I have had lots of requests for AC/DC, so I will be doing more in the near future.  Thunderstruck has a great intro lick by Angus Young which sounds kinda tricky on the record, but actually when you look at it, is it really just a simple patteren which repeats itself, so you just move it up and down the neck.

The only tricky part is keeping it going smoothly without making any mistakes or stutters, in fact, I make a couple of fluffs in the video lol.  The secret is to warm up first, then practice playing it correctly at a slower speed, and then building up the speed over time.  Get to it

Bruce Kulick, an ex member of Kiss came up with this lick for the song No No No back in 1987. Although Bruce lacked the on stage presence of Ace Frehley, he was very underrated and was responsible for co-writing some great songs. He then left (well, kinda kicked out) and formed ‘Union’ with John Corabi (ex Motley Crue).

Anyway, this is a cool lick and there’s lots of scope to play around with it to make up your own lick or incorporate it into your own solos. Have fun!

This one was a request from a subscriber called Gary, it’s a great track so I was happy to show how to play it. You can play this in standard tuning, unlike Girls,Girls,Girl where you have to play in drop D.

By the way, feel free to send me a video of yourselves playing any of these songs if you have a bash at it yourselves.

This is a song I always wanted to learn back in the day, but never got around to it.  When I first tried to work it out, I couldn’t work out the chord until I realised the tuning is drop D, so make sure you tune your low E string down to D before you start. NOTE: In the video I said the D was the 3rd string doh, I meant the 4th of course!

Once you do this, you’ll find there isn’t too much to learn in the song, and you can be playing it fairly quickly.  At first, play it at a slower speed so that you get it down well, and then you can start to play it at the correct speed.

Mick Mars is a great guitarist and pretty underrated, I will probably do some more Crue soon, let me know if you like it – Cheers!

Well, he then played officially on the follow up album “Lick it Up”, and it has some amazing solos on there, I can remember first hearing the unique tone of the notes, despite the speed he played them at and always wondered how he did it.

As you see in the video below, the answered is revealed if you watch his picking hand closely.  Basically, he is using what is know as hybrid picking, this is a combination of picking with a plectrum and your fingers, a technique often used in Country music.

Now, Vinnie’s style is probably a bit over the top for most, and the speed was much more important in the 80s than it is now I guess, but it’s an interesting technique all the same, and also note how use moves his whole hand for picking rather than his ‘thumb and finger muscle’.

Paul Di'Anno at The Stone Pony - Iron Maiden 30th Anniversary

Well, this might make some of us feel a bit old, but recently Paul Di’Anno played at the Stone Pony in New Jersey to celebrate 30 years since the first Iron Maiden album!

I love Bruce Dickison, but at the same time, when Paul left the band, it lost that punk/metal cross-over which made them so unique.  I still think Killers is the best maiden album, although probably few would agree with me.

Paul still bashed out classics like Killer, Wrathchild, Phantom of The Opera and more.  However, he struggled to finish the set due to a dodgy throat.  Apparently a few shots of Jack D got him through the last part…what a legend.

I bought a live DVD of Di’Anno’s a couple of years ago called “The beast in The East” – it’s pretty good mixing the classics with his more recent solo material, but bear in mind that his voice is quite different to how it was in the maiden days.

Paul played a massive part in influencing many other metal bands, not just those from the UK, but from Scandinavia, and the world over.

OPAL - an amazingly passionate band based out of Superior, Wisconsin

Wow, this is awesome, one of my customers sent me a link to his band called OPAL, I think they are amazing, and it shows that these days you DON’T have to have a record deal to get your music out there.

Check out their myspace page below: www.myspace.com/eyesofopal

I dig the song “Just to see me bleed”, cool intro!

Jacob Bunt from the band wrote this:

“Formed in October of 2007, OPAL is an amazingly passionate band based out of Superior, Wis., with songs and performances projecting the fire and drive rooted in raw emotion and love for music. OPAL possesses the ability to write heart-felt music and melodies accompanied with honest, sincere lyrics.

The hearts of OPAL bleed through their songs with an aggressive sound that is a unique blend of heavy rock/alternative metal. Featuring Theron Hayden on vocals, Jacob Bunt on lead guitar, Andrew Gunderson on rythm guitar, Ryan Raprager on drums, and Jordan Bunt on bass guitar. OPAL is currently working on new material for their upcoming album which is due out in the spring of 2011 OPAL would like to thank Phil Wheatly for his support and passion for music, THANK YOU PHIL “

Probably their best album to date was Kin which was released in 1992, well worth checking out and was their last album with their main stay singer Chris Astley.  However, they did record one further album with a new singer in 1996 called Scourge.

In 2006, they did a very short reunion tour of the UK of which the rare video below is taken from.  It seems they don’t plan to do anything more in the future, but then again, how many bands have you heard say that before….here’s hoping. Leave a comment and let me know what you think of them.

I saw this tribute band in Weymouth, Dorset a couple of weeks ago and they were totally awesome!  They are called Megadeth Uk and what I like about them is as well as playing the classics, they also cover stuff which Megadeth don’t even play themselves any more.

This isn’t my video, but one that another fan shot from another of their gigs, give it a few moments as the camera man moves closer to the stage.  The sound is a bit raw lol but you have to hand it to these guys are these songs are bloody hard to play!!  Enjoy! – Phil

Hey Guys

Well I, Always said that if Devin Townsend came back to the UK, I would make damn sure I would see him. There are a few dates around the UK and I can guarantee the gig will be awesome!

Here are the tour dates and tickets: http://www.hevydevy.com/tours/

It seems that as well as supporting his Addicted album from last year, his next album Deconstruction will be out in March also, so it’s highly likely we will hear stuff from that album too. Apparently it is now going to be a double album! …and will be his most technical album to date, awesome!!

Hope to see you at the gig!

Phil