THE ORIGINAL CHAMELEON: CHRIS SPEDDING

If all of the albums on which Chris Spedding has played guitar were to suddenly disappear tomorrow, the world would be deprived of a considerable body of music. As one of England’s most sought-after session guitarists, Spedding has found himself on an incredible array of albums, playing an even more incredible array of musical styles. In the process, he’s become somewhat of a legend in his own right.

Although he has recently taken to adopting an ersatz James Dean motorbikin’ guitar-jockey pose in return for some new wave appeal, Spedding’s roots are nothing if not deep. A contemporary of the first wave of rockin’ Englishmen, he was playing in bands as early as 1960 (don’t let those boyish good looks fool you) before entering the limelight supporting such artists as Alan Price, Paul Jones, and Pete Brown. He first appeared as a session player on Jack Bruce’s Songs For A Tailor LP, and though he worked for a while with the Battered Ornaments and Ian Carr’s jazz band Nucleus, session work began to dominate his time.