Essential British steel guitar

[Eddy Scheepers]

Hi all,

Who would you consider the essential British and Irish steel guitarists that everyone should (have) listen(ed) to? Are their recordings still available?
I asked a similar question on other forums, but only American and yes... continental European players came out.
Noone from the UK or Ireland!


Eddy

[Uncle Roy]

We are blessed with many. Let me start with Pete Haywood. This guy is a wonderful player and has a super steel instrumental album out this year.

[Ken Byng]

Pete gets my vote too.

[SHAKEY]

For various reasons I decided not to continue my membership of the BSS forum, not least because of the hassle with the old forum as well as my computer continually letting me down, just working when it felt like it. anyway seeing this thread I decided it was time to get back in.
Yes PETE HAYWOOD has to be the absolute top of the list for me. I think there may be a lot of younger players that have never heard Pete play and as Ken says when it comes to C6 there are few if any to come close to him. Pete has for many, many years been an Emmons "push-pull" man but he recently acquired a Williams D10 for the soul purpose of experimenting with different pedal setups.
Pete is not just a steel player, he is one of the very few people around that actually knows the instrument inside out.
While most of us sit and listen to other steel players and try to copy what they do, Pete works on a number and plays it the way he wants it to sound, and believe me I have sat and watched Pete in his den, and to watch him is just awesome. He knows every chord formation, every note that makes up the chord and where they are on the guitar. and his single note picking and the feel he expresses, well like I said there is no one in my opinion to touch him.
You will never meet a nicer, more modest, intelligent, helpful man than Pete.
DEFINITELY THE ESSENTIAL BRITISH STEEL GUITARIST, and if you haven't got a copy of his CD you don't know what you're missing. I like many others would love to see Pete at a festival or two but he has a great life and enjoys the way things are. Maybe one day he'll surprise us.
Cheers Shakey.

[Dave Nutt]

Crikey! this is a good un.
Its going to sound repetetive but for me its certainly Pete, he was years before his time, problem is, he's just too good for the UK, what outlets are there for a talent like Pete? I used to go out of my way to watch him play back in the 70/80s with Poacher, Mike Harding (The Rochdale cowboy) Wayne Nutt, no matter who he worked with Pete was the star attraction.
Of course we all know he now plays a low profile, thats Petes choice and has to be respected, but such a shame that the younger/newer players may never get chance to hear him. Yes! Pete Haywood 'as good as they get' he has my vote hands down.

Eddy, As Roy says we are blessed with many fine steelies here in the UK, I honestly believe that if some of our guys had lived in the States or Canada and been involved in the country music recording/touring scene they would be as big a name as any of the top USA players. Sarah Jory and David Hartley are both 'class acts' they have reached a level of commercial respect that few other UK steel players ever have, no one can deny their talents, we here in the UK are very proud of them both. If we asked steel fans around the world to name some UK steel players, Im sure Sarah and David would figure high on the list. What a pity it is that Pete Heywood, Barry Gaskell, Ken Byng and others have never had the opportunity/luck or whatever it takes, to expose them to a greater international audience.

Sorry if I have gone slightly off topic, just trying to blow the UKs trumpet.
Dave.

[bob adams]

Where did you go off topic David!?? I so want to hear these guys 'WE ALL DO'! Pete Heywood, Barry Gaskell, Ken Byng..... Has anyone got the clout to get them together 'LIVE' I don't care where it is .... I'll get there! and others will do likewise!.... .. If any of the afore mentioned read this, (Ken will I know! ) please! make this happen! We are a long time dead fellas please share your talent with us! and if Sarah and Dave joined in so much the better, I may even pay for a ticket!

[Ken Byng]

.....................I may even pay for a ticket!

Lets not stretch things too far Bob.

Thanks to the two Dave's - Nutt & Seddon for their comments. Both class acts themselves, and a long and integral part of the UK steel scene.

I sometimes have a quiet chuckle to myself when I read people put in print that so and so person is the best in the UK. It is just so subjective, because it does depend on what rings your bell. You like Lloyd Green? Well, David Hartley seems to have based his whole style and sound on Lloyd's, as has Sarah Jory. You like rock steel? B J Cole is your man. Although he can play other things, Basil H is the top Hawaiian style player in the UK. There are so many styles of playing, and we all have our own preferences. However, I just love hearing people do original things. The task is not to sound like any of the major names, but to get do your own thing. It hasn't hurt Franklin, Jernigan, Anderson, Chalker, Morrell, White, Myrick, Brumley and a whole host of others.

When I was doing a lot of session work in the UK in the 1970's playing on country type albums, I had based my style of playing on Lloyd Green and Tom Brumley. I thought I was reasonably good at the time, although I later realised that I was just a copyist. Most of the recordings were done in Wales, and I was the house steel and lead guitarist in Mid Wales Recording Studio. One day, I picked up a John Aston album that someone had left lying around. Pete Hayward was playing steel, and I put it straight on a turntable. The first track knocked me right out. The steel solo started with a rolling arpeggio across the strings at speed, and was so smooth with great tone. I went straight back to the drawing board and decided to abandon my quest to become another Lloyd. I had to become myself - Ken Byng.

Pete Hayward just does his own thing, and that is why I admire him. He works at the instrument too. I was on tour of the West Country in 1973, and on one gig I set my ZB up and quietly ran through a few exercises and tunes and then switched everything off and covered all of the gear up. The organiser (Ivor Minear) came over to me and said - "The guy who was here last week on steel set up at 10.00am and practised right through to 6.00pm without a break. He was incredible". I said "Don't tell me - it was Peter Hayward". He said "How did you know"? I just smiled and thought to myself that you don't get to the standard that Pete achieved without a mammoth amount of effort.

Let me say this - his current CD, his work with Poacher, Mike Harding, Top Country Sounds.....none of it gives anything like a true portrayal of what the guy is capable of. I have heard everyone of any note in the UK ever to touch a steel guitar, and Mr Hayward is far and away in a league of his own especially on C6th. We just need to respect his decision not to attend steel guitar shows. He doesn't have to prove how good he is because he is what he is. No endless postings of himself on YouTube or other self promotion. He just quietly gets on and plays with absolutely no ego, and we must all respect the direction that he has chosen to take.

If any of you are ever fortunate to meet him, he won't play Mr Superstar and ignore you like one or two in this country are reputed to do. He will talk steel guitar all day long, because I hear that he is as passionate now about the instrument as he ever has been.

[Bent Romnes]

I will go along with Dave Seddon's letter as well as Ken Byng's heartfelt post and yes, all of you who voted for Pete Haywood. I was lucky enough to be able to get hold of Pete's CD and it is a treasure to me.
So I know what I am talking about when I say that Pete copies no one; he is his own man. If I ever make it back to the UK my hope is that Shakey will take me to visit with Pete where I can just lean back and absorb some of Pete's superb playing.

When Shakey is willing to endorse a player, I know that it comes from the heart. Dave is a very accomplished player himself and he knows of which he speaks.
I am totally amazed at all the wonderful steel talent in the UK these days. I have heard and seen a lot of them and you all are fantastic players in your own right. In the meantime, Pete has just sat back, studied/practiced his steel and has risen to the top of the heap with a sound and style all his own. I sincerely hope that every pro steel player worldwide will get the opportunity to hear Pete.

I do wish that Pete will show up at your meets one of these days.

[sheffield steel]

Yes, many good steel players we have but Pete Haywood gets my vote! not only on E9th but on C6th he's a monster!

Dave.

[bazzrd9th]

Hi Guys
Thanks for the endorsements.

Yep I'll endorse all the comments about Pete. I saw and played the same shows many times in the seventies and eighties and he had that rare quality of sounding like nobody but him, yet played appropriately as the song demanded and as technical as anybody I'd seen.
I must as well fly the flag for Dave Rolands. He is an awsome E9th player and similarly on C6th. To my mind, and given I've not heard Pete play C6 for years now, one of the best C6th players in the UK. Another less heard of player now, and I bet there aren't many of our younger players even heard of him, Melvin Duffy. A superb player on both necks and a similarly superb guitar player. You don't tour and play with Robbie Williams for quite a few years if you can't play. They are the three players for me who have done the business, and done it without You Tube or Tab books or any form of courses and tend to keep themselves to themselves.
Cheers
Barry