BIOGRAPHY

Having been self-taught for about four years, I sought some formal training and in 1999 graduated from what was at the time London’s ‘Musicians’ Institute’ school, with a platinum award. Since then I have made an instructional video (for shred techniques and such), played in cover bands, won Guitarist Magazine’s Guitarist Of The Year contest (back in 2000), joined the band TEN for six years, during which time I got to be a minor rock star in Japan and play on a goodly number of albums and generally strut around in leather trousers and play the festivals of Europe and what have you.

I have also been teaching guitar professionally for about twelve or thirteen years and I had my own band, the Chris Francis Band, for a little while (back in 2003). I’ve lectured a bit at Thames Valley University on things that I either know a lot about or had thought I did until trying to lecture on them (thankfully, mostly the former). I have toured in the world of musical theatre as a pit musician (in 2007), played a few sessions on commercially released albums - as well as library music collections for TV and what-not -, released two solo albums – these got some good reviews (they can be found here and I mostly agree with them) and some bad ones (they can too, and I mostly disagree with them).

I have also been sighted playing my little instrumental songs at trade shows (though I’ll not be doing them again, sir. No thanking you, sir) and colleges, and I am now working on the start of the next chapter of my musical adventures - Scratched Matinee (my life has seen a mouse take up residence in the very hand from which a plectrum was never easily pried in days gone by – and pro-tools screens are now what I see when I close my eyes). It’s all in the name of some brand new Modern Rock music, the first album of which is titled "Notes From The Incurable" and will be realeased digitally and physically on October the 5th 2010. Thanks for reading.

Chris