The Lick Library team are hosting one of the guitar events of the year on Saturday December 4th at The Garage in London:

Not only will you get to see some of the UK’s top players but you get to see the next generation of idols perform at the Guitar Idol Final.

A Guitaraoke competition will also be running for those brave enough to get up on stage and jam with members of the Lick Library team with the best jam of the day winning a fantastic prize!

Some tickets are still available here.

A fave player of mine, Jamie Humphries (Guitar Techniques, Lick Library, We Will Rock You, Brian May), will be holding a Musicman guitar clinic at Red Dog Music this Saturday in Edinburgh between 11:00 and 16:00.

Jamie will be spending the day doing various guitar demos, jamming along with some backing tracks and generally rocking out all over the shop – for lack of a better phrase. I imagine it’ll go something a little like this.

Word on the street is that he quite likes inviting people up to play with him as well… so if you fancy having a jam with Brian May’s right-hand music man on some of our tasty Music Man guitars, now’s your chance.

Who knows, he might even teach you how to play the almighty Bohemian Rhapsody. Come down to the shop and get stuck in to our range of Music Man guitars.

This is a great chance for any locals to check out a World Class player up close and personal, here’s a little taster of what’s in store:

Following on from their hugely successful US tour, The Aristocrats have announced dates for a UK tour in March next year!

The UK dates are

March 7th 2012 – London – The Peel
Time: 8:00pm.
Admission: TBA.
Box office: 0208 2558104.
Address: 160 Cambridge Road, Kingston upon Thames KT1 3HH. Venue phone: +44 (0) 20 8546 3516.

March 8th 2012 – Bilston – The Robyn2
Time: 8:00pm.
Admission: £12.50 Advance, £14.00 Door.
Address: 20-28 Mount Pleasant, Bilston, Wolverhampton WV14 7LJ. Venue phone: 01902 401211.
Buy tickets

March 9th 2012 – Manchester – Night and Day
Time: 8:00pm.
Admission: £15.50.
Address: No. 26 Oldham Street, Northern Quarter, Manchster, M1 1JN. Venue phone: 0161 236 4597.
Buy tickets

March 10th 2012 – Newcastle – The Cluny
Time: 8:00pm.
Admission: £15.00.
Address: 36 Lime Street, Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyre, NE1 2PQ. Venue phone: 01912 304474.
Buy tickets

March 11th 2012 – Edinburgh – The Voodoo Rooms
Time: 8:00pm.
Admission: Call or Email chris@guitarguitar.co.uk
Box office: 0131 3347100. Address: 19a West Register St., Edinburgh, EH2 2AA. Venue phone: 0131 556 7060.

Super stoked to see that the guys will be playing in Edinburgh .

Full European dates are still to be announced though one date in Holland has been announced, keep up to date with the announcements at The Aristocrats Tour page.

Following the release of their long awaited second album ‘III’, the hottest rock & roll band in the world, Chickenfoot, have announced a 5-date UK & European tour for January 2012; their first European concerts since July 2009. Including 2 UK concerts in Manchester and London, tickets will go on sale at 9am on Friday October 14th 2011; further info is detailed below, and at www.chickenfoot.us.

Chickenfoot will perform songs from their gold-selling, eponymous debut album, alongside tracks from the critically acclaimed ‘III’, for the very first time outside of the United States. The European tour kicks off at the Manchester Academy on Thursday January 12th, followed by London’s O2 Academy Brixton (Saturday January 14th), Paris Olympia (Monday January 16th), Tilburg O13 (Tuesday January 17th) and Dusseldorf Mitsubishi Electric Hall (Thursday January 19th). Tickets for the 2 UK concerts will be available from www.livenation.co.uk/artist/chickenfoot-tickets.

Chickenfoot fans in the UK will be treated to a special Planet Rock pre-sale, where tickets can be purchased 24 hours ahead of the October 14th general on-sale date. By visiting www.planetrock.com, tickets will be available from 9am on Thursday October 13th.

The always busy acoustic virtuoso Jon Gomm has recently revamped his website with a great new look:

Jon is also busy working on a string of single releases, the first of which will be released on September 28th:

With a once-seen-never-forgotten two-handed style, both physical and complex, Jon Gomm is an incredible guitar virtuoso, using one acoustic instrument to create drum sounds, bass lines and sparkling melodies all at the same time.

The son of a music critic, musicians would often stay at the Gomm household in Blackpool on the understanding Jon would get a guitar lesson, meaning he had one-to-one tuition from blues legends like Walter Trout and Bob Brozman.

International tours have generated a huge cult following and Jon is regarded by those ‘in the know’ as one of the world’s most talented and innovative guitarists. His videos are watched thousands of times within days of appearing on Youtube, and his home-recorded debut album ‘Hypertension’ sold over ten thousand copies with no industry backing. The next, ‘Don’t Panic’, sold out on Amazon within 5 days.

Now, with a nod to the early days of recorded popular music, when people just loved one song at a time, or before that when they bought the sheet music and learnt it for themselves, Jon is releasing a set of singles, beginning with Passionflower – a beautifully uplifting track, inspired by the plant which overgrew the whole of his little backyard in inner-city Leeds, with blues and folk inflected vocals and percussive cracks and bangs created on the body of his well worn guitar.

There will be accompanying guitar ‘tab’ available, and a video made by Jon’s fans, keen as always to get involved and help the cause.

Future releases in the project will include an instrumental arrangement of a disco classic, a political call to arms, an overblown acoustic-prog meditation on obsession and a cover version of one of Jon’s favourite songs from his childhood.

Jon is currently on tour and for any Edinburgh locals reading he’ll be playing the Voodoo Rooms on Friday October 14th.

Here’s a taste of what you’ll hear and see!:

The awesome GuitarTV.com will be showing all of Andy Timmons’ live clinic at the Musicians Institute tonight!

Broadcast starts at 8 p.m PDT.

Unfortunately, that is 3 a.m GMT , but I’m sure guitarTV.com will have footage available afterwards (fingers crossed)

Here’s one of guitarTV.com’s favourite performances of Mr Timmons, ‘Headed For The Ditch’ from the Live Resolution DVD:

RSVP on facebook here!

Coming this October 22nd to the Cadogan Hall in London!

The cream of British blues artists get together to provide an intimate musical evening to say thank you to the Army, Navy and Air Force personnel who have been injured in the course of Service.

Help for Heroes strives towards 100% effectiveness so that for every £1 donated, £1 goes directly to helping wounded Servicemen and women.

Tickets are now on sale costing £39.50 or £60 for a VIP ticket which includes finest house seats, complimentary souvenir programme, glass of champagne on arrival and an exclusive post-show artist meet and greet event!

Follow Blues For Heroes on twitter and/or Facebook.

As a taste here’s some footage of the great Matt Schofield in action:

On behalf of the truly inspiring Jason Becker and ALS Therapy Development Institute some of the World’s greatest players will be getting together this november in Holland to play at the Jason Becker ‘Not Dead Yet’ Festival:

The festival will be held in Amsterdam (awesome city) on Sunday November 13th at a soon to named venue.

Guthrie Govan and Mattias Eklundh have already been confirmed along with other great players soon to be announced!

This is shaping up to be an amazing event for an amazing person.

The tireless Joe Bonamassa returns to the UK this October!

Award-winning blues rock star, guitar hero and singer-songwriter Joe Bonamassa and his ace touring band will undertake a UK tour in October 2011 to promote his 9th studio album Dust Bowl. The album will be released in the UK by Provogue Records on Monday 21st March 2011.

Tickets for Bonamassa’s “Dust Bowl” UK tour will go on sale to the general public at 9am on Wednesday March 2nd from 0871 230 1101, www.seetickets.com and www.thegigcartel.com. Fans who can’t wait for the general on-sale date, can take advantage of Planet Rock radio’s 48-hour pre-sale, which starts at 9am on Monday February 28th on www.planetrock.com.

UK tour dates include –

Blackpool Opera House (Saturday 15th October)
Capital FM Arena, Nottingham (Sunday 16th October)
Cardiff International Arena (Tuesday 18th October)
Plymouth Pavilions (Wednesday 19th October)
HMV Hammersmith Apollo, London (Friday 21st October)
HMV Hammersmith Apollo, London (Saturday 22nd October)

Sacred Mother Tongue, the up and coming Metal band with the astounding Andy James on guitar, have just announced a series of dates for a UK tour!

If you haven’t checked it out already I highly recommend getting their debut album ‘The Ruin Of Man‘.