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After being a runner up in 1993, 1994 & 1995 Simon finally became Guitarist of the Year in 1998. It was the performance of a tune from Simon's "My World" album called "Crab Racing" which most impressed the panel of judges at the Grand Final. The final was held at the Wembley Exhibition Centre as part of "Music Live 1998" which is a large musical extravaganza involving top musicians and equipment manufacturers. Simon's winning track was included on the cover CD of the February 1999 issue of Guitarist magazine which sells many thousands of copies all over the world. After winning the title, Simon was featured on ITV's Central News, BBC Radio WM's Jenny Wilkes Show, and Wolverhampton's Wolf FM.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Simon appeared on ITV's Stars in Their Eyes in November 2000. The TV show, hosted by Matthew Kelly is one of the most popular shows on UK TV. Simon sang as Steve Tyler from Aerosmith and the song was "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" from the film "Armageddon". The winner of Simon's show sang as opera singer, Maria Callas and she went on to win the Grand Final. After appearing on the show, Simon was featured on Wolverhampton's Beacon Radio and BBC Radio WM.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Age: 33
D.O.B. 16/05/70
Memberships: Musician's Union
Playing Guitar Since: 1982
Gigging Since: 1986

Band History:
1986: Formed "Osprey" as frontman / lead guitarist.
1990: Formed "Nitebreed" as lead guitarist / backing vocalist. (Supported "The Mock Turtles").
1990: Joined "Borderline" as frontman / second guitarist.
1990: Joined "The Red House Snakes" as lead guitarist / backing vocalist.
1992: Re-formed "Nitebreed", this time as frontman / lead guitarist.
1993: Formed "Plain Jain" as lead guitarist / backing vocalist.
1994: Joined "Tantrum" as lead guitarist / backing vocalist.
1995: Began solo career as vocalist / lead guitarist using backing tracks instead of a band.
2000: Formed "The Simon Lees Band" as frontman / lead guitarist.
2000: Formed "Lost Souls" as lead guitarist / backing vocalist.
2000: Joined "Ozzmosis" as lead guitarist / backing vocalist.
2003: Joined "Budgie" as lead guitarist / backing vocalist.

Guitarist Magazine's "Guitarist of the Year" Competition:
1993: Made the Finals. Couldn't attend as he was in the States at the time.
1994: Made the Grand Final. Played with Hugh Burn's (George Michael's guitarist), Charlie Morgan (Elton John's/Billy Joel's drummer) and Felix Krish (Kate Bush's bass player). The event was recorded live and released on Music Maker records.
1995: Came 2nd in the Grand Final.
1998: Won the Grand Final and received exposure on TV, radio & local press.

Formal Training:
1987: Began classical singing lessons with Gwen Hodson.
1992: Zip Theatre "Rockschool" course. Gained an NVQ covering all aspects of the music industry from Roadie-ing & Equipment Maintenance to Business & Management. Also learned how to play the drums properly!
1997: Began singing lessons with Shirley Ireland-Jones.

Recordings:
1989: Osprey "Scene of the Action" Demo. Produced by Angus Wallace at Far Heath Studios, Northants.
1990: Red House Snakes Demo 1. Produced by Brian Tatler of Diamond Head at RPK studios near Stourbridge.
1991: Red House Snakes Demo 2. Produced by Paul Hodson of Magnum at White Rabbit studios in Bridgnorth.
1991: "When Will I Learn" solo album under the name Buggy. Produced by Dave Eagleton, Simon Lees & $had.
1992: Nitebreed Demo 1. Produced by Tom Smyth at The Attic, Wolverhampton.
1993: Plain Jain "Better Late Than Never" demo. Produced by Gavin Monaghan at Magic Garden studios, Wolverhampton.
1993: Plain Jain "On The Edge" demo. Produced by Manley Dean at Manley Studios, Wolverhampton.
1994: "Guitarist of the Year 1994" Live CD album featuring Simon's instrumental "Playing Truant" and the backing track. Released on Music Maker Records.
1995: Killing Time Demo. Produced by Colin Dixon at The Attic, Wolverhampton.
1995: Simon Lees "Bird of Prey". Self produced.
1995: Simon Lees "Live at the Falcon". Self Produced.
1996: Simon Lees "Live at the Port 'n' Ale". Self Produced.
1997: Simon Lees "Set List 1". Condensed version of "Live at the Falcon".
1997: Simon Lees "Set List 2". Condensed version of "Live at the Port 'n' Ale".
1997: Simon Lees "Live at the Old Cross". Self Produced.
1997: Simon Lees "A Faint Heart". Basically a pre-production recording of "My World". Self Produced.
1998: Simon Lees "Live at the Widders". Self Produced.
1998: Simon Lees "My World" CD Album. Self Produced. Mastered by Nick Watson at SRT in St. Ives, Cambridge.
1998: Simon Lees Live Video. Filmed Live at Oakengates Theatre Telford.
2000: Simon Lees "Live at the Sheppey". Self Produced.
2000: "You - the Single" Charity CD. Recorded at Fatman Studios, Engineered and Mastered by Greg Chandler. Written & produced by Simon Lees.
2000: Lost Souls Demo. Recorded at Mad Hat Studios. Produced by Mark Stuart (Magnum's producer).
2001: Simon Lees "Live at the Duke". Self produced.
2001: Snarling Dogs Demo CD. Written, recorded, produced & mastered at Simon's own studio.
2002: Simon Lees "Live at the Stumble" CD album. Self produced and mastered.
2003: Al Atkins "Cradle to the Grave" Demo. Recorded at Mad Hat Studios. Produced by Mark Stuart (Magnum's producer).
2003: Simon Abbotts Band "Hold Back the Rain" Demo. Reviewed in Powerplay magazine April 2003
2003: Al Atkins "Heavy Thoughts" album. Contains both tracks from "Cradle to the Grave" demo.
2003: Al Atkins "Dreamer Deciever". Awesome re-make of the original Judas Priest song from their Sad Wings of Destiny album. Recorded at Mad Hat Studios. Produced by Mark Stuart.
2003: Simon Lees "Freethinka" CD album. Self produced and mastered at Simon's own studio.

Simon Lees Productions For Other Bands:
1994: "Almost Human" first demo. Recorded at Manley Studios.
1994: "Graveyard Shift" first demo. Recorded at Manley Studios.
1995/6/7/8/9: Played keyboards & produced demos for Bliss first album "Sin to Skin" on Massacre Records. Also produced demos for their second album "Rethought" at Simon's own studio.
2001: Ozzmosis Demo 1. Recorded and mastered at Simon's own studio.
2002: Kev Place Demo. Recorded and mastered at Simon's studio.
2002: Musical Mayhem "You" album. Over 100 kids participated in this! All recorded and produced by Simon at his studio.

Teaching:
1995: Began teaching guitar & bass professionally.
1998: Devised a new method of learning scales on the fretboard.
2000: Wrote the first version of his guitar book, called "Lefts, Rights & The Nine".
2001: Updated the book, re-naming it "Lefts, Rights & Doubles".
2002: Updated the book again, re-naming it "Signpost to the Fretboard".

Resume:
Simon has a wealth of experience of all aspects of music and music production. He is an incredible lead guitarist and his playing has won him respect from across the world. As a singer he has a superb Tenor voice and excels at singing at the higher end of the male register. As a writer/producer he has a God given instinct for harmony, melody and rhythm. As a teacher Simon has enormous reserves of patience. His most successful student, Ben Oakley (Lead Guitarist with Disarm Goliath), went on to gain a diploma at the Guitar Institute of Technology in London. Equipment wise, Simon has all the tools he needs to perform any musical job, from PA hire to recording (live or studio) to session work (any kind of guitar sound). Despite his huge talent he gets on very well with people and will tolerate all but the greatest of fools! And to top it all off he has his own entry in the International Who's Who of Popular Music - somewhere between Simon Le Bon and Annie Lennox!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was born in Wolverhampton Women's Hospital on May 16th 1970.

During my early years I developed a love of music, especially guitar stuff. (Crazy Horses man, Wow!). Mom spent a lot of time watching children's music programs with me and encouraging me to follow what was going on.This education gave me a great headstart and helped develop my "musical instinct" at the earliest possible age. My brother Richard is also very musical and growing up with him helped inspire me to want to play an instrument.

A major turning point came when Sky released Toccata and performed it on a lunchtime TV show (Pebble Mill at One). The camera was behind the drummer and watching the guy play was fantastic. I had to be a drummer! A couple of years went by and no drum kit materialised but when a school mate showed me his electric guitar I thought "OK, it looks like I'm not gonna get a drum kit so I'll give this a go".

I had my first acoustic (a Kay) on my 12th birthday.The aforementioned school mate (Rich Dring) lent me a book for beginners so the first tune I learned was "Mull of Kintyre". It took me about 2 hours.

I got into writing fairly quickly and my first efforts were just chord progressions with cool strumming patterns. Purely instrumental, I performed several of these at school! (I still have a tape somewhere!). I also figured out how to use two tape decks to perform horrendous quality multitracking!

Some of my mates were into heavy rock and I always liked that type of guitar sound and fast soloing. I ended up becoming a Status Quo fan. At that stage, and for the first few years, owning an album meant learning all the songs on there. My repertoire consisted of Pink Floyd, Sky, Quo & Thin Lizzy. My album collection was basically taped from various friends of mine who could afford to actually buy the original! My vinyl collection is incredibly small but I have nearly 500 tapes!

The next big thing I got into was Black Sabbath followed shortly by Dio (Ronnie James) & Ozzy Osbourne. The first two tracks on "Blizzard of Ozz" totally blew me away. When BBC broadcasted Ozzy's Bark at the Moon Live concert at Salt Lake City I knew then that I had to become Jake E. Lee! (Or failing that, Vivian Campbell).

It wasn't long after that I saw Steve Vai on Dave Lee Roth's Yankee Rose video. That was something else again. Around the same time Metallica released Master of Puppets and EVERYBODY got into that. They were a great band with an interestng lead guitarist.

Bon Jovi hadn't really made their impact on me until Livin' on a Prayer came out. They were a really cool band and I nicked loads of song ideas from their early records. I still do! My tastes in music progressed gradually from that point.

What really "floats my boat" is music played by people who've taken time and effort to become skilled at their instrument. I love great drummers. Among my favourites are Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), Mike Mangini (Steve Vai), Dennis Chambers, Vinnie Colaiuta - all guys who combine great feel with dazzling technical skill. Music doesn't have to be technical for me to enjoy it and I'm more than happy listening to Lauryn Hill's drummer simply grooving because he REALLY GROOVES!

I hated the demise of 80's rock (brought about by a bunch of freaks from Seattle) and I think the 90's was a disaster as far as respect for musicianship goes. Still, what goes around usually goes around again so it won't be long before everybody's widdling away happily!

Simon Lees

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