Michael John Casswell (18 June 1963 – 30 September 2016) was an English session guitarist, who toured and recorded with numerous artists including

Brian May Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and astrophysicist, who achieved worldwide fame as the lead guitarist of the rock band Queen. May was a co-founder of Queen with lead singer Freddie Mercury and ...

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, Wang Chung,

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, Go West,

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(

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), Rhinos Revenge Band, Fanfields ( Toto tribute project) and Marcus Malone.

Career

Casswell started playing the guitar from the age of 11. In the mid-1980s he was signed to RCA USA as a part of a band called Heroes. From the late 1980s to the early 1990s he was signed to MCA UK with the British rock band Walk on Fire, which released an album ''

Blind Faith Blind Faith were an English supergroup featuring Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Ric Grech. They were eagerly anticipated by the music press following on the success of each of the member's former bands, including Clapton a ...

'' in 1989. In 1992, he joined the Brian May Band for the South America tour. Casswell co-wrote and co-produced

's last solo album, ''Especially for You'', which was released by

Polygram Records PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...

in 1998. From 2006 to 2008, Casswell played in the West End

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

musical, ''

We Will Rock You "We Will Rock You" is a song written by Brian May and recorded by British rock band Queen for their 1977 album ''News of the World''. ''Rolling Stone'' ranked it number 330 of " The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2004, and it placed at num ...

''. Casswell also taught guitar through many DVDs from Lick Library with an emphatic focus on classic rock and blues styles. Since 2011, he was regularly contributing to the ''Guitar Interactive'' magazine with columns, gear reviews and interviews. In 2014, Casswell released a solo album entitled ''Complaints about the Noise''. Casswell's last recordings were his submissions for the Toto tribute Fanfields project, which were released on October 1, 2016, a day after his death.

Equipment and style

Casswell was a keen user of the guitar's

tremolo bar A vibrato system on a guitar is a mechanical device used to temporarily change the pitch of the strings. Instruments without a vibrato have other bridge and tailpiece systems. They add vibrato to the sound by changing the tension of the string ...

. He was often seen playing pre-

Samick Samick Musical Instruments Co., Ltd. (Hangul: 삼익악기, also known as Samick) is a South Korean musical instrument manufacturer. Founded in 1958 as Samick Pianos, it is now one of the world's largest musical instrument manufacturers and an o ...

Valley Arts guitars, equipped with Floyd Rose and EMG pickups. He also frequently played a Music Man (Luke) guitar, as well as various

Fender Stratocaster The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed from 1952 into 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuousl ...

s and James Tyler guitars. For amplifiers, he mainly used Mesa-Boogie, or Marshall Amplification.

Death

In September 2016, Casswell drowned whilst swimming off Las Negras beach in the

Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park ''Cabo de Gata-Níjar'' Natural Park in the southeastern corner of Spain is Andalusia's largest protected coastal area, a wild and isolated landscape. Spain's southeast coast, where the park is situated, is a region in mainland Europe with a h ...

in Níjar, Spain. He was 53 years old.

Discography

Solo *''Complaints about the Noise'' (2014)

References

1963 births 2016 deaths English session musicians English rock guitarists English male guitarists {{UK-guitarist-stub