The five most underrated British guitarists produced by the 1990s
The 1990s were an incredibly fruitful period for music across the board. While electronic music and dance began to truly permeate mainstream culture, rock experienced perhaps the most dynamic growth, evolving and branching into several influential subgenres. Although grunge and the American alt-rock scene often steal the spotlight, the UK had its own remarkable moment, and it wasn’t just about Oasis.
Whether it be Suede or even the perenially underrated Catherine Wheel, British rock music had an incredible 1990s, to the extent that many of its foremost outfits are still going today and are still deemed incredibly important for today’s crop of guitar-wielding maestros. As we all know, the most famous movement or genre that Britain spawned in the decade was Britpop, including the notorious tabloid war between Oasis and Blur, but that was only the tip of the spear. In actuality, many of the so-called Britpop bands rank among the worst this country produced from the era. Many of their sounds were never up to scratch, and today, they sound even more woeful.
There was far more to British guitar music in the 1990s than just the Britpop era or the output of American bands, yet this richness is often overlooked. Across the UK, bands of genuine substance took to the stage, reigniting the spirit of rock. However, with so much great music emerging during that decade, many talented bands and their exceptional guitarists have not received the recognition they deserve, leaving some of the era’s finest contributions underappreciated today.
Looking back at it from our era, where so many guitarists are shamelessly derivative, the 1990s welcomed a wave of great axemen who might have strewn together certain influences and contexts but were operating with a profoundly innovative spirit and immense imagination. Britain produced an array of underrated guitarists that deserve more attention today, from the shoegazers to the grebos and even your proto-Britpop bands.
Find the five most underrated British guitarists of the ’90s below.
Five most underrated British guitarists of the 1990s:
5. Brian Futter – Catherine Wheel
Often connected to the shoegaze movement due to their use of the related textures during their early chapter, particularly on the cult debut Ferment, Catherine Wheel always had a distinctly harder, more muscular edge to their music than many of the groups the press spiritually linked to them. While Ferment is undoubtedly a masterpiece and weaponised harmony, its follow-up, 1993’s Chrome, is smattered with excellent guitar playing of a more robust character.
Although Catherine Wheel are easily discerned by the gravelly harmonies of frontman and guitarist Rob Dickinson, the guitars were a department in which they shone greatly, with curly-haired whizz Brian Futter often forgotten in the story. Capable of producing gritty hard rock chord progressions and riffs, as well as spacey, washed-out moments laced with effects, he did everything that a guitarist of the era should do well with aplomb and crafted ample atmosphere. From the gothy grit of ‘Crank’ to the likes of ‘Salt’, and the grossly overlooked epic that is ‘Ursa Space Major’, Futter has a long list of highlights where dynamism courses throughout.
4. Gareth ‘Rat’ Pring – Ned’s Atomic Dustbin
Ned’s Atomic Dustbin are a markedly underrated band, period. While people who were there for the excitement of the late 1980s and early 1990s remain big fans, they are something of an unknown entity to those who weren’t yet born, although that does seem to be changing thanks to the internet and a newfound fascination with the era. I always count myself lucky, as my old man is a big fan, so I was exposed to their kaleidoscopic grooves from early on.
While the band are often remembered as the best of the grebo movement, with a distinctly heavy undertone thanks to the fact that they are an anomaly for having two bassists, this aspect often overshadows the fact that Gareth ‘Rat’ Pring, their guitarist, is also a master of the fretboard. Utilising shoegaze and baggy effects, his work with the group provided them with their sharpness, dovetailing with the melodic basslines and providing no end of hooks. Not only this, but his rapid-action chord progressions remain utterly scintillating. From ‘Kill Your Television’ to ‘Until You Find Out’ and the wistful jangle of ‘Intact’, you don’t have to look far to comprehend his lustre.
3. Andy Bell – Ride
Even if they don’t know him by name, most fans of British ’90s rock would recognise Andy Bell through his work during Oasis’ second half. However, years before he joined the Mancunian outfit, he had already helped pioneer the shoegaze movement with early Creation signees Ride. Marrying the jangling proclivities of 1980s indie and baggy with hard-hitting, experimental rock from the likes of Sonic Youth, the six-string interplay between Bell and Ride’s other guitarist and vocalist, Mark Gardener has never lost any of its magnetism.
While Ride’s more recent work is exceptional, with the quartet showing other bands how a long-awaited return should be done, the early Ride releases have an intangible emotional pull. Bell showed early on that he could conjure moments of complex melodic noodling with ease, as well as more expressive textural palettes and direct, searing chords. Although the indomitable bends of ‘Leave Them All Behind’ might well be his highlight, there are so many other moments of note, from the frenetic ‘Like a Daydream’, to ‘Taste’ and even the band’s most questionably overlooked track, which typifies everything they did best, ‘Mouse Trap’.
2. Nick McCabe – The Verve
Noel Gallagher told Steve Lamacq in 1997: “Nick McCabe is one of the best guitar players I’ve ever seen.” While the Oasis mastermind might be prone to the odd big statement every so often, that is one that every fan of great guitar music should agree with. Of course, The Verve frontman and songwriter Richard Ashcroft is a songwriter of rare proportions, but just like every great band, the vocalist needed a guitar-toting brother in arms, which he had in Nick McCabe.
McCabe is a fascinating player in that he strikes two different tones. The first is that some of his most amped-up junctures are cut from the same cloth as those of the stadium-filling leviathans widely deemed the ultimate guitar heroes, with his expansive, captivating chordal blasts some of the best out there. The other is that he had the use of delay and reverb down to a fine art, with his fluttering, effects-drenched melodies the perfect tip of The Verve’s narcotic-dipped spear. A Northern Soul opener, ‘A New Decade’ is symbolic of his all-round brilliance, but there is so much more on offer, including the psychedelic masterworks of ‘Slide Away’ and ‘Gravity Grave’. The latter is an exercise in minimalist splendour.
1. Adam Franklin – Swervedriver
In my eyes, Swervedriver are the most underrated band of their era, which is strange, considering they picked things back up after a decade away in 2008 and have since produced two fantastic records in I Wasn’t Born to Lose You and Future Ruins. Fusing the muscular guitar work of J Mascis and James Williamson with the influence of groups like Sonic Youth and a touch of metal, they have everything right, from the pulsating rhythm section to the dovetailing work of guitarists Adam Franklin and Jimmy Hartridge.
Thanks to Rick Beato interviewing Franklin on his popular YouTube channel, as well as the current shoegaze resurrection with the TikTok generation, Swervedriver are earning many new fans. It’s about time, too, as the guitars are of a different class, with Franklin leading the charge. From weaponising open tunings to the scalding speed-freak essence of early cuts such as ‘Son of Mustang Ford’ to more psychedelic, immersive moments like ‘Duress’, in many ways, they are the perfect guitar band, and that is down to the work of Franklin and his sonic confederate Hartridge.
Not only is Franklin a gifted songwriter, but he’s also an intelligent guitarist who thinks outside of the box and is equally adept at moments of sheer brute force as he is in melodic splendour, toeing the line adroitly. Add a profound handling of effects to the mix, and you have a player who qualified as an all-time great years ago.
