Guitar George is a british guitarist, born in England but brought up in Spain. Currently working as a professional guitarist and entertainer in the East Anglian region and further afield. After spending the summer cruising the Mediterranean he is now back at home and on the look out for his next adventure.

The Beginning

It all began when at 18 months old he was given a little toy plastic guitar. Soon boy and toy became inseparable, even taking baths together! At this age George was living on Spain's Costa Blanca, where the weather was hot, the food was good and the live music scene thriving. He would often be found standing in front of bands, putting off the musicians, but even at this early age, strumming perfectly in time.

After graduating through two more plastic guitars, and aged just four years old he quit the life of a musician. Realising that the sound he was making on these toys was pretty horrendous, he decided that plastic soldiers were far more entertaining.

Two years later, aged six, his parents saw an advert on a shop window for guitar lessons and they asked George if he would like to try it out. At his first lesson, George announced that he would try guitar for one month. If he enjoyed it he would continue, if not then he'd quit. Fourteen years later and he's still playing......he must have enjoyed it then!

Guitar George is born...

After a year of studying classical guitar and the basics of music theory, George was beginning to show the first signs of having a real passion for music.

At seven years old his parents gave him his first electric guitar, a Fender Squire. Continuing with lessons on classical and flamenco guitar, he now also began taking lessons from the great guitarist, Bryn Thomas. At one stage in this early part of his career, every week he was having 4 hours of electric guitar tuition, 2 hours of classical/flamenco lessons and an hours worth of music theory instruction. Around this time he also began to take singing lessons from Argentinian recording artist and winner of five gold discs, Carlos Romero.

It was now that George became known as 'Guitar George' thanks to the invention of the mobile phone. One of his music teachers had his telephone number saved under 'Guitar George', and the name stuck. Soon he would be appearing regularly in Benidorm, billed as 'Special guest, Guitar George'. He often played at 'Churchills Bar', where his guitar tutor Bryn appeared every night. George would get up and play 2 tracks by 'The Shadows' on his own with backing tracks and then join Bryn on guitar for a few more songs.

His first public performances where when he was eight years old. After a couple of years gaining invaluable experience on the Spanish coast he moved back to the UK with his family, as there were more opportunities to play at bigger venues back in Britain.

Back in Britain

On returning to England, George played on stage at The NEC in Birmingham at The Guitar Exhibition and this was where he met Hank Marvin for the first time. Soon after, he was selected to take part in a national guitar playing competition called 'The Young Ones' at Shadowmania 2000. He was the youngest ever to take part and consequently the youngest ever to win! It was held at the Lakeside Country Club in Surrey and Bruce Welch presented him with the winners prize, an Atlantis effects box and a Burns guitar.

Later on that year he was invited to appear on the BBC children's television programme Blue Peter. It was broadcast LIVE! to two million viewers. That same year he also took part in a variety show which was headlined by Roy Hudd and in aid of 'The Grand Order Of The Water Rats'.

George has often been involved with various projects involving both playing and recording through the years. Including working in Paris where he was asked to guest on the title track of a CD 'The Angel of the North' which was recorded by young French guitarist, Matilda.

Since then he has continued to perform in the UK, Spain and France. Some of the highlights including a large charity spectacular at the internationally famous Benidorm Palace in Spain, and shows in France at the Palais des Congres in Versailles.

The Unicycling Exploits

Since 2006, George has been in demand as a unicycling guitarist! Having learnt how to ride the unicycle a few years previously, he was challenged by his father to play guitar at the same time. Never one to turn down a challenge, George proceeded to pick up a little acoustic guitar and rode around the back garden playing and singing 'She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain'!

A matter of months later he received an e-mail asking whether he had any unusual skills that could be used on a new TV series for BBC2. After describing his unusual talent they immediately asked him to appear on the show. Although George was very happy to be asked to appear on the show, they wanted him to play electric guitar whilst idling on the spot on the unicycle. This was something he had never attempted before and was substantially more difficult than strumming an acoustic guitar whilst riding around a garden. Recording for the show was only two weeks later! Fortunately with a lot of practice over the two weeks he managed to perfect the classic Shadows track Apache, whilst hovering on a unicycling. So in the summer of 2006 he was featured on BBC2's 'Let Me Entertain You', hosted by Brian Conley.

The next year he was asked to appear on 'When Will I Be Famous' with Graham Norton. This time he added some vocals to his act and played and sang Johnny B. Goode. It was aired on prime time Saturday night BBC1 and was George's second taste of live television. The programme attracted viewers of around seven million!

Around this same time he made cameo appearances on BBC3's 'TV's 100 Most Annoying Moments' where he was selected as the most anoying example of variety acts on british TV. Ranking 53rd! The show was a complete surprise for George, he only found out that clips of his TV performances had been used for the show when friends mentioned they had seen him on TV the night before. The show was repeated for over 3 months and is still something that you will often hear George bragging about!

In February 2008 he made his first appearance on ITV1's 'Dancing on Ice' where he played guitar and sang whilst riding the unicycle, but this time on ice! It was shown as part of a trailer for the following year's 'Search for an ice star' competition. In early 2009 he made his second and third appearances on the show and got down to the last twenty acts of the competition.

'Escaping' to the Med!

George spent the summer of 2011 performing throughout the Med with the cruise ship 'Island Escape'. This was his first time working on a ship and what an experience it was.

For three months from June all the way through to September he performed all over the med, including: Cannes, Monaco, Rome, Naples, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, Barcelona, Gibraltar, Tangier, Casablanca and many more. Now with that under his belt he's looking forward to getting paid to travel rest of the world too!

Currently...

Currently Guitar George is a full time musician, playing all around East Anglia and further afield. He performs both as a solo artist and as a session musician. For more information on George's performances please see 'Gig Guide' and 'Services' pages.

If you would like to book George for your event please do not hesitate to get in touch via the contact/book me page.