Джон Макгиоч: Шотландиялық гитаршы және әндер жазушының өмірі мен шығармашылығы

British musician
the American psychologist and educator

John Alexander McGeoch (25 August 1955 – 4 March 2004) was a Scottish musician and songwriter. He is best known as the guitarist of the rock bands Magazine (1977–1980) and Siouxsie and the Banshees (1980–1982). He has been described as one of the most influential guitarists of his generation. In 1996 he was listed by Mojo in their "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" for his work on the Siouxsie and the Banshees song "Spellbound". Signature characteristics of his playing style included inventive arpeggios, string harmonics, the uses of flanger and an occasional disregard for conventional scales. He was also a member of the bands Visage (1979–1980), the Armoury Show (1983–1986) and Public Image Ltd (1986–1992). McGeoch has been cited as an influence by guitarists including Johnny Marr, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, the Edge, John Frusciante, Geordie Walker, Robert Smith, Steve Albini, Duane Denison, and Dave Navarro.

McGeoch was born on 25 August 1955 in Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland, where he spent his childhood years. He began to play the guitar at 12 years of age, first learning British blues music, being influenced by the work of Eric Clapton, and also that of Jimi Hendrix. He took piano lessons for five years until the age of twelve. When his parents bought him a guitar, he stopped piano. In 1970 he played with a local band called the 'Slugband'. In 1971 his parents moved to London. In 1975 he went to art school in Manchester where he received a degree in Fine Art. the band provided McGeoch with early professional credibility and success. The band's single "Fade to Grey" went to #1 in a number of European countries and McGeoch said the money from the song allowed him to buy a house. McGeoch did not record on the group's second album, The Anvil, as it was recorded in London and he was unable to participate. While still a member of Magazine and Visage, McGeoch also worked occasionally with other bands. In mid 1980 he recorded most of the guitar work on Gen X's album Kiss Me Deadly at AIR Studios in London. He left Magazine during that time. In September 1980 he guested with Skids for a Peel Session, standing in for Stuart Adamson who was unwell. Other session work included Tina Turner's comeback track with the British Electric Foundation and for Propaganda McGeoch entered a period of both creative and commercial success. During his first session with the Banshees he began a new style of playing. He later commented: "I was going through a picky phase, as opposed to strumming. "Happy House" was lighter and had more musicality in it. They invited me to join. I was sad leaving Magazine but the Banshees were so interesting and it felt like a good move". He joined the band the Armoury Show which included Doyle as well as ex Skids members Richard Jobson and Russell Webb. Their album Waiting for the Floods released in 1985, features some of McGeoch's best guitar work. He contributed to former Bauhaus singer Peter Murphy's debut solo long player Should the World Fail to Fall Apart.

In 1986, McGeoch joined John Lydon's Public Image Ltd, a decision which may have been partly motivated by financial difficulties he was in at this time. He had been an admirer of PiL, particularly of Lydon's lyrics, yet reportedly had previously turned down an offer from him to join the band in 1984. Despite being struck in the face with a bottle thrown from the crowd during one of his first gigs with the band, McGeoch remained with PiL until it disbanded in 1992, making him the longest serving member apart from Lydon. He recorded on its long players: Happy?, 9 and That What Is Not. In 1992 he was invited by the Icelandic band the Sugarcubes to play the lead guitar on the song "Gold" for their Stick Around for Joy long player.

Without a band, he ended his career seeking to form one via a variety of short lived ventures, including working with Glenn Gregory and the songwriter/producer Keith Lowndes. With John Keeble of Spandau Ballet and vocalist Clive Farrington of When in Rome, he formed a line up provisionally titled 'Pacific', but no commercial material came of it. In the mid 1990s McGeoch retired from professional music and trained mid life as a nurse/carer. In the early 2000s he was reported as attempting to re enter professional music by working on musical scores for television productions. He bought his first model in 1977 when the band signed its recording deal, which provided him with the finances for professional standard equipment. Whilst with Siouxsie and the Banshees he created his own setup, involving a MXR flanger mounted on a mic stand which allowed him to hit a chord and sweep the flange knob in real time. He also played on a 12 String Ovation acoustic guitar. He also used a MXR Dynacomp Compressor and a Yamaha E1005 Analog Delay. His amps were a Roland Jazz Chorus JC120 and two Marshall MV50 combos. During the recording sessions of Juju, he used devices such as the Gizmo on "Into the light", and an EBow on "Sin in My Heart". Whilst working with 'The Armoury Show', he also used a customised Telecaster, a white Squier 1957 Stratocaster, an Ibanez AE410BK and an Ibanez AE100. For pedals, alongside his 'flanger on a stick', he was using an MXR Compressor, two Ibanez harmonisers and an Ibanez Super Metal pedal. He also used a Washburn Tour 24 guitar for touring during 1988.

McGeoch has been cited as a major influence by numerous guitarists. Johnny Marr from the Smiths said: "When I was in my teens, there weren't many new guitar players who were interesting and of their time. [ ] John McGeoch. [His work] was really innovative guitar music which was pretty hard to find back then. To a young guitar player like myself, those early Banshees singles were just class". Simon Goddard wrote that McGeoch was a "significant inspiration" on Marr. Marr also stated: "The music he made with the Banshees the word imperial was made for that music". The Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien also cited him as a "big influence", and one of the "great guitarists [who] weren't lead guitarists". He said that McGeoch was "responsible for some of the greatest riffs ever 'Spellbound', 'Christine', 'Happy House' His riffs are so elegant and once you learn how to play them there is almost a zen like quality to the sound and movement of your hands. it reminds me of the beauty in Johnny Marr's playing." For their 2003 single "There There", Radiohead's producer Nigel Godrich encouraged Greenwood to play like McGeoch in Siouxsie and the Banshees. Dave Navarro of Jane's Addiction said that he "always loved all the different guitarists that have been in Siouxsie and the Banshees". John Frusciante of Red Hot Chili Peppers named McGeoch in his primary influences: "[McGeoch] is such a guitarist I aspire to be. He has a new brilliant idea for each song. I usually play on the stuff he does on Magazine's albums and Siouxsie & the Banshees's like Juju." Frusciante praised him as a musician "who played in more textural ways" and who made "interesting music". Frusciante "bought an SG, because I’m a big fan of John McGeoch from Siouxsie and the Banshees and Magazine. When I’d play along with his records using a Strat, the parts sounded too thin and weak for the simple power of his playing. In learning the SG, I had to teach myself to bend in a brand new way and use new muscles to do vibrato." The Edge of U2 cited McGeoch as an influence and chose the Siouxsie and the Banshees song "Christine" for a compilation made for Mojo. Interviewed in March 1987, the Edge said his "background is much more Tom Verlaine and John McGeoch". Robert Smith of the Cure praised McGeoch's guitar part on "Head Cut", including it in his five favourite guitar tracks: "This is really harsh funk in a weird way – clever choppy chords." Roddy Frame of Aztec Camera praised McGeoch saying, "he chose very simple lines over anything bombastic, the song came first and he tried to complement that". In a playlist, William Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain selected two of McGeoch's songs, "Spellbound" by the Banshees and "Definitive Gaze" by Magazine. Steve Albini of Big Black praised McGeoch for his guitar playing with Magazine and Siouxsie and the Banshees, qualifying as "great choral swells, great scratches and buzzes, great dissonant noise and great squealy death noise. What a guy" and further commenting: "anybody can make notes. There's no trick. What is a trick and a good one is to make a guitar do things that don't sound like a guitar at all. The point here is stretching the boundaries". Albini also stated: "He was an innovator with the pure sound of his guitar I admire the economy of his playing. He made very precise choices that were usually beautifully simple". Mark Arm of Mudhoney "loved [McGeoch's] work with Magazine and Siouxsie And The Banshees". Arm praised McGeoch's musical approach, saying: "He’s got a very unique style He’s a very original thinker and not an ‘overplayer’ – the little bits where he does a solo are really innovative and super cool Space is key, a secret ingredient for musicians which shouldn’t be a secret. Knowing when to step back – John had that ability". Terry Bickers of the House of Love cited him as one of his favourite musicians. James Dean Bradfield of the Manic Street Preachers said that McGeoch was "slightly avant garde. He was a genius". Bradfield added that McGeoch's guitar playing makes "you realize you were listening to a new version of rock and roll". Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai qualified McGeoch as "the best post punk guitarist", saying, "he played like no one else, totally distinct and with unyielding imagination. I hear his influence everywhere to this day", and dubbed him "a total legend". In 2008, the BBC aired an hour long radio documentary on McGeoch's life and work, titled Spellbound: The John McGeoch Story. In April 2022, The Light Pours Out of Me, an authorised biography of McGeoch by Rory Sullivan Burke, was released by Omnibus Press. It features interviews with Greenwood, Marr, John Frusciante and the singers Siouxsie Sioux and Devoto.

On 9 September 1981, McGeoch married Janet Pickford, his girlfriend at Manchester Polytechnic, the marriage later ending in divorce. On 14 September 1988, he married Denise Dakin, the second marriage producing a daughter, Emily Jean McGeoch (b. 1989).

Banshees' drummer Budgie wrote a text to honour him on the Siouxsie website, saying: "Without any disrespect to all the other guitarists we have worked with, none had the relaxed mastery and such a depth of expression as John McGeoch. No amount of scrutiny of filmed 'Live' performance tapes could reveal the subtle economy of technique that made an apparently complex phrase look so deceptively simple. Exasperated guitarists would often comment, "But his hands don’t even move! ".