from their first successes, Roger McGuinn, the 12-string architect of THE BYRDS , tells Uncut about their exceptional first 18 months – and his relationship with Gene Clark. As the young group make their jet-powered escape from the folk think tank, we hear about making the scene on the Strip, outraging Iowa and a muted response in the United Kingdom. But ultimately how “Eight Miles High” became the spectacular conclusion of the band’s first era. “I almost left The Byrds entirely to go and be in this space band With Dino Valente,” McGuinn tells John Robinson

My Focus – Live Under The Rainbow

COMPARED TO THE “holy triumvirate” of the Gibson Les Paul Standard and Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster, the Gibson SG Standard is the solidbody guitar equivalent of Rodney Dangerfield — it doesn’t

MY FAVORITE ENSEMBLE to play in is the power trio. With only three instruments — electric guitar, bass and drum kit — there’s so much freedom to explore concepts like space, time and dynamic range. Th

Opera is dead. And has been for quite a long time. I don’t care what anybody says about Poulenc and Prokofiev, I cannot be persuaded that any listenable music theatre has been written since Puccini. (

OF ALL THE cars this fabled designer is responsible for, his favourite may or may not surprise you. It’s the archly utilitarian Fiat Panda. But we’ll get to that. ‘It is somehow easy,’ he says, ‘to cr