Guitar Legends

Guitar Legends was a concert held over five nights, from October 15 to October 19, 1991, in Seville

Seville

Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, with the aim of positioning the city as an entertainment destination to draw support for Expo '92

Seville Expo '92

The Universal Exposition of Seville took place from Monday, April 20 to Monday, October 12, 1992 on La Isla de La Cartuja , Seville, Spain. The theme for the Expo was "The Age of Discovery" and over 100 countries were represented...

 beginning the following April.

The event featured 27 top guitarists, including BB King, Brian May

Brian May

Brian Harold May, CBE is an English musician and astrophysicist most widely known as the guitarist and a songwriter of the rock band Queen...

, George Benson

George Benson

George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....

, Joe Walsh

Joe Walsh

Joseph Fidler "Joe" Walsh is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He has been a member of three commercially successful bands, the James Gang, Barnstorm, and the Eagles, and has experienced notable success as a solo artist and prolific session musician, especially with B.B...

, Keith Richards

Keith Richards

Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...

, Les Paul

Les Paul

Lester William Polsfuss —known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations...

, Robbie Robertson

Robbie Robertson

Robbie Robertson, OC; is a Canadian singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for his membership as the guitarist and primary songwriter within The Band. He was ranked 59th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time...

, Robert Cray

Robert Cray

Robert Cray is an American blues guitarist and singer. A five-time Grammy Award winner, he has led his own band, as well as an acclaimed solo career.-Career:...

, Roger Waters

Roger Waters

George Roger Waters is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. He was a founding member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, serving as bassist and co-lead vocalist. Following the departure of bandmate Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became the band's lyricist, principal songwriter...

, Albert Collins

Albert Collins

Albert Collins was an American electric blues guitarist and singer whose recording career began in the 1960s in Houston and whose fame eventually took him to stages across the US, Europe, Japan and Australia...

, Steve Vai

Steve Vai

Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....

  and Joe Satriani

Joe Satriani

Joseph "Joe" Satriani is an American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations...

. The vocalists included Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee Jones is an American vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards.-Childhood:...

, Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

 and Joe Cocker

Joe Cocker

John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...

.

The event was conceived by British impresario and producer Tony Hollingsworth who originally agreed to stage the concert as a co-production deal with Spanish state television RTVE. But RTVE dropped out on the day the contract was due to be signed when the director-general (and film director) Pilar Miro Romero left the company.

Later, the organisers of Expo '92 took on the project to help overcome the problem that Seville was being seen merely as a civil engineering project. They provided half the $7.2 million budget, with Hollingsworth raising the rest from television pre-sales. RTVE bought the Spanish rights, but paid by providing television and radio airtime for advertising slots. These were then sold to Coca-Cola.

Five 90-minute shows and a one-hour documentary were broadcast. Forty-five countries showed at least one live show. Later, broadcasters in 105 countries broadcast one or more programmes.

Rights in the event are held by Tribute Inspirations Limited

Tribute Inspirations

Tribute Inspirations Limited is a UK-registered company which owns rights in nine of the world’s largest global broadcast events, all executive-produced by TonyHollingsworth:Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday TributeThe Wall Live in Berlin...

.

Guitarists

• Albert Collins
  Albert Collins
  Albert Collins was an American electric blues guitarist and singer whose recording career began in the 1960s in Houston and whose fame eventually took him to stages across the US, Europe, Japan and Australia...
  
  
• B.B. King
• Bo Diddley
  Bo Diddley
  Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...
  
  
• Brian May
  Brian May
  Brian Harold May, CBE is an English musician and astrophysicist most widely known as the guitarist and a songwriter of the rock band Queen...
  
  
• Dave Edmunds
  Dave Edmunds
  David 'Dave' Edmunds is a Welsh singer, guitarist and record producer. Although he is primarily associated with Pub rock and New Wave, and had numerous hits in the 1970s and early 1980s, his natural leaning has always been towards 1950s style rock and roll.-Early bands:As a teenager Edmunds first...
  
  
• George Benson
  George Benson
  George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....
  
  
• Jack Bruce
  Jack Bruce
  John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician and songwriter, respected as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock power trio, Cream, for a solo career that spans several decades, and for his participation in several well-known musical ensembles...
  
  
• Joe Walsh
  Joe Walsh
  Joseph Fidler "Joe" Walsh is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He has been a member of three commercially successful bands, the James Gang, Barnstorm, and the Eagles, and has experienced notable success as a solo artist and prolific session musician, especially with B.B...
  
  
• Joe Satriani
  Joe Satriani
  Joseph "Joe" Satriani is an American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations...
  
  
• John McLaughlin
  John McLaughlin (musician)
  John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer...
  
  
• Keith Richards
  Keith Richards
  Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
  
  
• Larry Coryell
  Larry Coryell
  Larry Coryell is an American jazz fusion guitarist.-Biography:Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas. He graduated from Richland High School, in Richland, Washington, where he played in local bands The Jailers, The Rumblers, The Royals, and The Flames. He also played with The Checkers from nearby...
  
  
• Les Paul
  Les Paul
  Lester William Polsfuss —known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations...
  
  
• Nuno Bettencourt
  Nuno Bettencourt
  Nuno Duarte Gil Mendes Bettencourt is a Portuguese guitarist and singer-songwriter best known for his role as the lead guitarist of the Boston rock band Extreme whose hits include the acoustic ballads "More Than Words" and "Hole Hearted"...
  
  
• Paco De Lucia
  Paco de Lucía
  Paco de Lucía, born Francisco Sánchez Gómez , is a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist and composer. He is considered by many to be one of the finest guitarists in the world and the greatest guitarist of the flamenco genre...
  
  
• Phil Manzanera
  Phil Manzanera
  Phil Manzanera is a musician and record producer. He is the lead guitarist with Roxy Music. In 2006 Manzanera co-produced David Gilmour's album On An Island and played in Gilmour's band for tours in Europe and North America...
  
  
• Richard Thompson
• Robbie Robertson
  Robbie Robertson
  Robbie Robertson, OC; is a Canadian singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for his membership as the guitarist and primary songwriter within The Band. He was ranked 59th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time...
  
  
• Robert Cray
  Robert Cray
  Robert Cray is an American blues guitarist and singer. A five-time Grammy Award winner, he has led his own band, as well as an acclaimed solo career.-Career:...
  
  
• Roger Waters
  Roger Waters
  George Roger Waters is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. He was a founding member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, serving as bassist and co-lead vocalist. Following the departure of bandmate Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became the band's lyricist, principal songwriter...
  
  
• Roger McGuinn
  Roger McGuinn
  James Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
  
  
• Stanley Clarke
  Stanley Clarke
  Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...
  
  
• Steve Cropper
  Steve Cropper
  Steve Cropper , also known as Steve "The Colonel" Cropper, is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T...
  
  
• Steve Vai
  Steve Vai
  Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....
  
  
• Vicente Amigo
  Vicente Amigo
  Vicente Amigo Girol is a Spanish flamenco composer and virtuoso guitarist, born in Guadalcanal, near Seville. He has played as backing guitarist on recordings by flamenco singers El Pele, Camarón de la Isla, Vicente Soto, Luis de Córdoba and the rociero band Salmarina, and he has acted as a...
  
  

Vocalists

• Bob Dylan
  Bob Dylan
  Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
  
  
• Gary Cherone
  Gary Cherone
  Gary Francis Caine Cherone is an American rock singer-songwriter. He is best known for his work with the rock group Extreme, as well as his short stint as the lead singer for Van Halen on their 11th album Van Halen III and subsequent tour. In recent years he has released solo recordings. In 2007,...
  
  
• Joe Cocker
  Joe Cocker
  John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...
  
  
• Miguel Bosé
  Miguel Bosé
  Miguel Dominguín Bosé is a Latin Grammy-winning Spanish/Italian musician and actor.-Early life:Bosé was born in San Fernando Hospital in Panama City, Panama, the son of the famous Italian actress Lucia Bosé and the legendary bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguín. He is also a cousin of Carmen...
  
  
• Paul Rodgers
  Paul Rodgers
  Paul Bernard Rodgers is an English rock singer-songwriter, best known for his success in the 1970s as a member of Free and Bad Company. After stints in two less successful bands in the 1980s and early 1990s, The Firm and The Law, he became a solo artist. He has recently toured and recorded with...
  
  
• Rickie Lee Jones
  Rickie Lee Jones
  Rickie Lee Jones is an American vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards.-Childhood:...
  
  

Backing musicians

• Andy Fairweather-Low
  Andy Fairweather-Low
  Andrew Fairweather Low is a Welsh guitarist, songwriter and vocalist. He was a founding member of 1960s British pop band, Amen Corner, and in recent years has toured extensively with Roger Waters, Eric Clapton and Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings.-Early career:Fairweather Low first found fame as a...
  
  
• Bill Dillon
• Billy Nichols
• Bo Dollis
• Brandon Fields
  Brandon Fields
  Brandon David Fields is an American football punter for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Dolphins in the seventh round in the 2007 NFL Draft. He played college football at Michigan State.-Early years:Fields attended St. John's Jesuit High School in Toledo,...
  
  
• Bryan Simpson
• Charley Drayton
• China Gordon
• Chris Thompson
• Chris Stainton
• Chuck Leavell
• Cleveland Watkiss
• Cozy Powell
  Cozy Powell
  Colin Flooks , better known as Cozy Powell, was an English rock drummer who made his name with many major rock bands.-Early history:...
  
  
• David Hull
• Debby Hastings
• Dennis Chambers
• Deric Dyer
• Dominique Di Piazza
• Doreen Chanter
• Everett Harp
• Gary Mazaroppi
• George Bohanon
• Graham Broad
• Ivan Neville
• John Miles
• John Leftwich
• John David
• Katie Kissoon
• Kevin Dillon
• Larry Kimpell
• Louis Orapollo
• Maggie Ryder
  Maggie Ryder
  Maggie Ryder is an English singer, principally known as a backing singer for bands such as Eurythmics and Queen.Ryder had a solo record deal with Polydor Records in the 1970s and released a self-titled album in 1978. She worked as a backing singer and songwriter through the Eighties...
  
  
• Manu Katche
• Miami Horns
• Mike Moran
• Miriam Stockley
  Miriam Stockley
  Miriam Stockley is a British singer. She was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and her work is influenced by the African music in her home country. Her unique vocalese style gained international acclaim when Karl Jenkins' launched the "Adiemus" project with "Songs of Sanctuary", featuring...
  
  
• Monk Boudreaux
• Nathan East
• Neil Murray
• Pat Leonard
• Peter Wood
• Pino Palladino
  Pino Palladino
  Pino Palladino is a Welsh bass guitarist who gained fame playing primarily rock and roll, blues rock, and rhythm and blues music, although he has been lauded for his ability to play most genres of popular music, including jazz, neo soul, and funk...
  
  
• Ray Cooper
  Ray Cooper
  Ray Cooper is an English musician. He is a session and road-tour percussionist, and occasional actor, who has worked with several musically diverse bands and artists including George Harrison, Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, and Elton John. Cooper is commonly regarded by music fans, critics and fellow...
  
  
• Ray Brown
• Richard Cousins
• Rick Wakeman
  Rick Wakeman
  Richard Christopher Wakeman is an English keyboard player, composer and songwriter best known for being the former keyboardist in the progressive rock band Yes...
  
  
• Robert Smith
• Sal Demandi
• Simon Phillips
• Snowy White
  Snowy White
  Snowy White is an English guitarist, known for having played with Thin Lizzy and with Pink Floyd and, more recently, for Roger Waters'...
  
  
• Steve Jordan
• Steve Ferrone
• Terry Williams
• Tony Levin
• Trilok Gurtu