More than meets the ear

With their 2022 debut album, Cardinal Black showed the world how the budding guitar hero in their ranks could thrive in a band environment. Here, Chris Buck explains how its follow-up has taken his playing and songwriting to the next level

In August 1991, Oasis played their debut gig at the Boardwalk club in Manchester – Noel Gallagher was in attendance to see his younger brother’s band, which he would soon join, assuming control over t

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With his cape and on-stage curry, he defined prog rock excess. Breakdowns, penury and near-death were the prices paid, but somehow the baroque synth lines and droll quips kept flowing… and still do. “I’m my own worst enemy,” laughs Rick Wakeman.

The John Hackett Band are celebrating a decade of making music together with their second album, the recently released Red Institution . The four-piece talk about their easy chemistry, songwriting inspiration and those pinch-me moments of performing material originally by King Crimson and the other Hackett.

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…