10 Greatest Indie Guitar Heroes

2. John Squire €“ The Stone Roses

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umwQG7fue84 Whilst Terry Bickers missed his chance to be the great white hope of indie-guitar players, a bunch of whippersnappers from Manchester rode in and stole his thunder. Following the tradition of decidedly unmacho guitar players, John Squire emerged as the guitar hero of the early 90's, and was responsible for a surge in the sale of wah pedals, once 'Fools Gold' was released, it seemed like every record released for the next year would have a wah-wah on there. But John Squire was no one trick pony, and on The Stone Roses debut album he seemingly borrowed from a litany of influences, from Jimi Hendrix to Johnny Marr, but still sounded unique. The closing 'I am the resurrection' covered about a dozen different guitar styles effortlessly in its eight minutes. By the time that their bloated follow up 'The Second Coming' appeared five years later, John Squire seemed to largely forget what made him sound so stunning in the first place, and despite the odd glimpse of majesty, he seemed to decide that he was going to sound like Jimmy Page, which ended up in lots of endless noodling, which was a shame, because John Squire was a master of guitar pop playing. So why is he so high in our story of heroes? Well, he made being a guitar player very cool again; he played like a god, made it look effortless, was ridiculously bored in interviews and still he designed the record sleeves. He, like the rest of the band just had one major problem, they were, and are, extremely lazy. But you never know, and whilst it's unlikely, The Stone Roses may return with that pop record they should have made after their debate. I wouldn't hold your breath though.