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BIZARRE: 3 | Mind Blowing Facts

“This year has been one long vulgar display of Bowers”: The best guitar songs of 2024 – as chosen by Guitar World editors and pro players

With the help of pals including Eric Gales and Vernon Reid, we run down the songs that lit up the guitar-o-sphere this year, including a remarkable hardcore breakthrough, a virtuoso collab for the ages and the prodigy that everyone’s talking about

Guitar World

“I grew up around rock stars. My dad’s mates were Mark Knopfler and Thin Lizzy… and Christopher Biggins was a mainstay in our house!”: the indie-pop superstar who had a slightly different upbringing than your average frontman

A famous frontman looks back on a childhood surrounded by rock stars, actors and welders that his dad had brought home from the pub.

Louder

William’s ears left in dire straits thanks to Prince Louis’ drumming practice

The Prince of Wales spoke to musicians at the Tusk Conservation Awards.

Evening Standard

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A master of making major key licks sound moody, Mark Knopfler is one of guitar’s true alchemists – take your melodic phrasing to new heights with this lesson in the Dire Straits icon’s soloing style

Few players can pick out the notes like Knopfler, and this lesson goes deep into his fingerstyle approach, and how he foregrounds melody to tell a story with his leads

Guitar World

“What you’re about to play should be influenced by what you just played”: 5 tips for better solos and cover versions by master guitarist Greg Koch

He says: “The main things I work on are vibrato, bends and phrasing”

MusicRadar

What song do Newcastle United play before kick-off?

Newcastle's St. James' Park is one of the most iconic venues in Europe

FourFourTwo

What if Jimi Hendrix jammed with Eric Clapton, or Gary Moore traded solos with Joe Bonamassa? We imagine 5 all-star fantasy blues jams and what they would sound like

Welcome to an all-star fantasy blues jam, featuring a greatest hits of blues players, their signature licks, and how to put them together and incorporate them in your own playing

Guitar World

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“It’s probably impossible to prove, but it’s likely that the Martin dreadnought is the most recorded guitar in history”: How the Martin D-18 and D-28 changed the world –and became the definitive acoustic guitars

Loved by the likes of Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Mark Knopfler and more, these Martin dreadnoughts are arguably the most successful guitar designs in history. Here's everything you need to know about this steel-string icon

Guitar World

“When I picked up a guitar, I held it righty, but the pick never felt right in my hands, so I started to make up my own technique”: Jared James Nichols reveals how he developed his unique fingerstyle technique – and the perks of going pick-less

Nichols also demonstrates how to achieve optimum attack and dynamics with his fingerstyle technique, which was inspired by Albert King, Derek Trucks and Mark Knopfler

Guitar World

“The boutique amp market thrives and exists as it does today largely thanks to Mike Soldano”: From Eddie Van Halen and Steve Vai to Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler, the Soldano SLO-100 changed the sound of shred and blues alike

The SLO-100 made its bones in the hard-rock and shred scenes and yet found its true calling as the amp of choice for Clapton, Knopfler, et al. What makes it such an enduring, versatile model?

Guitar World

From feeling the Kenergy with Ryan Gosling and Wolfgang Van Halen, to jamming with Dolly Parton and Demi Lovato – here are 10 of the best recent Slash collaborations

Slash doesn't do holidays, so when he is not out with Guns N' Roses or putting together his own blues album and festival, he's a first-call special guest for some of music's biggest names

Guitar World

Using the CAGED system in conjunction with pentatonic scales can open up the fretboard – and offer an escape route from cliched blues licks

Breaking these well-known chord shapes down into single notes or triads creates a road map for experimentation, improvisation and an escape route from cliched licks

Guitar World

“Fingerpicking came from not having an amplifier. After dad forked out for the guitar, I didn't have the nerve to ask him for one”: Mark Knopfler says the lack of a guitar amp growing up helped him develop his now-iconic fingerpicking style

Sensitivity to his family’s finances – as well as an exchange involving his sister and a tennis racket – helped Knopfler on the way to crafting his legendary approach to the guitar

Guitar World

My search for the perfect veg – from my greenhouse to the Cotswolds and even into orbit

Author Danny Wallace on why connections to the soil are good for the soul, and his routine of seeding, planting, watering, airing, plucking, potting, Mark Knopflering

The Guardian - UK

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Guitar World

“Music means everything to me, and this charity believes in sharing the power of music with everyone who needs it”: Mark Knopfler is giving away an extremely rare acoustic guitar to raise funds for charity

The guitar, of which only 24 were made, is the result of a collaboration between Knopfler and Boswell Guitars

MusicRadar

"The impact and influence of music artists like The Beatles, Oasis and others from the north of England have had on the music industry in decades past is redoubtable" – so why are young northern musicians less supported than the rest of the UK?

A new report highlights a north / south divide emerging

Guitar World

These 15 pioneering Fender Stratocaster players made the model their own – and learning their trailblazing approaches shows why the Strat is still one of the most versatile electric guitars

Learn the signature styles of 15 Strat-wielding icons – including Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Nile Rodgers, H.E.R., Mark Knopfler and more

Guitar World

“I couldn’t believe it… the list of players could have gone from here to Leeds!” Mark Knopfler on how he enlisted Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and dozens more for the all-star Guitar Heroes version of his Local Hero theme

Corralling dozens of A-list guitar talent onto one epic track, Mark Knopfler's Guitar Heroes pulled out the impossible to raise money for teen cancer charities – here's how it all went down

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Guitar World

“You couldn’t sell them and you wouldn’t want to sell them because they’d be just too hard to say goodbye to”: Mark Knopfler on the guitars he couldn't bear to part with, and the six-strings that surprised him on One Deep River

On the back of his stirring new album, the guitar icon discusses the primacy of songwriting, and how his relationship with the instrument has changed

The Guardian - UK

Admit women or we quit, Sting and Stephen Fry tell Garrick

In letter ahead of vote, signatories including Mark Knopfler say relations with female colleagues have been damaged

Louder

"Gorgeous songs, sung in a voice that sounds like it's lived a life that's full": Mark Knopfler repeats his formula to great effect on One Deep River

Dire Straits mainman Mark Knopfler delivers one of his best solo records

MusicRadar

“I chose the wrong key”: Mark Knopfler reveals the Dire Straits song that “didn’t come out the way I wanted”

He’s previously referred to its lengthy outro as “pointless”

MusicRadar

"I remember saying to Eric, 'I'm going to play him off the stage one day'. But what Eric did was even more peculiar, he said, 'Well, I'm going to pretend that I am Jimi Hendrix!'": Pete Townshend looks back in this classic 1990 guitar interview

"The thing that really stunned Eric and me was the way he took what we did and made it better"

MusicRadar

Clapton, Iommi, Bonamassa, Tedeschi, Trucks, Townshend, Slash... New video for Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes version of Going Home reveals who played what and when on the all-star charity single

Jeff Beck's final recorded solo opens a track featuring 50-plus guitarists and all the proof if needed that Guy Fletcher is a genius producer to be able to stitch all of this together

Guitar World

“An absolutely genius video presentation”: New video for Mark Knopfler’s all-star Guitar Heroes charity single reveals who played what on the 50-guitarist-strong instrumental epic

The cleverly put together clip picks apart the many pieces of the nine-minute track, putting the spotlight on the track's A-list contributors

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