ALSO THIS MONTH

IN MEMORY OF MICHAEL LEONARD

We are saddened to report the passing of former Guitarist editor Michael Leonard from cancer on 2 July. Michael was an editor for over 300 magazine issues during his 30-year career in publishing. He spent nearly a decade at our parent company, Future, with successful tenures at titles including Guitarist and Guitar Techniques, and was the launch editor-in-chief of MusicRadar. com in 2007. His writing talents saw him contribute to Mojo, Q, The Independent, Rolling Stone and Billboard Publications, and he spent five years as a European editor for Gibson.com. He achieved Guitarist’s highest circulation in a decade during his time as editor in the early 2000s until 2007, broadening the magazine’s artist scope significantly. “Mike was a stickler for detail, always correcting my sloppy, unstudied grammar,” remembers our gear reviews editor, Dave Burrluck. “But what stays with me most – apart from his wicked sense of humour – is his writing, always to the point, and he was a champion of bands and guitar players that rarely graced the pages of guitar magazines back in the day. To say I learned a lot from his professionalism, style and taste is an understatement. His words made a massive contribution to the electric guitar.” As a team leader, Mike was supportive of those starting out in guitar writing. “Mike hired me as a young production assistant,” says former Guitarist staff writer and current MusicRadar guitars editor, Rob Laing. “He was a brilliant writer and hugely supportive of both my desire to write more for the magazine and make artist suggestions. I’ll never forget that, along with his wit and kindness.” Editor-in-chief, Jamie Dickson, remembers Mike’s lasting contribution to the mag: “Mike was a fine editor of Guitarist and, during his tenure, I always admired the thoroughness and insight that went into the features that he ran in the magazine. I had the pleasure of working with him on bookazine projects in latter years and he was as committed to music and knowledgeable about the world of guitars as ever. A sad loss to music journalism, he’ll be much missed.”

ALEX LIFESON NEW MUSIC

Alex Lifeson has revealed two songs to mark the release of his Epiphone Les Paul Axcess model: Kabul Blues and Spy House. His first new music in nearly a decade will be followed by a project called Envy Of None, featuring Coney Hatch bassist Andy Curran and US vocalist Maiah Wynne. “There’s some beautiful guitar,” Curran told UltimateClassicRock.com. “Picture Massive Attack with some electronic stuff with Nine Inch Nails influences, with this beautiful, fragile, sweet voice and some dark heavy sounds…” The release is set for late summer/early autumn.