DO WE REALLY have to tell you who John McGeoch is? Might it help jog your memory if we told you that he has played with Magazine, Generation X, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Heaven 17, Visage, Propaganda, and The Armoury Show? Does that help you understand how influential this man has been over the last seven years? Jon Lewin thinks so.

A SKETCH OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG PERSON

The guitarist's image, a Woolies' acoustic, rudimentary lessons, a Monkees' shirt with the two rows of buttons — "I was trendy as shit" — early Led Zep, late Cream, "Sunshine Of Your Love", jamming in bedrooms, the drummer playing comic annuals, a Commodore Solid Special for £25 — "which I've still got; it was the only electric I had up until Magazine. Some of 'Shot By Both Sides' was done on it, though I'd added Di Marzios by then" — discovering Hendrix at 14 or 15, learning/being taught "Little Wing" — "If Hendrix had any lasting effect on me, it was that combination of rhythm and lead. He was playing his own backing, which is how I'd describe my own playing" — moving to England, art school, painting seriously, being an avid punk, getting a First, meeting ex-Buzzcock Howard Devoto through a mutual friend, writing first two Magazine singles ("Shot By Both Sides" and "Touch & Go") on the first day together — "Howard said to me — you realise this could get serious, John? — " which brings us up to Magazine; take it away, John.

THE WORKS

"With Magazine — the first album — writing was anything that came into our heads. It was a very exciting time in music. If anything, musical style was freed by punk in the same way that photography freed painting. I realise with hindsight that I was consciously avoiding playing in a certain way — the old blues way. I can do it, but I didn't want to. I'd try and make it sound like anything you'd never heard before, avoiding that Hendrixy blues style. Another influence he had on me was on what I left out.

"After Magazine got the record contract, the first expensive guitar I bought was the Yamaha SG1000. Up to then, we'd been borrowing the Buzzcocks' equipment, but when we knew about the deal, I started reading up on amps and guitars... the SG1000 was quite new, with its coil taps, and straight through circuitry. I also bought an H/H combo with built-in flanger, but I quite quickly came round to Marshall.

"I didn't use many effects, but by the time I left Magazine, I had a flanger, a compressor, and a Yamaha analogue delay. That's what I used all through the Banshees as well. Live, I had my flanger-on-a-stick, which was a long standing Banshees' joke. That was an MXR mains powered flanger. I found I needed to change the speeds while I was playing, so I had the footswitch jumped, then a floor footswitch with a clamp made up, so I could attach it to a mike stand, damp an open string and go chingchingching while standing and altering the flanger manually.

"The only treatment on the guitar during the Banshees was that flanger. The Yamaha analogue delay, that just sat on my amp. I used to use the modulation on that, with the speed of the echo: on songs like "Voodoo Dolly", I'd let the echo overload at the same time as modulating it. And it would sound fabulous.

"I eventually left Magazine because of session work, it wasn't specifically because of the Banshees... I actually played with them as a sessionman for a year before they asked me to join.

"I moved to London during Magazine's second album. We were all hanging round The Blitz, and I became really friendly with Steve Strange and Rusty Egan. Visage was mainly Rusty's idea, getting together musicians from bands that he liked, like Midge Ure who's a great singer — but you're a rotten guitarist, though, Midge...

"The whole idea was to go into the studio and make a fortune, no holds barred — the complete opposite of everything else that was going on. We wrote the songs in a month, partly at Martin Rushent's Genetic before he built the studio, when he had the desk and some outboard equipment in a shed. It lay there for a year, then suddenly "Fade To Grey" was a hit. I'd completely forgotten about it, then two million album sales worldwide. I bought a house!

"We laughed all the way to the bank, which is perhaps why everyone was so suspicious when the Armoury Show got together; but we were all skint by then.

"You can learn from sessions. I didn't with Visage, as Midge did all that wackawacka disco guitar. Another one I did around that time was with Billy Idol, Gen X's last album. Billy's one of those people — like Siouxsie and Jobson — who is absolutely untalented on the guitar, but who can pick out a tune really well. I think that was the first time I started using open strings a lot, as Billy set me thinking about it.

"I did some work with Heaven 17, with Tina Turner on their 'Music Of Quality And Distinction'. And I've just played some guitar for the 12in mix of Propaganda's 'P-Machinery'. They hadn't got room on the multitrack, so they recorded me over Steve Howe's bit. That fulfilled an ambition..!

"I don't do homework for sessions, even if I have a tape of the band. What happens is that you listen, something goes 'bing!' and you think, yeah, that will fit. Otherwise, you ask the producer what he wants. Paul Morley, for instance, said 'skid around a bit'. I'm usually allowed free rein.

"I had money when I was in the Banshees, so I was able to experiment with equipment. But my favourite set-up, one which I used for two years, was two Marshall MV50 combos and a Roland JCS120. One Marshall clean, one dirty, and the Roland miked in stereo, with the chorus on all the time. And with the DI, that gave me five inputs. It sounded great. I still like to do that occasionally wherever possible, miking in stereo.

"My new toy is this Marshall stack — great amp. I've been through Peaveys and Boogies, but you can't beat yer Marshall.

"The guitars I use on stage nowadays are Yamaha SG1000s. The black one is the main guitar, the brown one I keep spare in case I break a string, and the red one I keep in a tuning I nicked from Pete Townshend. From the top string it goes E, D (don't bend that note, kid), A, D, A, D. I use that on "Higher Than The World" and a new one.

"Then there's another new toy, a Telecaster which I use on stage. The neck pickup is a Bill Lawrence humbucker, middle is a Strat, and the back is a stacked Bill Lawrence humbucker with a coil tap. It's got a five-way selector. The guitar's an original '66, but it's been refinished and cleaned up a bit. Could do with new tuners too, but I only bought it three days ago. It's very versatile — that stacked humbucker is really rocky.

"This is a real favourite, which is also quite new, an Ibanez AE100. It's a solid bodied acoustic — a weird little thing, sounds woody and plonky like a real acoustic.

"My white Strat I've had doctored to make the whammy bar more accurate. Squier Strats are excellent value for money. I'd never been all that interested in Strats until we recorded the first version of "Castles In Spain" with Nick Tauber. He borrowed this original '57 Strat — the serial number was in three figures — and it sounded great, just outrageous. I offered the guy £1500 for it, but he wouldn't sell. So then I checked out the '57 Squiers. Strats are so little and badly designed, your pick keeps hitting the volume control... but they're just so nicely put together. Generally speaking, though, I prefer a rougher neck with wider frets.

"Anyway, on stage, these guitars go to the rack, into an MXR Dual Limiter which is actually a stereo compressor, though I use it in mono. That's series'd across all the other effects, though those other effects are parallelled, so I've still got a clean signal at the other end of the rack, albeit slightly compressed. The effects — it doesn't matter which order you put them in as they're in series — are two Ibanez harmonisers, the HD1000 and HD1500.

"The 1500's good because it's got presets. Ideally, I'd like one unit that's got half a dozen delay presets, as I don't use them as harmonisers. I got them cheap through Def Leppard who've got a deal with Ibanez. The other effects are an MXR compressor which I don't use, the old flanger-on-a-stick which I've had mounted in the rack, an overdrive/fuzz, a simple chorus, and my favourite pedal, the Ibanez Super Metal, with five knobs on it. It's ever so good. The engineer insisted I use it when we were recording as it helped improve the sound, even when it wasn't turned on. I use it for solos — a sizzly treble/volume boost.

"The signal from all of these, and the clean, goes into a Loft four-way parametric EQ, giving plus or minus 18dB, which is very vicious. Then it goes back into the other side of the first compressor, just to guard against any peaks that the parametric might kick up. I also use it as a gain compensator, to make up the 6dB you lose with the effects.

"After the signal's gone through the washing machine, as we call the rack, it's split in two (not stereo) and sent to the Marshall JCM800 and the Roland JCS120. I use the low input on the Marshall as the high is just too loud; I put the preamp on ten though, for that raunchy sound.

"I've also got a Peavey Black Widow which Russell, The Armoury Show's bass player, uses on stage. They were the first amps that offered a sensible alternative to the Mesa Boogie, with a comprehensive preamp stage, extra gain and brightness. It was Robert Smith of the Cure who recommended them to me.

"All the effects are turned on or off by my pedalboard, which is multicored for ease of operation. And that's also got a volume pedal. I don't touch the amps or gear after the soundcheck. We set it up with the soundman, and that's it. The parametric's very helpful for swapping between large and small venues.

"Playing live really sharpens you up, and makes you more alert. Though I do have warm-up exercises I use: the first is to play an open E on the bottom string, then play the next four frets up, putting down each finger per fret and keeping it there, then play back down lifting the fingers one by one. Playing up and down a chromatic scale is useful. On the top strings, pluck a note on, say, the seventh fret, then hammer on the next four frets up in succession, and pull off on the way down. I use Super Slinky strings, by the way, 009-044, and I've just discovered how to stop breaking them — use light plectrums. I use 0.60mm now instead of 1mm.

"When we were recording 'Ju Ju' with Nigel Gray, he borrowed a Gizmo for me from his mate Lol Creme. I thought it was just great. There's a row of six rotating serrated wheels, and six buttons which introduce the wheels to the strings, making a bowing sound. By using a left hand damping technique you can make it sound very cello-ish on the lower strings, and violiny on the top. You have to double track it a bit. I tried to buy one, but even Lol couldn't find me one, and he designed the thing. You can hear it on "Into The Light".

"I was sacked from The Banshees. I admit it was partly my own fault, as I'd got very jaded — when we were doing 'A Kiss In The Dreamhouse', I played keyboards, just didn't want to have anything to do with guitar. Siouxsie and I were having terrible rows.

"After I left, Polydor asked me to make a solo record, and offered me some demo time. But by the time I felt ready, The Armoury Show was coming together, and we used the demo time for that. I've also been asked to do an album with Charlie Burchill of Simple Minds, who I really admire, and Tom Verlaine, another hero, but I haven't really got time for that, as we're rehearsing now for an Armoury Show tour to promote our new album, 'Waiting For The Flood'..."

So we leave the charming and eloquent (no, I'm not being sarcy) John McGeoch. Should you still need to be reminded of his musical erudition, John mentioned that his favourite song (from his own canon) was "You Never Knew Me" from Magazine's 'Correct Use Of Soap' LP, though he'd also recommend anything from 'Ju Ju', or his new recording with The Armoury Show. And being an eminently fine chap, he even left us with his favourite chord shapes...