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Henry Yates
Henry Yates

Henry Yates is a freelance journalist who has written about music for titles including The Guardian, Telegraph, NME, Classic Rock, Guitarist, Total Guitar and Metal Hammer. He is the author of Walter Trout's official biography, Rescued From Reality, a talking head on Times Radio and an interviewer who has spoken to Brian May, Jimmy Page, Ozzy Osbourne, Ronnie Wood, Dave Grohl and many more. As a guitarist with three decades' experience, he mostly plays a Fender Telecaster and Gibson Les Paul.

Articles by: Henry Yates

Jimmie Vaughan

Jimmie Vaughan: “There’s nothing as cool as a Stratocaster. It’s like the coolest car you’ve ever seen”

By Henry Yates

The blues stalwart takes a trip down memory lane to talk about the day the blues came calling, the genius of his younger brother, and swapping wah pedals with Jimi Hendrix

Brian Setzer

Brian Setzer: “For guitar players, rockabilly is the best music you can play. You can do anything with it – you can inject jazz, country, blues into that style”

By Henry Yates

The rockabilly icon talks hot-rods, Gretsch, the importance of looking after your hearing, and explains why rockabilly requires a different skill-set from your traditional rock player

KT Tunstall

KT Tunstall: "Busking was the key factor in learning how to be a rhythm guitarist. It made me transfer to steel-string with a pick"

By Henry Yates

The Scottish singer-songwriter on how the early '50s rock 'n' rollers set the bar for rhythm guitar, playing hard, and why the looper is a mainstay on her pedalboard

Joan Armatrading

Joan Armatrading: "When Mark Knopfler wrote Money For Nothing, he knew it was a hit. As the creator, if you don’t know, you need to do something different"

By Jamie Dickson, Henry Yates

The legendary singer-songwriter on her approach to her craft, the importance of letting the song choose the instrumentation and why she can't put the guitar down

Teenage Fanclub

Teenage Fanclub on the art of constructing solos, emulating Robert Fripp, and the pursuit of tone

By Jamie Dickson, Henry Yates

On Endless Arcade, Scotland's finest contemplate life, mortality and all in between. “Everything is going to fall apart but it’s not so bad,” says McGinley

Yngwie

Yngwie Malmsteen: "There are two man-made objects you’re gonna see from space: the Great Wall of China and my wall of Marshalls. My road crew hates me!"

By Henry Yates

The shred master reflects on some of his career highlights in his own words, and offers a lesson in why you should never put the whole band in first class on a long-haul flight

Yngwie Malmsteen

Yngwie Malmsteen: "I got all the Strats. Gibsons, too. But I just keep going back to the signature gear because that’s the sound I’m looking for"

By Henry Yates, Jonathan Horsley

The shred god on the passion, violence and Latin behind new album, Parabellum

The 50 greatest guitar riffs of all time

The 50 greatest guitar riffs of all time

By Amit Sharma, Jonny Scaramanga, Ellie Rogers, Grant Moon, Jonathan Horsley, Sian Llewellyn, Henry Yates, Matt Frost, Joel McIver

From metal to rock, punk to grunge, these are the best guitar riffs ever recorded, as voted for by you

The Black Crowes

The Black Crowes’ Chris and Rich Robinson unpack the story behind their timeless debut, Shake Your Money Maker

By Henry Yates

How the brothers' combustible creative kinship spawned a rock 'n' roll guitar classic

Todd Rundgren

Todd Rundgren: “I reached a point with my technique where I said, ‘I don’t want to play faster than I can listen’“

By Henry Yates

The legendary guitarist and producer reflects on his prolific and stellar career

Jon Gomm

Jon Gomm: “It doesn’t matter how crazy your technique is, the hardest thing is always playing in time and in tune“

By Henry Yates

The maestro returns with new music that healed him in hard times and reflects on his status as one of today's leading percussive guitarists

Lari Basilio

Lari Basilio: “My plan with the Ibanez LB1 was to make an electric guitar that could do it all“

By Henry Yates

The Brazil-born virtuoso guides us through her new signature model, from tonewood exotica to working with Seymour Duncan, and that lipstick-inspired finish

Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen 1955-2020: a visionary virtuoso who rewrote the rules of electric guitar

By Henry Yates

An all-star line-up remembers the life, times and exploits of the player who raised the bar and reinvented the electric guitar

Tom Morello

Tom Morello: “Trust me, there are plenty of new guitar sounds still to discover. I guarantee you that“

By Henry Yates

Rage Against the Machine's six-string revolutionary looks back at his life and career in his own words

Larkin Poe: “Be tenacious. If you really want to learn how to write good songs, you gotta do it and do it again“

By Henry Yates, Jamie Dickson

Megan and Rebecca Lovell on the roots scene, the importance of writing bad songs and rock ’n’ roll’s post-pandemic fightback

Dion DiMucci

Dion DiMucci: "Blues is a tradition. But it’s a living tradition. It’s not dead. It’s a handing-down and passing-on"

By Henry Yates

The blues survivor talks touring with Buddy Holly, meeting Howlin' Wolf, and his star-studded new album, Blues With Friends

The story of Peter Green, one of British blues' most influential players

The story of Peter Green, one of British blues' most mythologized - and influential - players

By Henry Yates

We look back at Greeny's trailblazing tenures in The Bluesbreakers and the Mac, 50 years on....

Peter Frampton

Peter Frampton: "I might not be playing live in a couple of years, but I’m going to be battling on and recording... I feel positive about the future"

By Henry Yates

The guitar icon looks back at the triumphs and knocks of his career, into the eyes of his illness, and onto the music still to come...

Wishbone Ash's Andy Powell: "We were the second generation. You’d already had Beck, Clapton, Page, Green. It was up to us to carry the torch"

By Henry Yates

Wishbone Ash's Andy Powell on Jamaican weed, redeeming the Flying V, and how Peter Green became his guitar hero…

Sonny Landreth: “I once played slide with motorcycle handlebars!”

Sonny Landreth: “I once played slide with motorcycle handlebars!”

By Henry Yates

The South's greatest slide man tells us about the thrill of improv, his battle with tendonitis and his "three-day limit"

Inside Dweezil Zappa's mission impossible: performing his father's Hot Rats album live

By Henry Yates

A half-century after the album’s original release, Zappa embarked on the ultimate labour of love when his Zappa Plays Zappa project planned to tour Hot Rats