Andy James

Andy first picked up the guitar when he was 12 years old and from that day forth has never looked back. Early influences included Guns n Roses, Extreme, Queen, Van Halen and Joe Satriani.

"From the first time I heard 'Surfing With The Alien' I knew I wanted to shred, it just sounded so fun and cool to do." Andy says.

Andy decided to further his musical knowledge and attended the College of West Anglia to study a National Diploma in music business, performance and music technology. It was there he formed the backbone of his band Fallen Ikarus with vocalist Sam Linay. Andy is currently the lead guitarist for the band Sacred Mother Tongue - visit Andy's LickSpace profile on the link at the top for more details on Sacred Mother Tongue.

Then Andy went to the critically acclaimed Guitar Institute London to further his playing and also study music theory. His influences became more honed in towards players like Tony Macalpine, Paul Gilbert and Greg Howe. It was there that Andy was afforded the opportunity to play on stage with Vinnie Moore, who told him "Great playing dude, you have an awesome technique".

In 2004 Andy entered into the Birmingham Guitar Hero competition which was a national guitar event and was judged as the overall winner out of many other musicians that entered from around the country. It was a good catalyst for Andy to perform material from his debut solo album release Machine. The event was sponsored by Ernie Ball guitars, published in Total Guitar and in Guitar Buyer Magazine and was also filmed by the Sky network channel The Musicians Channel.

In 2005, Andy entered a competition for Radio 1 to meet and jam with the legendary Zakk Wylde, the fiery axe-man for none other than Ozzy Osbourne. Entrants had to submit a minutes work of their best guitar effort and send it in and Andy's s was picked as the winner. Not only did he get to jam with Zakk Wylde, Radio 1 also played Andy's music on the Radio 1 rock show live on air.

Equipment: Andy plays and is endorsed by ESP Guitars.

Find out more about Andy on his LickSpace profile and blog.