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Young musician is feeling blue

by Tom Rowley
2/ 4/2008

UP-and-coming guitarist George Fell is in tune with his future career.

The talented teenager, who plays jazz and blues, hopes to make a full-time career out of his guitar.

And he wants to help raise the status of his favourite musical instrument.

George, who recently turned 18 and is studying A-levels at Talbot House, said: "I’d like to make it so the string guitar is viewed in the same way as the classical guitar or concert instruments like the piano or cello.

"I like to think of the guitar as a portable piano."

George took up playing the guitar after a long bout of illness.

"I started playing about six years ago," he said. "I was off school quite a long time after an accident when I was 11 and got really bored. My dad dabbles in the guitar as a pastime and I think that has influenced me too."

Dad Brian is a sculptor so the artistic influence was never far away and George, of Norfolk Street, Glossop hopes to fashion for himself a musical career after full-time education.

When not studying for A-levels in music, psychology, English literature and critical thinking, George regularly performs at The Lift music club at The Globe in Glossop as well as at clubs around the north of England. His says his main influences are acoustic guitar legends John Fahey and Leo Kottke, who have managed to successfully fuse folk, jazz and the blues.

George is currently working on his own EP called The Mill Hopper. He performed the title track to warm applause at a recent performance at The Globe. It was one of five guitar solos he performed as part of an event to celebrate the centenary of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s visit to Chunal.