Biography

Born Jeffrey Arnold Beck

Date of birth 24 June 1944

Birthplace Woking, Surrey, England

Main Guitars Gibson Les Paul, Fender Stratocaster

Often regarded as Britain's finest guitarist, Jeff Beck's career has been one of the least consistent and yet one of the most brilliant.

Beck began to learn the piano in 1952. He practised two hours a day but got tired of the instrument so his uncle taught him violin and cello. In 1957 he was inspired to switch to the guitar after seeing a movie poster for The Girl Can't Help It.

After a short spell at the Wimbledon Art College in London, Beck supported Lord Sutch and then became joint lead guitarist of The Yardbirds (along with Jimmy Page) after the departure of Eric Clapton, who had left in disgust at the band's switch from blues to pop. Beck played with The Yardbirds for nearly two years, leaving late in 1966 under the pretense of retiring from the music business.

Beck returned several months later with Love Is Blue, although his playing was poor bacuse he hated the song. Nevertheless, in 1967 the finrst incarnation of the Jeff Beck Group was formed, featuring Rod Stewart on vocals, future Rolling Stones member Ron Wood on bass and drummer Aynslie Dunbar, who was soon replaced by Micky Waller. Nicky Hopkins joined as keyboardist in early 1968. Neither of the band's two albums, Truth (1968) and Beck-Ola (1969) were successful and frequent infighting caused the group's break up in 1970. Rod Stewart and Ron Wood left to join The Faces.

Beck's intention was to form a new power trio with former Vanilla Fudge members Carmine Appice on drums and Tim Bogert on bass, but after recovering from a serious car crash, Beck found that Appice and Bogert had joined Cactus, so he instead formed a new Jeff Beck Group. With Max Middleton on keyboards, Cozy Powell on drums Clive Chaman on bass and vocalist Bobby Tench, Beck released Rough And Ready in 1971 and Jeff Beck Group in 1972. Both albums met the same indifference that had greeted Truth and Beck-Ola.

Cactus dissolved in 1972, and so Beck revived his plans to work with Appice and Bogert. However, the band parted due to the lone studio album release being critically slammed. Nothing was heard from Beck until 1975, when he released his first solo record. Blow For Blow (1975) was an instrumental jazz fusion album which received strong reviews and was followed by Wired in 1976. For Wired Beck joined forces with keyboardist Jan Hammer and supported his group on tour.

After the tour, Beck retired to his estate outside London and only surfaced again on the music scene in 1980 with There And Back, which featured contributions by Hammer. His next release came another five years later; Flash was a pop/rock record featuring a variety of vocalists. In 1987 he played lead guitar on Mick Jagger's second solo album Primitive Cool.

Beck's 1989 album Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop is often regarded as his finest hour. An instrumental rock record much in the style of Joe Satriani, the collaboration with drummer Terry Bozzio and keyboardist Tony Hymas showed how much Beck had advanced as a guitarist. Astonishing technique and sounds made using nothing more than his Stratocaster sadly did little to advance sales, though today it is still regarded as a classic by fellow guitarists and won a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental. Beck toured the album, with Stevie Ray Vaughan supporting.

In 1992 Beck played lead guitar on Roger Waters' comeback album and in 1999 released Who Else!, an instrumental album which was more experimental and electronic in sound. This was followed by You Had It Coming and Jeff in 2003.

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