'Guitars of Love' - an instrumental band playing instrumental tunes of the '50s & '60s with an emphasis on the British take on surf twang - i.e. the 'Shadows'. This is a peculiar type of music that has it's roots in the British following the perceived trends in that Mecca of all pop & R&B, the USA. Although trying to copy the optimistic American sound, they ended up with something as unique as it was daggy, a kind of weird Jordy "... we take our holidays with Mom and dad in Blackpool by the seaside" kind of lilt on the American middle class teen consciousness. The tunes were often characterised by hugely strong melodies that were as grandiose as they were inspired, almost as a panacea too what must have been a pretty austere lifestyle in England at that period (the late '50s). Most of their greatest recordings such as 'Wonderful Land' and 'Atlantis' were penned by a mandolin player named Jerry Lordan, who toured with Cliff Richard and the Shadows in their Bedford van around the countryside of Britain. They are ageless melodies that never loose their power, and are quite chordally complex to play. It is unusual music for a rock & roll band to play because the musical parts are quite compartmentalised and require a high degree of focus and practice, whilst maintaining a gentle but firm delivery.

This type of musical genre is known mostly by folk in their '50s, who remember the resounding tones of a Stratocaster strung with strings the thickness of fencing wire played through a VOX AC30, gently issuing from Mom & Dad's old valve car radio on the way home from the beach in the early sixties.

It's daggy, but good ...

Kelvin Fleming	Michael Teakle	Alan Brooker	Tony Thornton	Paul Gadsby

Formed in Melbourne around 1985 from the remnants of an Adelaide band called 'Clean Cut', playing slick, succinct renditions of classic 50's & 60's instrumentals , with heaps of Shadows tunes.
Personnel for the original band was basically 'Clean Cut' minus the singer Rick Holmes: Michael Teakle & myself (Kelvin Fleming) on guitars as per usual; Alan Brooker on the Fender Jazz bass; and Tony Thornton on the Ludwig drums. (Tony Thornton and Alan Brooker both played with Paul Kelly and the Dots in the late '70's - early '80's).
Tony Thornton left in 1986, later replaced with Garry Nottingham, and then Greg Martin. The band used Mick Hogan in our short stint in Adelaide '86.
In the late '80s Alan Brooker departed and bassist Mark Ferry played a few gigs.
In 1997 the outfit did a gig at the Prince of Wales St Kilda with Tony back on the skins, and Paul Gadsby playing bass. On the strength of this it went on to dabble in it's own wayward versions of standards as well as many original compositions in the late '90s, with a series of impromptu jams, much of which was recorded in crude fashion using whatever equipment we could throw together.

In February 2008, the original line-up got back together with Alan Brooker back on the bass, and played a club wedding. If you click on the radiogram below you can hear some of the band's stuff recorded live. We never really got to record much despite our overall longevity, which is a pity, but the real point of it all was to play the music live because there are so few doing it.

December 2013 has just seen the GOL do a gig with Ian MacDonald bringing his consumate bass skills to the band. Apart from playing 'Bike Riding' live for the first time ever, we also did 'Walk Don't Run', 'Sleepwalk' and Henry Mancini's 'Baby Elephant Walk'.

Click on the radiogram for Guitars of Love music downloads

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