THE band Guitar Legends are sure to send shivers through guitar fiends who love to hear riveting and jaw dropping solo pieces and the guitar sounds that differentiate one great guitarist from another.

Ellie Hudson caught up with the band to dig a little deeper to find out what can be expected when they play The Wharf on Saturday, April 28.

With a show named Guitar Legends you’re clearly setting the bar high, how long have you been performing this show?

We do a selection of the guitar greats right from the 50s to recent years and we have been performing the show for two and a half years. 

Tell us about the different members and some background to give us an idea of what each brings to the party?

Well the idea for the band came from a USA TV album called Guitar Heroes that Marcus played the guitar on. This was for the up and coming TV documentaries on the guitar greats such as Jimi Hendrix /Eric Clapton/ Chuck Berry and Led Zeppelin.

The documentaries feature the original artists but some of the guitar was actually soundalike. After doing the album I thought it might be nice to do a tribute to the guitar greats and take the album on the road. This was the birth of the Guitar Legends show and the band members Nick Reiber Hodgson,  Danny Gonzalez and Phil Spencer were quickly formed to complete the show.

Collectively the band members have played with artists such as Beyonce and Mike and the Mechanics and Bon Jovi. Brian May has praised the guitar work of Marcus Flynn and Rock Radio has hailed the band as a must for guitar lovers.

The guitars you use to capture the sounds of the heroes you emulate must be significant, tell us about them?

Yes, there’s lots of guitar changes and at least [10] guitars a gig being used. We often tell a few anecdotal stories about the guitars and the guitar greats who used these special models to achieve certain tones. Also we’re playing twin neck guitars and special guitars set up to play bottle neck [slide] guitar.

Do you all step up on vocals or is there a main lead vocalist?

We have a lead vocalist Nick Reiber Hodgson and two backing vocalists.?

Who are some of the guitar legends you pay tribute to? 

Chuck Berry, Freddie King, BB King, Eddie Van Halen, Kirk Hammett, Brian May, Keith Richards, Hank Marvin, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Dave Gilmour, Mark Knopfler, Jimmy Page, Don Felder, Joe Walsh, Richie Blackmore, Carlos Santana, Gary Moore and Slash.

Can the audience expect your own interpretations of some of the guitar solos or are you recreating the original note by note?

Some of the classic tracks have to be note for note with the exact approximation  of the guitar sounds using profiling amps. Where the original artists often varied performances live we also take note of that too. Yes sometimes there are parts of the set where the guitar solos get extended and the style of the guitar is celebrated with more soloing certainly on the blues based tracks.?