In this video
Monday live stream focusing on bands touring in early 2026, mostly because I've got some interviews coming up with acts you'll have actually heard of for a change. I interviewed The Feeling over the weekend - I managed to chat with Kevin the lead guitarist, though Dan the singer was so ill he nearly pulled the gig. I started the stream with "Galway Girl" as a Saint Patrick's Day warmup, and I gave an update on our foster dog Bonnie, the 11-month Vizsla who's doing really well and hopefully heading to her forever home soon.
The idea for this stream was simple - I wanted to cover songs from bands that are active and releasing stuff in the first half of 2026. If I covered the whole year we'd be here for 24 hours. There's so much good music coming out right now from Gorillaz, Mumford and Sons, Talking Heads, even System of a Down doing multiple nights at Tottenham Stadium. But I focused on the bands I'm actually interviewing or have just interviewed.
Squeeze and their new album came first. "Why Don't You" is from their collection of songs written before they got signed - pure 1976 brink of punk but not quite punk, almost post-punk before punk even happened. Glenn Tilbrook is still singing like an absolute bird. The tremolo effect throughout is the same technique I covered in the Get Great Tone course - every time you hear that jump jump jump you should smile because it's actually easier than holding down chords, plus you get time to change between them. "Tempted" is still their top Spotify song and it sounds like such a standard, pure cover fodder that anyone could do their own version of. Then I tackled "Up the Junction" which turned into a proper chord workout - C-sharp minor with changes all over the shop, wild stuff.
The Feeling tutorials were the highlight for me. I broke down "Fill My Little World" first, then we got into "I Love It When You Call" with that absolutely insane solo from Kev. I've been learning it and I'm not quite there yet because it's the one solo where he absolutely does his thing. Here's what makes it mental - nobody writes guitar solos in full C major like that. When you think about it, there are barely any guitar solos in C major at all. You've got "Don't Look Back in Anger" for C major pentatonic reference, but this is something else entirely. The technique is similar to other solos but being in C makes it really stand out.
Garbage's "Only Happy When It Rains" came from Barry's request - it was the first band he ever saw live at Apollo Manchester. I saw them in Mexico last year with Butch Vig on drums and they sounded fantastic, obviously because he's such a brilliant producer. The song has these wild Nirvana-esque chord changes, but they're not actually ripping off any specific Nirvana song - they're just doing that Nirvana thing of going for wild chord changes and sodding the key. I demonstrated how you could actually turn those same chords into a proper Nirvana song just by changing up the rhythm and approach. The verses use G-sharp minor pentatonic, then it switches to C-sharp major for the chorus which threw me a bit.
Radiohead double feature tackled two proper challenges. "Reckoner" from In Rainbows has this lovely Stone Roses vibe with a simple E minor, D and C progression that sounds beautiful. Then "There There" from Hail to the Thief which is definitely capo'd at second fret - no electric guitarist would bar for that long, you'd be mad. I worked through the chord sheet with A-sharp diminished, A minor, A minor 9 - "why so green and lonely" indeed. These songs show why people find Radiohead intimidating but once you break them down they make sense.
I finished up with Ocean Colour Scene's "The Day We Caught the Train" as a proper singalong classic. I'm still trying like hell to get a Stevie Cradock interview at Worthing next Sunday - he's not coming to Brighton but Worthing's only an hour away and he's on tour right now. If anyone can DM him and put in a good word, that would be brilliant.
Looking ahead to next week - by this time we should be just about to release levels one, two and three of Intermediate Electric. Everything you need to know at grade three, the differences between grade three electric and acoustic, and what you need to set yourself up for grades four and five. Loads of new songs I've filmed and edited including "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac which I gave a little preview of at the end. And keep those Open Mic Sundays going - the performance aspect is so important when you're trying to improve, and you can do it from the comfort of your own home by posting videos on the discord thread.
Thanks for watching, I'm off for snuggles with Bonnie because my nose is running and this cold won't shift while I'm walking the dog twice a day!