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The Latest Breaking News from Brian May

“This is like Santana’s Soul Sacrifice at Woodstock or Hendrix’s Machine Gun, an act of freeform radicalism”: The best guitar solos of 2024

From a supernova of tapping and pitch-shifted metal guitar anarchy to all-star team-ups, here is your year in lead guitar – featuring Mdou Moctar, Diamond Rowe and some dudes named Satriani and Vai…

Guitar World

“It always pulls something out of you. Even if the winds are blowing in the wrong direction, it still sounds good”: The Freddie Mercury song that Queen’s Brian May never gets tired of playing

Spoiler: it’s not Bohemian Rhapsody!

Louder

Ben Elton: ‘I fancied Olivia Newton-John. It’s all right to say that about a third cousin, right?’

The standup talks about tensions behind the scenes of Blackadder, his Wiggles movie that never happened and his opinions on hecklers

The Guardian - AU

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“There was a time you wouldn’t have touched a Superstrat, at least in my world – that was very illegal. It’s cool to be able to let go of those old feelings and those silly rules”: How Chris Shiflett learned to love his inner shredder

The Foo Fighters guitarist discusses playing with Brian May, the lessons of his podcast –and how his new Cleaver Telecaster Deluxe got its name

Guitar World

“I bought my ’54 Strat from the biggest dealer in Sweden – he was crying when I walked away with the guitar”: Brian May, Steve Vai and Neal Schon have all given Yngwie Malmsteen guitars – but nothing compares to his Fender Strats

Malmsteen descends from shred mountain to dispense wisdom on all matters gear, how to buy it, single coils vs humbuckers and to reminisce about some of his best gear purchases

Guitar World

"He’s stabilised now, which is brilliant": Brian May’s wife Anita Dobson gives fans a fresh update on his progress

Following a stroke in September fans of the Queen star have been eagerly eyeing updates

MusicRadar

“When you start looking at Paul McCartney, you start playing the song wrong”: Chris Shiflett on what it's like to share the stage with Macca – and Brian May

After joining the Foo Fighters, Shiflett found himself rubbing shoulders with some of the best in the business

Guitar World

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"I think Freddie would be happy, because I feel his spirit throughout the music": How Queen + Paul Rodgers took Freddie Mercury's spirit back to the stage

Before Queen + Adam Lambert there was Queen + Paul Rodgers. We spoke to them about the plusses and the minuses

Louder

“Jethro Tull would rehearse at a strict time every morning and then break for lunch. It was like going to work. In Black Sabbath, we never did that”: Tony Iommi on hanging out with Jimmy Page and Brian May, early Sabbath –and his time with Tull

The godfather of heavy metal takes us through the unimpeachable majesty of Black Sabbath’s first six records, his gear choices – old and new – and how that new solo album is coming along...

Guitar World

“My playing has always sucked, but it sells, because I keep it simple, I guess. I’m not a guitar player, I never took the time”: Soul icon Steve Cropper on writing Green Onions, stressing out Brian May – and the secret of Billy Gibbons’ guitar style

Cropper says he isn't it a great guitar player but if you co-wrote Green Onions and (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay, you don't need technical wizardry. He walks us through a career marked by hits, grooves and soul

Guitar World

“I was a Brian May obsessive. I had the Star Licks video and had learned it all by the time I was 14”: Hooked on “bombastic lead rock guitar” before catching the songwriting bug, Seb Wesson is on a search for songs with meaning

Wesson's full-length solo debut was made in collaboration with his Martin D-28 and a ’68 Fender Pro Reverb amprescued from the trash outside a London guitar shop, and features 10 tracks with a story to tell

Guitar World

“I thought Billy was the coolest guitarist I’d ever heard, and that opinion hasn’t changed in 50 years”: Add some Texas blues sizzle to your lead playing with this lesson in Billy Gibbons' sweet soloing style

This lesson is the ZZ Top content you need to stay cool while bringing the heat. It will develop your sense of pacing and blues phrasing, and give you a chance to let some pinch harmonics fly off the fingerboard

Guitar World

Brian May performed in pyjamas at a furniture shop

Queen star Brian May performed in his pyjamas at a furniture shop while filming a music video for his singer pal Talia Dean.

BANG Premier

“I wanted to give it everything – to be self-indulgent or whatever”: Breaking the rules of single lengths, using an air conditioner as a musical instrument, confounding guest musician Steve Howe… these are Queen’s proggiest moments

Their music ranged from all out hard rock to big pop hits (and occasionally funk). But here’s undeniable proof they could prog out with the best of them as well

Louder

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Guitar World

“The Janie’s Got a Gun solo had a ratty sound. I had a Chet Atkins signature guitar plugged into a 15-watt Marshall practice amp... the producer said, ‘It sounds terrible’”: Joe Perry on 50 years of Aerosmith, and what it takes to nail his “working tone”

As Aerosmith call timeon their stellar 50-year touring career, Perry joins us to reflect onwhathe’slearned about guitar along the way – the tones that work, the tones that don't, and the invaluable lesson he learned from Keith Richards

MusicRadar

“I had moments where I thought, ‘I am in a great place. I can make music… then somehow, everything would fall apart. That’s what the song was about”: Brian May on how The Night Comes Down was born of depression – and the desire to prove people wrong

With a radically-modded cheapo classical guitar, a head clouded by darkness, May wrote a great Queen epic and tore up the production rulebook that said you can’t mix electric and acoustic

Louder

Brian May opens up about Queen's doubts on having Freddie Mercury as their frontman in their early days: "He did a lot of running around the place and screaming his head off. So we thought, ‘Is this going work?’"

Queen guitarist Brian May reveals how the band used to find working with Freddie Mercury "a little unnerving"

Evening Standard

Celebrity property feuds: from Robbie Williams' fungus war to the Beckhams' wine cellar battle

Robbie Williams isn’t the only celebrity to find themselves in spats with neighbours. Here’s our pick of the star wars that made headlines in 2024

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Louder

At war with their producer. At war with their label. At war with each other: The chaotic making of Van Halen's 1984 - only in the new issue of Classic Rock

Also in this issue: Alex Van Halen, the Rolling Stones, Opetrh, George Murray, Queen, Vion Hdertzen Brothers, Meat Loaf, Joan Armatrading, Michael Monroe, Rosalie Cunningham, The Sheepdogs, Koyo, The Darkness, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Starbenders and more

Louder

"This is song packed with pure naughtiness and fun": Witness Brian May as you've never seen him before in the video for Talia Dean's You Made Your Bed

Childhood teddy bear? Check. Space-themed bedding? Check. Red special guitar? Of course check

Guitar World

“I took over where Billy Gibbons left off and did my half of the solo, and it was a very rare thing. My wife loves it. She doesn’t love anything I do...” Brian May, Billy Gibbons and Steve Cropper on how the three guitar icons learned to play together

For the latest record from Steve Cropper & The Midnight Hour, the Stax legend enlists two equally iconic players. Here three kings of the six-string tell us what went down in Friendlytown

Evening Standard

Sir Brian May shreds guitar in the music video for Talia Dean’s new song

The Queen guitarist has previously collaborated with The X Factor finalist on her singles Get Up and Dancing In The Rain with her band.

MusicRadar

“As soon as he is in the studio, he hears his voicing come back at him through the speakers and says, ‘No, I don’t like that’”: Queen's Brian May and Roger Taylor on how “manic goat” Freddie Mercury found his voice and became rock’s greatest frontman

The making of Queen’s debut album was a learning process for all, none more so than Mercury who used the studio as a tool for radical self-improvement and take full command of his instrument

MusicRadar

“I still have the guitar. It still buzzes”: Brian May reveals the radical mods he made to his £10 acoustic for Queen’s debut album, all to make it buzz

Recently reissued and “rebuilt”, Queen’s 1973 debut was a time of learning and experimentation for the band, with May customising a cheapo acoustic for one of the coolest tones on the record

Louder

"If I'd been a solo artist, I think I'd have laid on the floor and cried": In 1973, faced with bad reviews of their debut album, Queen turned to bad reviews of Led Zeppelin for comfort

Brian May and Roger Taylor go behind the scenes of the making of their debut album

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