Staff

Andy Founded All Out Guitar in September 2005 with Editor, Owen Edwards. After telling his dad that ‘I want to be Yngwie Malmsteen’ at the age of 13. Andy finally got his first guitar for his 15th birthday. By this time Eddie Van Halen had replaced the speed swede as his favourite guitarist.

Andy has played in various bands over the years, though the majority of the 90’s was taken up studying a Music degree and touring/gigging with the now defunct funk pop rock thing Calling Orson.

Owen has worked as a session guitarist for numerous studio and live projects, co wrote and performed the Vaughan Daniels album in 1994 with Rory Sullivan and producer Sean Lynch (Black Sabbath, Judas Priest) and co-wrote the score for independent Brit Horror flick ‘The 13th Sign’ in 1999/2000.

James looks after the Sales and Marketing roles at All Out Guitar. Having started playing guitar at 13 years old, a complete lack of discipline has seen very little progress made since then except for a rather authentic Zakk style pinch harmonic!

James owns what he believes to be the only Fender Heartfield Talon V in the U.K. and loves his American Pop Rock!

Didn't quite make it as a Rock Star – blamed this on the arrival of Grunge rather than on himself. Still plays a Custom USA BC Rich Super Strat through a Marshall and some pedals.

Having spent 15 years in TV production, working on an array of live music events from Michael Jackson to Metallica, Rory decided to pack it all in and create ‘Sonic Décor’ (That’s Red Hot Rock’s ego friendly posters). A keen songwriter with several TV credits, he is still trying to find that elusive artist to give him a No. 1 hit.

Mike Blackburn is a fifty something unabashed fan of the guitar…., period. Starting in the early 70’s with the only two guitar lessons he ever had, Mike quickly developed a deep love for all music featuring kick ass guitar. The very first of those lessons implanted three very important ideas in his nascent brain. The first was to employ, as frequently as possible, an alternate picking technique and to initiate the start of a run either with an upstroke or a downstroke depending on the shape.

Mark Robinson has been a professional musician in various capacities for the last 7 years. He has been an active musician on the live performance scene both locally and nationwide, playing in various function bands to all sorts of audiences from corporate suits to guitar nuts!

He has also taught Guitar, Bass, theory, production and ensemble skills to many students in one on one, group and school situations as well as specialist music institutions.

Ben picked up the guitar at 13 and developed an unhealthy addiction to Hendrix and never looked back.

That Lou would one day end up playing an instrument was pretty much a foregone conclusion given that he was born into a musical family with Dad being a well respected drummer/vocalist, and Mum being an ex ballet dancer and an avid music listener.

A lifelong frustrated drummer Lou turned to guitar aged eleven and attained grade eight classical guitar with distinction aged just sixteen.

Andy first picked up the guitar when he was 12 years old and from that day fourth has never looked back. Early influences included Guns n Roses, Extreme, Queen, Van halen and Joe Satriani. “From the first time I heard ‘’Surfing With The Alien’’ I knew I wanted to shred, it just sounded so fun and cool to do”.

Chris Francis studied guitar at the now dissolved MI London for one year, graduating with a platinum award.

He was a finalist in Guitarist Magazine’s ‘Guitarist of the Year’ contest in 1999 and won the title in 2000. He has released an instructional video (‘Up To Speed with Chris Francis’), recorded two solo records (‘Chris Francis’ and ‘Studs n’ Sisters’), four albums with the band TEN and numerous sessions on projects big and small.

Nick is a remarkably accomplished guitarist whose range encompasses the full spectrum from flamenco and classical to jazz and rock and he is not only a dazzling soloist but also an intuitive and creative rhythm player.

He has in the past worked on a wide range of solo and collaborative projects with various cover bands including FU2K (a U2 tribute band) and members of Paul Wellers band and Napalm Death (no joke!).

Also, Nick can be seen playing with Jazz Fusioneers Curfew (www.curfew.co.uk).

Edward Box was born and raised in Cumbria on a diet of British and LA metal. At the age of 14 he discovered the joys of Van Halen and embarked on an odyssey that has seen many highs and lows. At the age of 17 he relocated to Newcastle Upon Tyne to study music and he has since established himself as a much sort after guitar teacher within the region.

Simon was born in Wolverhampton in May 1970 and has always lived in the Wolverhampton area. He began playing guitar in 1982 inspired by instrumental bands like Sky and Mike Oldfield. As time went on he got into the heavier side of rock and developed a liking for the fast guitar solo style now known as “shredding”.

Featured in Classical Guitar Magazine after an extremely busy start to his professional career, Natural Studio Records artist Matthew McAllister has been delighting audiences across Europe and beyond with his thoughtful performances and effortless presentation. From renaissance miniatures to contemporary masterpieces, Matthew’s style encompasses it all – an eclectism that is reflected in his output to date.

A relative newcomer to the guitar scene, Jay has quickly built up a reputation as a world class player. Jay picked up the guitar at the relatively late age of 16, but this self taught guitarist’s passion for playing quickly turned into 3 hours of practice a day. The catalyst for wanting to play was Iron Maiden, but Jay soon discovered the plethora of phenomenal guitar players that were on the scene at the time.