10 Greatest Indie Guitar Heroes

5. Bernard Butler €“ Suede

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGXM11DdYzk Another classic case of the guitar player falling out with everyone else. Bernard Butler joined Suede to become the new Johnny Marr and left Suede before they'd finished their second album, Dog Man Star. Stories of the sessions for that record are legendary, the highlight of which is when the band asked him to edit the 10 minute epic 'The Asphalt World' and he came back with a 17 minute version. Bernard Butler unashamedly name checked Johnny Marr as his inspiration, but he had his own vision of what made guitar rock special to be a star in his own right. He wasn't just in awe of The Smiths, he totally got how important Mick Ronson was to David Bowie, and his early music owed far much to the Spiders From Mars as it did to his real hero. But Bernard Butler was a godsend - whilst his contemporaries were awestruck by The Stone Roses, he knew exactly what he wanted to do and he did it his own way - he was a principled player who stood true to one of the classic commandments of being the guitarist in a great indie band, and it was this €“ 'Thou shalt have a horrible fall out with your singer if it means sticking to what you believe in.' What makes him a real hero is that he didn't just wilt after leaving his alma mater, he dusted himself down and moved on. If not exactly up, at least he walked his own path, and continues to do so. And what did Suede do? Well admirably they carried on, albeit with a worthy replacement, who sounds the spit of Bernard.