Slash - ...and on guitar (2008)

Saul Hudson was born in Stoke-on-Trent on July 23, 1965, and was immersed in music from the outset. His father, Anthony Hudson, was an artist who created album covers for musicians such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, while his mother Ola J. Hudson was an African-American fashion designer and costumier from the United States, whose clients included David Bowie (whom she also dated), Ringo Starr, and Janis Joplin. During his early years, he was raised by his father and paternal grandparents in Stoke-on-Trent while his mother moved back to her native United States to work in Los Angeles, and when he was around five years old, they both joined his mother in Los Angeles. Following his parents' separation in 1974, Hudson became a self-described "problem child", living with his mother, but often being sent to live with his beloved maternal grandmother whenever she had to travel for her job. He sometimes accompanied his mother to work, where he met several film and music stars, and was given the nickname "Slash" by actor Seymour Cassel, because he was "always in a hurry, zipping around from one thing to another". In 1979, Slash decided to form a band with his friend Steven Adler, and although the band never materialized, it prompted him to take up an instrument, and since Adler had designated himself the role of guitarist, Slash decided to learn how to play bass. Equipped with a one-string flamenco guitar given to him by his grandmother, he began taking classes with guitar teacher Robert Wolin, but during his first lesson he decided to switch from bass to guitar after hearing Wolin play 'Brown Sugar' by the Rolling Stones. In 1981 he joined his first band Tidus Sloan, and a couple of years later he reunited with Alder and formed Road Crew, named after the Motörhead song '(We Are) The Road Crew'. He placed an advertisement in a newspaper looking for a bassist, and received a response from Duff McKagan. They auditioned a number of singers, including one-time Black Flag vocalist Ron Reyes, but they couldn't find one that suited them and so the band broke up the following year. Slash and Adler then joined  local group Hollywood Rose, which featured singer Axl Rose and guitarist Izzy Stradlin, and after that he played with Black Sheep, and also unsuccessfully auditioned for glam-metallers Poison. 

In June 1985, Slash was asked by Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin to join their new band Guns N' Roses, along with Duff McKagan and Steven Adler, replacing founding members Tracii Guns, Ole Beich and Rob Gardner, respectively, and they began playing Los Angeles-area nightclubs‍ ‌such as the Whisky a Go Go, The Roxy, and The Troubadour‍. Before one of the shows in 1985, Slash shoplifted a black felt top hat and a Native American-style silver concho belt from two stores on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, combining them to create a piece of custom headwear which would become his trademark. After being scouted by several major record labels, the band signed with Geffen Records in March 1986, and they released their debut album 'Appetite For Destruction' in 1987, eventually selling over 28 million copies worldwide. However, as their success grew, so did interpersonal tensions within the band, and in 1989, during a show as opening act for the Rolling Stones, Axl Rose threatened to leave the band if certain members didn't stop "dancing with Mr. Brownstone," a reference to their song of the same name about heroin use. Slash was among those who promised to clean up, but the following year Adler was fired from the band because of his heroin addiction, being replaced by Matt Sorum of The Cult. In May 1991, the band embarked on the two-and-a-half-year-long Use Your Illusion Tour, and the following September they released the long-awaited albums 'Use Your Illusion I' and 'Use Your Illusion II', which debuted at No. 2 and No. 1 respectively on the U.S. chart. In the four years since the release of 'Appetite For Destruction', Slash had gained an enviable reputation as a guitarist, and so it was no surprise that he was asked to guest on albums from other artists, and one of the first that he accepted was an invitation from Iggy Pop, adding his guitar to Pop's 1990 'Brick By Brick' album, followed swiftly with a guest appearance on Bob Dylan's 'Under The Red Sky' album (even though Dylan later cut his solo), and collaborations with Alice Cooper, Motörhead, Michael Jackson, and Spinal Tap, and even though Spinal Tap don't take themselves too seriously, Slash pulled out all the stops for his contribution to their 'Break Like The Wind'. In November 1991 Izzy Stradlin abruptly left the band, and was replaced by Gilby Clarke of Candy and Kill for Thrills, and after the Use Your Illusion Tour had ended in 1993, the band released 'The Spaghetti Incident?', a cover album of mostly punk songs, which proved less successful than its predecessors. Slash then wrote several songs for what would have become the follow-up album to the 'Use Your Illusion' double set, but they were rejected by Rose and McKagan, and so with the band's failure to collaborate resulting in no album being recorded, Slash announced in October 1996 that he was no longer a part of Guns N' Roses. 

In 1994 he added his guitar to band-mates Gilby Clarke's solo album, and then formed Slash's Snakepit, a side project that featured his Guns N' Roses bandmates Matt Sorum and Gilby Clarke on drums and rhythm guitar respectively, as well as Alice in Chains' Mike Inez on bass and Jellyfish's Eric Dover on vocals. Their 1995 album 'It's Five O'Clock Somewhere' included Slash's rejected material that was intended for Guns N' Roses, and was critically praised for ignoring the then-popular conventions of alternative music. Faring well on the charts, the band toured in support of the album, before disbanding in 1996. Slash then toured for two years with the blues rock cover band Slash's Blues Ball, as well as adding his guitar to albums from Sammy Hagar and Insane Clown Posse, before deciding to regroup Slash's Snakepit in 1999, with Rod Jackson on vocals, Ryan Roxie on rhythm guitar, Johnny Griparic on bass, and Matt Laug on drums. Their second album 'Ain't Life Grand' was released in October 2000 through Koch Records, but it didn't sell as well as the band's previous release, and its critical reception was mixed. In 2002 Slash reunited with Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum for a Randy Castillo tribute concert, and realizing that they still had the chemistry of their days in Guns N' Roses, they decided to form a new band together. Izzy Stradlin was initially involved, but left after the others decided to find a lead singer; a task that took many months listening to demo tapes, before former Stone Temple Pilots vocalist Scott Weiland got the Velvet Revolver gig. In 2003 they released their first single 'Set Me Free' followed by their debut album 'Contraband' in June 2004, which crashed in at No. 1 on the U.S. chart, eventually selling two million copies. In July 2007 Velvet Revolver released their second album 'Libertad', and embarked on a second tour, but during a show in March 2008 Weiland announced to the audience that it would be the band's final tour, following which he was fired from the band, with Slash insisting "chemical issues" had led to his departure. Despite the loss of their singer, the band did not officially disband, and in early 2010 they began writing new songs and auditioning new singers. By January 2011 they'd recorded nine demos, and was reportedly due to make a decision on their singer, but Slash eventually admitted that they had been unable to find a suitable vocalist and that Velvet Revolver would go on hiatus for the next few years while its members focused on other projects. So that's the perfect place to end this collection of Slash's extra-curricular work between 1990 and 2008, so settle down and listen to some superb rock guitar on a wide variety of genres from a stellar group of artists. 

Track listing

Disc One
01 Home (from 'Brick By Brick' by Iggy Pop 1990)
02 Wiggle Wiggle (from 'Under The Red Sky by Bob Dylan 1990)
03 Always On The Run (from 'Mama Said' by' Lenny Kravitz 1991)
04 Hey Stoopid (from 'Hey Stoopid' by Alice Cooper 1991)

05 Give In To Me (from 'Dangerous' by Michael Jackson 1991)

06 Break Like The Wind (from 'Break Like The Wind' by Spinal Tap 1992)

07 You Better Run  (from 'March Ör Die' by Motörhead 1992)

08 I Don't Live Today (from 'Stone Free: A Tribute To Jimi Hendrix' by Various Artists 1993)

09 Tie Your Mother Down (from 'Resurrection' by Brian May & Cozy Powell 1993)

10 Hold Out For Love (from 'Colour Of Your Dreams' by Carole King 1993)

11 Believe In Me (from 'Believe In Me' by Duff McKagan 1993)

Disc Two

01 Cure Me...Or Kill Me... (from 'Pawnshop Guitars' by Gilby Clarke 1994)

02 Where You Belong (from 'Carmine Appice's Guitar Zeus' by Carmine Appice 1995)

03 Communication Breakdown (from 'Stairway To Heaven' by Various Artists 1997)

04 Moja Mi Corazón (from 'Azabache' by Marta Sánchez 1997) 

05 Little White Lie (from 'Marching To Mars' by Sammy Hagar 1997)

06 Hall Of Illusions (from 'The Great Milenko' by Insane Clown Posse 1997)

07 Human (from 'Human' by Rod Stewart 2001)

08 Over, Under, Sideways, Down (from 'Birdland' by The Yardbirds 2003) 

09 The Blame Game (from 'Hollywood Zen' by Matt Sorum 2003)

08 Street Child (from 'Street Child' by Elan 2003)
09 Mustang Nismo (from the soundtrack to the film 'The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift' 2006)
10 Gioca Con Me (from 'Il Mondo Che Vorrei' by Vasco 2008)

Eddie Van Halen - ...and on guitar (2013)

As a tribute to Eddie Van Halen, who passed away on 6th October 2020, at the age of 65, here is a special '...and on guitar' which was put together by correspondent Zach. I didn't realise that he'd guested on quite as many albums as he did, so had passed him by, but this actually makes a really good listen, and also showcases just what a great guitarist he was.

The Van Halen brothers were born in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Edward Lodewijk van Halen on 26 January 1955, and Alexander Arthur van Halen on 8 May 1953, and their father Jan was a Dutch jazz pianist, clarinetist and saxophonist. In 1962, the Van Halen family moved from the Netherlands to the United States, settling in Pasadena, California, and both brothers learned to play the piano as children starting at the age of six. From 1964 through to 1967, Eddie won first place in the annual piano competition held at Long Beach City College, and his parents wanted the boys to be classical pianists, but Eddie liked rock music much better, and so when Alex began playing the guitar, Eddie bought a drum kit, but after hearing Alex's performance of the Surfaris' drum solo in the song 'Wipe Out', he gave Alex the drums and began learning how to play the electric guitar. The brothers formed their first band with three other boys, calling themselves The Broken Combs, and it was while playing in the band that he first felt the desire to become a professional musician. In 1972 Eddie and his brother Alex formed another band, and a couple of years later they changed its name to Van Halen, playing at well-known clubs like the Whisky a Go Go. In 1977, Warner Records offered Van Halen a recording contract, and their debut album of the same year reached number 19 on the Billboard pop music charts, becoming one of rock's most commercially successful debuts. By the early 1980's, Van Halen was one of the most successful rock acts of the time, and the album '1984' went five-times Platinum a year after its release. More hit albums followed over the next twenty years, and in the down-time between recording them, Eddie engaged in several projects outside of the band, including solo work and partnerships with his brother on film soundtracks, such as 'Twister', as well as musical collaborations with Kiss bassist Gene Simmons, Nicolette Larson, Michael Jackson, Brian May, Sammy Hagar, Thomas Dolby, LL Cool J, and a film soundtrack with Roger Waters. Eddie famously played the solo on Jackson's 'Beat It', but as the rest of the guitar on the song was played by Steve Lukather (and also for reasons of space) I've left it off this album, although tracks by all the other artists are represented.  

Perhaps surprisingly, Eddie was also an inventor on three patents related to guitars: a folding prop to support a guitar in a flat position, a tension-adjusting tailpiece, and an ornamental design for a headstock.

Track listing

01 Tunnel Of Love (from 'Gene Simmons Vault' by Gene Simmons 2017, recorded 1977)

02 Can't Get Away From You (from 'Nicolette' by Nicolette Larson 1978)

03 Blues Breaker (from 'Star Fleet Project EP' by Brian May + Friends 1983)

04 Eagles Fly (from 'I Never Said Goodbye' by Sammy Hagar 1987)

05 Eastern Bloc (from 'Astronauts And Heretics' by Thomas Dolby 1991)

06 Respect The Wind (from the soundtrack of the film 'Twister' 1996)

07 If Six Was Nine (from 'Tribute To Jeff' by David Garfield 1997)

08 The Water Sings (from 'Fatherless Child' by Rich Wyman 1996) 

09 Lost Boys Calling (from the soundtrack of the film 'The Legend of 1900' 1998)

10 We're The Greatest (from 'Authentic' by LL Cool J 2013)

Brian May - ...and on guitar (1999)

By the mid-70's Queen had become an established and world-famous band, and around this time some other artists began to realise that Brian May had a very distinctive guitar sound, and that it might enhance their recordings if they could get him to play on their records. The first person to nab the guitarist was Eddie Howell, who persuaded May to play on his 'Man From Manhatten' single, although that wasn't that hard as the song was already being produced by band-mate Freddie Mercury, who also played piano and sang backing vocals. The production is so Queen-like that it's almost like 'A Night At The Opera' out-take, and although it received considerable airplay in the UK, just as it was about to take off it was discovered that the bass-player had been working in the UK without a work permit, and the Musicians Union banned further airplay, which effectively killed any chance of chart success. A couple of years later he was asked to perform on Lonnie Donnegan's 'Puttin' On The Style' album, alongside Rory Gallagher, Albert Lee, Peter Banks, Ronnie Wood, and Mick Ralphs, where he added a distinctive solo to 'Digging My Potatoes'. Quartz were a heavy metal band, who had already released their first Tony Iommi-produced album in 1977, and they toured with Black Sabbath to support it. May offered to do his 'Queen' style editing of the song 'Circles', but after several attempts he admitted that he thought the original version with Ozzy Osbourne on backing vocals was still better, and so his contribution was cut from the final mix by Iommi. However, the recording was not dumped, and was resurrected to appear as the b-side to the 'Stoking The Fires Of Hell' single in 1980. When Jeffrey Osborne was recording his second album, May was asked to contribute solos to a couple of the tracks, and this became a fairly regular occurrence, with requests also coming from Billie Squier, Chris Thompson, and Meat Loaf over the next few years. 
In 1986 May was asked to write a couple of songs in English and Japanese for established Japanese singer Minako Honda, who he had met when she was already a star, even though she was still young enough to have to be chaperoned when she traveled to another country. He quickly wrote 'Golden Days' and 'Crazy Nights', and sent her the demos, and it was arranged for her to come to London to record them. As well as writing the songs, May played most of the instruments on the recordings, and although Minako didn't speak the language, she managed a pretty good English version of both songs. She sadly passed away in 2005, aged just 38. In 1988 May teamed up with band-mate Roger Taylor to add some un-credited guitar to 'Love Lies Bleeding' from The Cross's 'Shove It' album, and in 1989 he again contributed an un-credited solo to 'Self' by Fuzzbox, and when it was released as a single it charted both in the UK and the US. Lastly, for this album, he was invited to help out Holly Johnson with his debut solo album 'Blast', where he added a solo to 'Love Train', which was then released as a single, resulting in a top 5 UK chart placing. You can immediately recognise May's contribution to all of these songs, as his guitar sound is unique, making him one of the UK's best and most well-respected musicians.    

Track listing

01 Man From Manhattan (single by Eddie Howell 1976)
02 Circles (b-side of 'Stoking The Fires Of Hell' single by Quartz 1980)
03 Digging My Potatoes (from 'Puttin' On The Style' by Lonnie Donnegan 1978)
04 Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right (from 'Stay With Me Tonight' by Jeffrey Osborne 1983)
05 (Another) 1984 (from 'Signs Of Life' by Billie Squier 1984)
06 A Shift In The Wind, Parts 1 & 2 (from 'Radio Voices' by Chris Thompson 1985)
07 Golden Days (single by Minako Honda 1986)
08 A Time For Heroes (single by Meat Loaf 1987)
09 Love Lies Bleeding (She Was A Wicked, Wily Waitress) (from 'Shove It' by The Cross 1988)
10 Self! (from 'Big Bang' by Fuzzbox 1989)
11 Love Train (from 'Blast' by Holly Johnson 1989)