David Gilmour (Pink Floyd)

Name: David Jon Gilmour
Born: 6th March, 1946 (Cambrige, England)

Profile: He is an English rock musician, best known as the lead guitarist, one of the lead singers, and one of the main songwriters in the progressive rock band "Pink Floyd". In addition to his work with "Pink Floyd", Gilmour has worked as a record producer for a variety of artists, and has enjoyed a successful career as a solo artist.

History: Gilmour attended The Perse School on Hills Road, Cambridge, and met future "Pink Floyd" guitarist and vocalist Syd Barret, along with bassist and vocalist Roger Waters. Gilmore studied modern languages along with Barrett, and spent his lunchtime learning to play the guitar. They were not yet bandmates however, and Gilmour started playing in the band "Joker's Wild" in 1962.

In 1966, Gilmour left "Joker's Wild" and busked around Spain and France with some friends. However, they were not very successful, living virtually a hand-to-mouth existence, and about a year later he returned back to England.

In 1967, Gilmour was approached by drummer Nick Mason, who asked if he would be interested in joining "Pink Floyd", which he did in January 1968, making "Pink Floyd" briefly a five-piece band. He was used to fill in for Syd Barrett's guitar parts when the front man was unable to take a consistent part in "Pink Floyd's" live performances.

When Syd Barrett left the group, Gilmour by default assumed the role of the band's lead guitarist and shared lead vocal duties with bassist Roger Waters and keyboard player Richard Wright in Barrett's stead. After recording 'Animals' album, Gilmour thought that his musical influence had been underused, and channeled his ideas into his self-titled first solo album in 1978, which showcases his signature guitar style, as well as underscoring his songwriting skills.

Gilmour's solo style is often characterized by blues-influenced phrasing, expressive note bends and sustain. He is also a proficient multi-instrumentalist. He plays bass guitar (which he did on some "Pink Floyd" tracks), keyboards, banjo, harmonica, drums (as heard on the Syd Barrett solo track 'Dominoes', and other songs where he opted to play all the instruments) and lately, the saxophone.

Taking time off from "Pink Floyd's" schedule, Gilmour also took up various roles as a producer, sideman and even concert sound engineer for a wide variety of acts which included former bandmate Syd Barrett, Paul McCartney (The Beatles), Kate Bush, Grace Jones, Tom Jones, Elton John, Eric Clapton, BB King, Seal, Sam Brown, Jools Holland, Bob Dylan, Pete Townshend, The Who, Supertramp, Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Alan Parsons, and various charity groups among others.

In 1985, Gilmour was member of Bryan Ferry's band. He played on Ferry's album 'Boys & Girls', as well as the song 'Is Your Love Strong Enough' for the US release of the Ridley Scott-Tom Cruise film 'Legend'. A music video for the latter was created, incorporating Ferry and Gilmour into footage from the film. He also took part in a comedy skit titled 'The Easy Guitar Book Sketch' with comedian Rowland Rivron and fellow British musicians Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits), Lemmy (Motorhead), Mark King (Level 42) and Gary Moore.

In 1994, Gilmour played guitar for the video game 'Tuneland', along with the additional saxophonist for "Pink Floyd", Scott Page. In 2001-2002, Gilmour held a small number of acoustic solo concerts in London and Paris, along with a small band and choir, which was documented on the In Concert release. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine included Gilmour in the list of hundred greatest guitarists of all time.

Influences: Jimi Hendrix

Axology: Fender Stratocasters, Fender Telecasters, Fender Esquire, Fender Bass VI, Fender Precision bass, Fender Jazz bass, Gibson Les Paul Goldtop, Gretsch guitars, Ovation guitars, Takamine guitars, Martin guitars, Taylor guitars, Guild guitars, Charvel guitars, Music Man Fretless Stingray bass guitars, Steinberger GL, Jose Vilaplana nylon string guitar, Fender amplifiers, Mesa/Boogie amplifiers and Hiwatt amplifiers

Signature song(s): A Saucerful of Secrets - Pink Floyd (A Saucerful of Secrets, 1968) and Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 - Pink Floyd (The Wall, 1979)

Link(s):

http://www.davidgilmour.com/ (Official website)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5LcMAlR7nc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGV1lfoKhi0&feature=related

Tohpati (Simak Dialog)

Name: Tohpati Ario Hutomo
Born: 25th July, 1971 (Jakarta, Indonesia)

Profile: He is an Indonesian songwriter and a well known jazz guitarist. He has collaborated with many Indonesian musicians such as Glenn Fredly, Indro, Arie Ayunir and Shakila. Many of his work has traditional culture elements as he always try to combine both modern and traditional Indonesian music on his albums.

History: Since his early age, Tohpati has already interested to become a musician and often played on many shows around Jakarta, although it was not as a professional career. As a result of his effort, he had won the title 'Best Guitarist' at a band festival in Jakarta when he was just 14.

In 1989, four years after he won the title, he won another notable award of the 'Best guitarist' in Java. This award then contributed a major part in Tohpati's music experience as his name began to be noticed because he won another 'Best guitarist' award in 'Yamaha Band Explosion' show the same year.

After winning a series of awards, Tohpati decided to begin his professional career. His professional career began in 1993 when he joined a band called "Simak Dialog" with Riza Arshad, Arie Ayunir and Indro. With this band, Tohpati had released 3 albums, which were 'Lukisan', 'Bauk' and 'Trance/Madison'.

In 1998, Tohpati decided to start a solo career and released his first debut album. The album includes a collaboration with two pop singers in Indonesia Shakila and Glenn Fredly. To gained more popularity, he released two video clips of one of his songs on the album, 'Lukisan Pagi'. The video clip was a success and the song made its way to the Indonesian charts.

His second album, 'Serampang Samba' offered more instrumental hits. Quite different with the last album, Tohpati only included one song with vocals on the album, titled 'Jejak Langkah Yang Kau Tinggal'. This was also the only song with a video clip. This album consists of more traditional Indonesian music with more acoustic sounds and Balinese elements. It can be said that this album is more idealist and progressive compared to his previous album.

Tohpati was also one of the guitarist in the famous trio supergroup "Trisum", along with Dewa Budjana (Gigi) and Balawan (Batuan Ethnic Fusion).

Influences: Pat Metheny

Axology: Fender Stratocaster, Sadowsky guitars, Takamine guitar, Rocktron effects and Mesa/Boogie amplifiers

Signature song(s): Lukisan Pagi - Tohpati featuring Shakila (Tohpati, 1998)

Link(s):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyBHiMN-8tM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWZPUQIaA-c

Hardee (The Seeds)

Name: Mohammad Shuhardi Mat Salleh
Born: 8th May, 1978 (Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei)

Profile: He is a Bruneian musician, composer, a talented guitarist and the co-author of 'Master Class Fingers - Guitar Finger Workouts' book. He is a self taught guitarist, notably known for his acoustic guitar works in the famous duo-group "The Seeds". A person who appreciates all genres of music from classical songs, folk songs, Jazz and his love in arts. He is also a fan of collecting action-figures and love animals (mainly reptiles).

History: His love in music aroused after the influence of his cousins, which made his interest bloom in guitar but he did not take it seriously due to lack of instruments and guidance. At the age of 14, his grandfather bought him a used Vision electric guitar with a Marshall amplifier; it was his first electric guitar. He got bored with the electric guitar and stop playing for 12 months. After that period of time, he bought his first acoustic guitar (an Aria Pro) with his own earnings.

In 1996, after watching live stage performance in high school, he was determined to take guitar seriously, and learned the art of finger style, slapping, tapping and percussion just at the age of 18. In 2004, he met a fellow Filipino musician named Ronee Miclat aka Rosli (he was a former music teacher at Yamaha Music School in Philippines), Ronee was responsible in guiding Hardee's path in his music career.

While under Ronee's music guidance, Hardee was given an assignment to form his own band and ended meeting with a local songwriter Eswandee Salim, who later told him, that vocalist Dillah Othman was vacant and also looking to form a new band. At that time, there was an upcoming songwriting contest for '2006 Father's Day'. With chemistry for the both of them (Hardee and Dillah) they formed "Dil & Hardee" and entered the contest with the song 'Mahkota Hati', composed by Eswandee.

In 2006, they changed their name to "The Seeds" and released their EP album 'Rahsia Hati' which made them famous in the local music scene and East Malaysia. Another song from the album 'Kau Tetap Milikku' was fully arranged by Hardee. With these songs, "The Seeds" had received various of awards including 'Best Duo-group' and 'Song of the Year 2007'. In 2007, "The Seeds" was officially an ambassador for 'Brunei Darussalam National Association of the Blind (BDNAB)' and 'Kau Tetap Milikku' was the #1 song for Kristal FM 'Top 300 songs'.

In 2008, "The Seeds" decided to experiment with new sounds and new environment for the upcoming album, with the help of a new composer named I-Sam (who composed 'Cerita Aku dan Dia'), the single 'Cerita Aku dan Dia' burst to the charts at #1 for 11 weeks. In this album Hardee have started to composed a few songs. This album sold couple of thousand copies with high demands from local music stores and won them 'Best Duo-group' for the second time and was nominated for 'Best song of the Year 2008'.

Early in 2009, "The Seeds" went on hiatus, after Hardee went on to experiment more sounds and seeking a way to express himself with his own music, he managed to collaborate with a young and talented Chinese singer named Peipei, and formed a side-project band named "Hardee & Peipei" which released an English song 'Perfect' and a Malay song 'Cinta Kita' and went for a tour. Due to this commitments, Hardee was unable to attend any interviews and performances with vocalist Dillah for "The Seeds". In between those time, Hardee was also in the process of publishing his first guitar book entitle 'Master Class Fingers - Guitar Finger Workouts' with the help of his fellow friend Jun Cesar, the book took half a year to finish and was sold thousands of copies.

Recently, Hardee is compiling new materials and composing some new songs for their upcoming "The Seeds" new album, and he is looking forward to publish a new book - this upcoming book will focus mainly in guitar techniques and compilations of songs from local folk songs to international songs. He also hopes that one day, he could bring local music scene to an international success.

Influences: Brian McKnight, Tuck Andress, Metallica, MYMP, Bryan Adams, Tommy Emmanuel and Jason Mraz

Axology: Crafter CT125/n acoustic guitar, Ovation guitars (model Idea and 1778tx elite), Takamine egs-430sc, Taylor 314ce and Yamaha ntx700 acoustic guitar

Signature song(s): Biarlah Tetap Rahsia - The Seeds (Rahsia Hati, 2008) and Perfect - Hardee & Peipei (2009)

Link(s):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnJqfnWwGf4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQxkl1Cx05o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycEGoo9aHKE

Buckethead (Praxis/Guns 'N Roses)

Name: Unknown (he is also known as Death Cube K, Big B, The Boy and Bucky)
Born: 1969

Profile: He is an American musician, songwriter and virtuoso. He has released 29 studio albums, 4 special releases, 1 EP album and performed on over 50 more by other artists. His music spans such diverse areas as progressive metal, thrash metal, funk, electronica, jazz, bluegrass and avant-garde music.

History: He began playing at the age of 12, and took it seriously a year later. His playing began improving with lessons from various teachers including Pebber Brown, Johnny Fortune, Max McGuire and Paul Gilbert. He then began making demo recordings of his playing styles.

In 1988, 'Guitar Player' magazine's editor, Jas Obrecht was impressed with his demo, and encouraged him to make the most of his talent, and in 1989 a song called 'Sowee' composed by Buckethead got honorable mention by local guitarist.

In 1992, Buckethead, with bassist/producer Bill Laswell formed the supergroup "Praxis". Their first album, 'Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis)' was well-received. The project was Bill Laswell's concept, and has since involved other guests such as Serj Tankian (System of a Down), among many others. In 1994, Buckethead released two albums, the first was 'Dreamatorium' under the name of Death Cube K (an anagram of 'Buckethead'), and the second was 'Giant Robot', which features many guest appearances by artists such as Iggy Pop and Bill Moseley.

It was 'Monster and Robots' album - a collaboration with Les Claypool (Primus), which made Buckethead known to the music world and currently the best-selling album of his career. This album includes the song 'The Ballad of Buckethead', for which his first music video was made.

In 2000-2004, Buckethead achieved a higher public profile as lead guitarist for "Guns N' Roses". He recorded the often delayed album 'Chinese Democracy' with the band and appeared live on stage in 2001-2002. Despite being a member of "GNR", Buckethead released his sixth studio album, called 'Somewhere Over the Slaughterhouse' in 2001.

When performing, Buckethead used to wear a KFC bucket on his head, emblazoned with an orange bumper sticker that read 'FUNERAL' in capital black block letters, and an expressionless plain white costume mask. He also incorporates nunchaku, robot dancing, and toy trading into his stage performances.

Influences: Michael Jackson, Paul Gilbert (Racer X), Shawn Lane, Yngwie Malmsteen, Bootsy Collins, Eddie Hazel, Randy Rhoads and Angus Young (AC/DC)

Axology: Gibson Buckethead Signature Les Paul, Custom built ESP MV guitar, Ibanez X-Series Flying V, Ibanez X Series Rocket Roll II, Takamine Acoustic, Yamaha AES920, Custom built Jackson Y2KV, Heartfield Talon II model (by Fender), Digitech Whammy II and Peavey 5150 amplifiers

Signature song(s): Mighty Morphin Power Rangers' Theme

Link(s):

http://bucketheadland.com (Official website)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-woe3SCAaA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8akmP6Sjv2o

Although a multi-instrumentalist, Buckethead is best known for his electric guitar playing. He has been voted number 8 on a list in 'GuitarOne' magazine of the 'Top 20 Greatest Guitar Shredders of All Time'.

Tony Rombola (Godsmack/Another Animal)

Name: Tony Rombola
Born: 24th November, 1964 (Norwood, Massachusetts, USA)

Profile: He is a American musician who has been the lead guitarist for the hard rock band "Godsmack" since the mid 90's. Rombola has been cited as 'an extraordinaire' by 'Guitar World magazine', and is cited to be the only guitarist to keep an 'original soloing style' during the nu-metal period, earning him the respect of the guitar industry. He's also one of the most influential guitarists of the last decade and a guitarist for the side-project band "Another Animal".

History: He is a self-taught guitarist. He first picked up a guitar at age 11. According to his father, the first song he learned was a song by "Black Sabbath". The first introduction to rock music he encountered was the albums 'Led Zeppelin III', '2112' and 'We Sold Our Soul for Rock & Roll'. He also never took guitar lessons, he learned everything he knows from guitar magazines.

His first guitar was an Gibson SG copy, before moving to custom Gibson Les Pauls that he enjoys now. Early in the 90's, he played cover bands, funk, rock, classic rock, and metal, before meeting up with "Godsmack" vocalist Sully Erna and bassist Robbie Merrill while Rombola was playing the local circuit with some band playing covers of "Alice in Chains" and "Rage Against the Machine". They knew they needed someone with Rombola's skill to reach the success they have with "Godsmack".

In 1997, they recorded an EP which later became their self-titled debut album in 1998. Which went on to sell over 5 million copies in just a couple of years. The song 'Keep Away' was inducted into the top 100 greatest rock songs labeled under 'Guitar legends'. Recently, Rombola worked with Brain Coombes (Tristan Park) and Rocking Horse Studio, on the 'Prospect Hill Album'.

Influences: Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin

Axology: McNaught Guitars, Gibson Les Paul guitars, Ovation Balladeer 6751-CCB, Takamine Acoustic guitars, Yahama acoustic, Splawn Amplifiers (Splawn QR and Nitro) and Boss NS-2

Signature song(s): Keep Away - Godsmack (Godsmack, 1998), Trippin' - Godsmack (Awake, 2000) and I Stand Alone - Godsmack (Faceless, 2003)

Link(s):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U19Cin5DPZA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9vH0hfRAiE

Pete Townshend (The Who)

Name: Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend
Born: 19th May, 1945 (London, England)

Profile: He is an English rock guitarist, keyboardist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for "The Who", as well as for his own solo career. His career with "The Who" spans more than 40 years, during which time the band grew to be considered one of the most influential bands of the rock era. Townshend has also been a contributor and author of newspaper and magazine articles, book reviews, essays, books, and scripts, as well as collaborating as a lyricist (and composer) for many other musical acts.

History: Born into a musical family, his father was a professional saxophonist in "The Squadronaires" and his mother was a singer, Townshend exhibited a fascination with music at an early age. In the mid 50's, he was drawn to American rock and roll. When he was 12, his grandmother gave him his first guitar, a single pickup Harmony Stratocruiser. He did, however, learn the banjo joining a traditional jazz band "The Confederates" playing with John Entwistle as trumpet.

From this beginning Townshend and Entwistle joined "The Detours", the lead guitarist Roger Daltrey at the time, sold him an Epiphone. In 1964, they renamed "The Detours" to "The Who". The band comprising Daltrey on vocals, Townshend on guitar, Entwistle on bass guitar and Moon on drums. The band raw and high-energy music, strongly influenced by American R&B, reflected the youthful frustration of their generation and became synonymous with the mod movement.

Townshend was to channel his self-expression through the group's overall sound, the songs he wrote for them, his rhythm guitar and his on-stage image. This separated him from most of his peers; Eric Clapton, for example, were very much lead guitarist. Townshend was not. Frustrated because he was unable to get the kind of sounds that Clapton could, he discovered his own solution.

One night, while he was on stage at a club in West London, he accidentally put the head of his guitar (a Rickenbacker) through the false ceiling above him, snapping off the neck. When the audience started to laugh, he smashed the rest of the guitar to pieces, picked up a 12-string guitar and continued to play for the rest of the show as if nothing had happened. Subsequently, ritualistic equipment-smashing became the climax of many of "The Who's" stage and television appearances.

By this time, Townshend, the inventor of the 'rock power chord' and a pioneer user of controlled feedback, had developed a unique playing style. Laced with on stage acrobatics and his trademark (windmilling arm motions), it provided a solid, powerful foundation for the rest of the band.

Influences: Link Wray, John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley and Hank Marvin (The Shadows)

Axology: Emile Grimshaw SS De Luxe, 6-string and 12-string Rickenbacker semi-hollow electric guitars, Fender Stratocaster, Fender Telecaster, Vox Cheetah guitar, Gibson SG, Gibson Les Paul DeLuxe, Gretsch 6120 guitar, Guild acoustic, Takamine acoustic, Boss OD-1 overdrive pedal, T-Rex Replica delay pedal and Marshall amplifiers

Signature song(s): My Generation, Anyway, Anyhow, Anytime, I Can't Explain and Substitute

Link(s):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5yymadwxj8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AXnr6Gg3s0&feature=related

"... possibly the greatest live band ever" - Eddie Vedder