guitar hero world tour gigs

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Full Guitar Hero: World Tour set-list

All 86 launch tracks set in stone.

Activision has finally concreted the list of 86 songs to be available on the Guitar Hero: World Tour disc that launches in October. So hopefully they'll stop sending us 15 press releases a week. We hate Sting .

We love Sting really, and he's among those we knew about, although rather a lot of that leaked old track list turned out to be wide of the mark.

Bon Jovi will be there though with "Livin' On A Prayer", which we may or may not have on our iPod, as will Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger". That might also be on our playlist.

There's lots and lots to look through, including those exclusive tracks captured as a result of deals with the to-be-playable rock stars Jimi Hendrix, Ozzy Osbourne and more.

Here's that list in alphabetical order:

• 311 - "Beautiful Disaster"
• 30 Seconds To Mars - "The Kill"
• Airbourne - "Too Much Too Young"
• The Allman Brothers Band - "Ramblin' Man"
• Anouk - "Good God"
• The Answer - "Never Too Late"
• At The Drive-In - "One Armed Scissor"
• Beastie Boys - "No Sleep Till Brooklyn"
• Beatsteaks - "Hail to the Freaks"
• Billy Idol - "Rebel Yell"
• Black Label Society - "Stillborn"
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - "Weapon of Choice"
• blink-182 - "Dammit"
• Blondie - "One Way or Another"
• Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band - "Hollywood Nights"
• Bon Jovi - "Livin' On A Prayer"
• Bullet For My Valentine - "Scream Aim Fire"
• Coldplay - "Shiver"
• Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Up Around The Bend"
• The Cult - "Love Removal Machine"
• Dinosaur Jr. - "Feel The Pain"
• The Doors - "Love Me Two Times"
• Dream Theater - "Pull Me Under"
• The Eagles - "Hotel California"
• The Enemy - "Aggro"
• Filter - "Hey Man, Nice Shot"
• Fleetwood Mac - "Go Your Own Way"
• Foo Fighters - "Everlong"
• The Guess Who - "American Woman"
• Hush Puppies - "You're Gonna Say Yeah!"
• Interpol - "Obstacle 1"
• Jane's Addiction - "Mountain Song"
• Jimi Hendrix - "Purple Haze (Live)"
• Jimi Hendrix - "The Wind Cries Mary"
• Jimmy Eat World - "The Middle"
• Joe Satriani - "Satch Boogie"
• Kent - "Vinternoll2"
• Korn - "Freak On A Leash"
• Lacuna Coil - "Our Truth"
• Lenny Kravitz - "Are You Gonna Go My Way"
• Linkin Park - "What I've Done"
• The Living End - "Prisoner of Society"
• Los Lobos - "La Bamba"
• Lost Prophets - "Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)"
• Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Sweet Home Alabama (Live)"
• Mars Volta - "L'Via L'Viaquez"
• MC5's Wayne Kramer - "Kick Out The Jams"
• Metallica - "Trapped Under Ice"
• Michael Jackson - "Beat It"
• Modest Mouse - "Float On"
• Motörhead - "Overkill"
• Muse - "Assassin"
• Negramaro - "Nuvole e Lenzuola"
• Nirvana - "About a Girl (Unplugged)"
• No Doubt - "Spiderwebs"
• NOFX - "Soul Doubt"
• Oasis - "Some Might Say"
• Ozzy Osbourne - "Crazy Train"
• Ozzy Osbourne - "Mr. Crowley"
• Paramore - "Misery Business"
• Pat Benatar - "Heartbreaker"
• R.E.M. - "The One I Love"
• Radio Futura - "Escuela De Calor"
• Rise Against - "Re-Education Through Labor"
• Sex Pistols - "Pretty Vacant"
• Silversun Pickups - "Lazy Eye"
• Smashing Pumpkins - "Today"
• Steely Dan - "Do It Again"
• Steve Miller Band - "The Joker"
• Sting - "Demolition Man (Live)"
• The Stone Roses - "Love Spreads"
• Stuck In The Sound - "Toy Boy"
• Sublime - "Santeria"
• Survivor - "Eye of the Tiger"
• System of a Down - "B.Y.O.B."
• Ted Nugent - "Stranglehold"
• Ted Nugent's Original Guitar Duel Recording
• Tokio Hotel - "Monsoon"
• Tool - "Parabola"
• Tool - "Schism"
• Tool - "Vicarious"
• Trust - "Antisocial"
• Van Halen - "Hot For Teacher"
• Willie Nelson - "On The Road Again"
• Wings - "Band on the Run"
• Zakk Wylde's Original Guitar Duel Recording

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Guitar Hero World Tour

• View history

Guitar Hero World Tour (initially referred to as Guitar Hero IV or Guitar Hero IV: World Tour ) is a music video game developed by Neversoft and published by RedOctane and Activision. It is the fourth main entry in the Guitar Hero series . The game was launched in North America in October 26, 2008 for the PlayStation 2 , PlayStation 3 , Wii , and Xbox 360 consoles, and a month later for Europe and Australia. A version of Guitar Hero World Tour for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh has also been announced for a release on July 26, 2009 and was the last Guitar Hero game published to these operating systems by Aspyr Media.

While the game continues to feature the use of a guitar-shaped controller to simulate the playing of rock music, Guitar Hero World Tour is the first game in the Guitar Hero series to feature drum and microphone controllers for percussion and vocal parts, similar in manner to the competing Rock Band series of games. The game allows users to create new songs through the " Music Studio " mode, which can then be uploaded and shared through a service known as " GHTunes ".

World Tour received generally positive reviews with critics responding positively to the quality of the instrument controllers, the customization abilities, and improvements in the game's difficulty compared with the previous Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock . Some reviewers have commented on issues with poorly laid-out note tracks, the limited Career modes, and the difficulty of the music creation tool and the poor quality of the resulting songs.

• 1.1 Bundling and promotion
• 2.1 Games Modes
• 2.2 Characters and Customization
• 2.3.1 Guitar
• 2.3.2 Drumkit
• 2.3.3 Microphone
• 2.3.4 Instrument compatibility
• 3.1 Custom songs
• 4 References

Development

The fourth major entry to the Guitar Hero series, referred to as Guitar Hero IV at the time, was officially announced upon the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games in December 2007. "We couldn't have done it without Red Octane's support." says the Guitar Hero Team. [1] The game's new title, Guitar Hero World Tour , was officially announced by Activision in May 2008. [2]

Activision and RedOctane had previously registered for trademarks on " Guitar Villain ", " Drum Villain ", " Keyboard Hero ", " Drum Hero " and " Band Hero " [3] (the latter being used in a later title ). Analysts theorized that future Guitar Hero would need to include additional instrument peripherals in order to compete against the former Guitar Hero developer Harmonix 's Rock Band . [4] Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick and early previews of the game revealed that Guitar Hero IV would branch out into other instruments and vocals. [5] [6] [7]

According to the Game Informer preview, the addition of drum functionality came from work initially done towards the Drum Hero title. This work was later folded into the Guitar Hero series after Neversoft was chosen as developer of the series. [5] Neversoft's Allen Flores stated that with the addition of the existing drum gameplay, the development of World Tour took under a year, starting development immediately after the release of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock . [8] The drum instrument controller was designed to be more realistic, with details from Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers , Stewart Copeland of The Police , and Travis Barker of Blink-182 , all of whom requested the elevated cymbal pads. [8] The ability to open-strum the guitar was a feature that was planned for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock but was removed before release, finding that it was too difficult on the Guitar tracks. However, they built this feature in from the start of World Tour development exclusively for the Bass tracks. [9]

Bright describes the development of the note track for a given song once it has been licensed for the game as a parallel effort, a process that they have found to be more efficient than their previous work on the Tony Hawk games. [9] Once the song was mixed for use by the development team, a "tempo map" was created by one developer; this map denotes the beats in the music which then can be used by the rest of the development team. Once the tempo map was complete, the song was then distributed to the various teams, such as the specific instrument teams or to the animators, to complete the song. [9] Note-for-note tracking from the song was then performed, and in some cases, changes were made to account for sections that cannot be replicated on the game controllers; the final track represented the note track for the Expert difficulty of the song. Note tracks were then reduced and adjusted to create the note tracks for the lower difficulties in the game. [9] A difficulty assessment was made using the final note tracks to determine where the songs were to be placed in the soundtrack progression. The difficulty model is based on that from Guitar Hero: Aerosmith , which was adjusted from the Guitar Hero III model after the team received negative feedback from players regarding a "brick wall" in the difficulty progression in that game. [9]

The song list for World Tour started as the list of songs that Neversoft wanted to include in Guitar Hero III , but had failed to get into the game or as downloadable content; the list was eventually expanded to over 500 songs. [9] The song list was then prioritized based on what the team thought would be best in the game, and then going after the music that would take the longest time to license, as was the case for the Jimi Hendrix songs. [9] While songs were selected to make sure that guitar, bass, and drums all had great parts, they also opted for songs that would be strong for one single instrument as to make the game still appealing for those playing the single player modes. [9] Some songs were also suggested through the licensing efforts by Activision for inclusion in the game. [9] Flores stated that the inclusion of caricatures of recording artists in the game was either due to the team seeking that specific artist for the game, or the artist approaching the development team and requesting to be part of it. [8] The band Tool , which hasn't licensed its music since 1996, allowed for the inclusion of three of its songs in World Tour as long they were involved with the artwork and tracking of the songs for the game, leading to the creation of the art-like Tool venue. [10]

Bright noted that they had support for "epic drum solos", in which the band animation would focus on the drummer, but removed this feature from the game's final release due to its complexity. [9] They also had to remove the "Jam Over" mode planned for the game's music creation section that would have allowed players to start with one of the game's songs and play over it on their instruments; this feature was removed in order to keep the final product polished and on-time. [9]

The custom song creation feature was inspired by the current "hacking environment" that has arisen from the first two Guitar Hero games, where players would create new tracks and share them with others. [11] [12]

Meanwhile Hands-On Mobile acquired to create a mobile phone version of the game to be released later in November 2008. [13]

A port of Guitar Hero World Tour has been rated by the ESRB for Microsoft Windows computers , though Activision has not officially confirmed this version [14] until it was confirmed by Intel on February 27, 2009 [15] and displayed at CeBIT on March 3–8, 2009 in Hannover, Germany. [16] [17] [18]

Bundling and promotion

KFC's Guitar Hero -branded Fully Loaded Box Meal.

In preparation for the release of Guitar Hero World Tour , Activision partnered with the fast-food chain company Kentucky Fried Chicken to promote the upcoming release of Guitar Hero World Tour in their Fully Loaded Box Meals in September 2008, [19] which consisted "KFC snacker" sandwich, two chicken strips, a drumstick or thigh, a biscuit, two sides and a 32 ounce soft drink. On October 28, 2008, Kotaku gave their impression of the KFC promotion, giving their overall rating the selection of food with a D-, stating that "it was one of the few meals where vomit phobia was almost outweighed by a feeling to purge this poison." [20]

On October 26, 2008, Guitar Hero World Tour was released in North America with several bundle packages, as well as a standalone game. Europe and Australia received this title in November 2008. In addition to a game bundle that includes a wireless guitar for each platform, the game can be bought in one of two bundles that include the guitar, drums, and microphone controller. The second bundle, only available through RedOctane's store, also includes a T-shirt, keychain, and a recharging kit. [21] Players in the United Kingdom who pre-order the full band bundle also received a second guitar controller for bass players. The bass guitar is the Les Paul guitar, the same model as bundled with Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock . [22] During the Christmas season of 2008, Some retailers, such as Target, sold in-store a dual guitar bundle which included two identical wireless Les Paul styled guitars from previous game versions and did not include the new guitar with the tapping area.

Activision created a series of television advertisements directed by Brett Ratner based on the famous scene from Risky Business where Tom Cruise dances to Bob Seger 's " Old Time Rock and Roll " in a shirt and underwear, each featuring a different set of celebrities lip synching to the lyrics while using the new instrument controllers. The first ad included athletes Kobe Bryant, Tony Hawk, Alex Rodriguez, and Michael Phelps. [23] Another ad spot featured model Heidi Klum; two versions of Klum's ad exist, one a "director's cut" where she is wearing less clothing. [24] A subsequent commercial featuring model Marisa Miller was banned from airing as too racy. [25] [26]

A viral YouTube video titled "Bike Hero" showed what appeared to be a teenager riding a bike along a route marked with symbols similar in appearance to the in-game note tracks with LED lights on the handlebars blinking in time to the notes to the song " Prisoner of Society " by The Living End . The video was later determined to be the work of a viral marketing company Droga5 in cooperation with Activision to promote the Guitar Hero games. [27] The viral advertisement was considered a success, with about 3.5 million views since its release. [28]

Gameplay of a whole band playing Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell". On top is vocalist, bottom from left to right: Guitar, Drums, Bass

Guitar Hero World Tour builds on the gameplay from previous Guitar Hero games, in which players attempt to simulate the playing of rock music using special guitar-shaped controllers. World Tour expands beyond the core guitar-based gameplay by introducing the ability to play drums and sing vocals, and supports the ability for up to four players to play together in a virtual band through these different instruments. Successfully hitting notes increases the player's or band's score, as well as increase the " Rock Meter " that represents the song's performance. Missed notes are not scored and negatively affect the Rock Meter. If the Rock Meter drops too low, the song ends prematurely, with the virtual audience booing the band off stage. Completing a consecutive series of notes successfully will increase a scoring multiplier for that player up to 4x. This multiplier is doubled when the player activates star power. Similar to Rock Band, the band shares a common score, scoring multiplier and band performance meter while each player has their own performance metric; the band also shares the same " Star Power " meter, though any player may activate it at any time. A player that performs poorly and reduces their performance meter to zero can still continue to play, but they drain the overall performance meter for the band, requiring the other players to make up for this. Successfully completing a song garners a three to five-star rating based on the accumulated score, and rewards such as in-game money that can be used to buy new guitars and outfits for characters.

The guitar interface remains relatively unchanged in World Tour . As with previous Guitar Hero titles, the guitar and bass player must hold down the correct fret button(s) on the controller while strumming in time with the notes as they scroll on-screen. One addition to the guitar gameplay is the ability to play notes while holding a sustained note. Additionally, the bass guitar player will be required to play notes representing an open E/Fb string, which is shown on-screen as a solid line across their note track. To play these notes, the bass guitar player strums the controller without pressing any fret button keys. The drum interface is similar to the guitar's interface, with each on-screen note track equivalent to a colored drum head on the controller, with the bass drum indicated by a line across the note track. The drum player only needs to hit the correct drum pads simultaneously to the note gems to successfully play their track. There are also marked sections on the drum part wherein the player may play any notes they wish in a 'solo' to gain points. The vocal track requires the player to match the pitch of the notes in a manner similar to Karaoke Revolution to be successful. Special sections of each players' note track are marked with glowing notes, which, if completed successfully, builds up Star Power. Once enough Star Power is accumulated, it can be released via various means to double the band's current score multiplier. For guitar and bass, this is done by lifting the guitar controller vertically or (though not in bass) by pressing a button on the guitar face; for drums, by striking both cymbal pads on the controller at the same time; for vocals, by tapping the microphone or making a similarly quick sound.

In addition to the standard four difficulty levels ( Easy , Medium , Hard , and Expert ) for each song and instrument, a new Beginner level has been added in World Tour. This difficulty is aimed for younger and unskilled players; notes are generally simple straight lines in time with bass drum beats, and allowing any or no fret button to be held while the note is strummed (for lead and bass guitar), any drum to be hit (for drums), or any sound to be made (for vocals).

Games Modes

The primary single-player game mode is Career mode, which can be played on either the lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, or vocals. Career mode has been slightly altered from previous Guitar Hero games. After creating a band, selecting or creating an avatar, and then selecting an instrument, the player is then presented with one of several gigs containing two to five songs each. Most gigs end with an encore song that is not revealed until the other songs are completed. Two of the lead guitar gigs feature "boss challenges" with Zakk Wylde and Ted Nugent; these boss challenges, featuring original songs by Wylde and Nugent, are different from Guitar Hero III 's boss battle, removing the focus on attack power-ups and instead featuring a call-and-response mechanic similar to the existing Face-Off mode. The gigs are arranged by difficulty based on the selected instrument. The player is awarded in-game money for each song completed, and completing each gig can also award additional money for meeting certain criteria, such as never letting the Rock Meter drop below a certain level or playing the first several notes of a song perfectly. Completing a gig can also unlock one or more gigs with more difficult songs to complete. Additional awards, such as customization items, are also awarded for completing gigs. The player's accumulated earnings across any of the single player Career Modes are tracked and used to rank the player's overall performance level.

Band Career mode is similar to the solo Career mode, with the game songs presented as several gigs to be completed. A band must have at least two players to proceed, but the second player may be either a local player or one over the network. Players may be at different levels of progression in the game, but will still gain benefits for successfully completing songs when playing together. After completing each gig, a magazine will appear on screen with the band featured on the cover.

The in-game interface features vocals along the top of the screen, and three tracks underneath, for bass, drums, and guitar; only tracks for active players will be shown. Full four-player bands can compete with other bands online in a Battle of the Bands mode.

Both single players and bands can play a setlist of up to six songs in Quickplay mode, still earning in-game money rewards for their performances. Existing competitive modes from the series, including the Battle Mode from Guitar Hero III , are also present in the game.

The Wii version of the game features a special " Mii Freestyle " mode that allows players to use their Miis as their characters as they improvise songs via the guitar and drum controllers or using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk.

Characters and Customization

Render of a band composed of in-game characters: Judy Nails on vocals, Eddie Knox on guitar, Lars Umlaut on bass and Johnny Napalm on drums.

Players are able to use the Create-a-Rocker mode which is based on the Create-a-Skater mode in Neversoft's Tony Hawk series and the advanced character creation scheme from the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series. Players can change their character's pose, clothing, tattoos, makeup, and age. Selected characters from previous Guitar Hero games are available as templates for creating a rocker. Previous games featured Gibson Guitars, but as a result of a lawsuit with Gibson Guitars, branded guitars are not featured; instead, the player can create a customized guitar from various components, such as bodies, fretboards, and headstocks. The player's in-game drum set and microphone can also be similarly customized. Activision had formed partnerships with several instrument equipment manufactures to featured in the game, including Ampeg, Audio-Technica, EMG Pickups, Ernie Ball, Evans Drumheads, Guitar Center, Krank Amplification, Mackie, Marshall, Orange County Drum & Percussion, Pork Pie Percussion, Regal Tip, Sabian, Vox, and Zildjian.

In addition to the computer- and player-controlled characters, avatars of notable musicians are featured in the game, either with motion capture or the licensing of their image for their character. Such artists include Hayley Williams , Jimi Hendrix , Ozzy Osbourne , Zakk Wylde , Billy Corgan , Sting , Ted Nugent , and Travis Barker .

New venues in the game include virtual recreations of real arenas, such as Ozzfest , Amoeba Music , Live Nation’s House of Blues , Sunset Strip and San Francisco’s AT&T Park . One venue showcases the trademark art style of Tool and was developed in collaboration with the band. World Tour is the first Activision game on the PlayStation 3 to support dynamic in-game advertising provided by IGA Worldwide; similar advertising for the Xbox 360 version is provided by Massive Incorporated.

Instruments

Guitar Hero World Tour Wireless Guitar Controller

RedOctane developed a new guitar controller for World Tour . The unit is approximately 25% (1/4) larger than previous controllers, making it closer to the size of a real guitar. The new controller includes a longer whammy bar and places the Star Power button directly below the strum bar, improving the access of these features. The strum bar itself was made quieter and longer. The neck of the guitar is detachable, similar to the Gibson Les Paul controller for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock , but the connector has been hardened to avoid connection issues experienced with the previous unit.

The neck of the guitar features a touch-sensitive pad just below the normal five fret buttons. The player can use either the fret buttons or the touch pad to play regular notes. The pad also allows the player to play notes via tapping or via " tap strumming " similar to the slap bass method for bass guitar, and to alter the pitch of sustained notes. Guitar tracks feature notes connected by a semi-transparent purple line, (except for the Wii version, in which semi-transparent gems replace this purple line) called " Slider Gems "; the player can play these notes by sliding their fingers up and down the touch pad or by tapping the fret buttons without strumming. The touchpad can also be used for sustained and staccato notes in the music studio feature while recording guitar, and is used for finer control over loops when recording other instruments.

Guitar Hero World Tour Wireless Drum Controller . It includes 3 drum pads, 2 cymbal pads, and a bass drum pedal.

Guitar Hero World Tour features a wireless six-piece drum kit, with a bass drum pedal and five velocity-sensitive drum pads for snare (red), two toms (green and blue), and two cymbals (yellow and orange), which Activision has stated provide the " most realistic drum experience ever in a video game ". The drum kit was designed with help from John Devacka, the developer of MTV Drumscape, and developed key patents used for most modern music games that are now owned by Activision. Special note gems on the drum track are " armored ", requiring the player to strike harder on the appropriate drum head in order to break the armor and score points. During song creation, the velocity sensitivity feature of the drum pad allows players to alter the sounds made by the drums. The drum set also has a MIDI input port in the back, allowing users to connect a compatible MIDI drum kit to play in the game. The Wii version of the drum controller includes a slot for the Wii Remote to fit into, enabling it to become wireless, much like the guitar controller introduced for the Wii version of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock .

The official microphone used for vocals uses a USB connection. When playing vocals, a gamepad or Wii Remote is necessary in order to navigate menus, select difficulties, and pause.

Logitech and Activision announced that the former company will produce " premium " instruments to be released later in 2008.

Instrument compatibility

World Tour will work with older Guitar Hero guitar controllers. Activision stated during their E3 2008 press conference that Xbox 360 users will be able to use the existing Rock Band instrument controllers as well as other third party controllers in Guitar Hero World Tour; Rock Band instruments for the PlayStation 3 are not guaranteed to work in World Tour, though Sony is attempting to help make these units compatible. All Rock Band original Harmonix instruments for PlayStation 2 will work with World Tour. According to issue 027 of the UK's Official Playstation Magazine, all Guitar Hero and Rock Band PS3 controllers are cross-compatible with all games (except for Guitar Hero: World Tour drums on Rock Band, however some require patching, which is done automatically when connected to the internet).

Console makers have helped to ensure instrument compatibility between current and upcoming guitar and band games. Both Sony and Microsoft have announced that instruments for World Tour , Rock Band 2 , and Konami's Rock Revolution will work between all three games on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The Wii version of the game only supports guitar controllers from previous Guitar Hero games, and " no compatibility with any other peripherals ". The Rock Band 2 Drums however, are compatible with Guitar Hero World Tour .

World Tour adjusts the tracks in the game to account for the instrument controller being used. For example, sections of the lead guitar track that are designed to be played on the new World Tour controller's touchpad can be played by tapping the frets on older controllers without strumming. When using Rock Band 's drum controller, which has one fewer percussion pad than the World Tour unit and lacks velocity sensitivity, two of the lanes on the " World Tour " drum board merge, reducing the note track to four drum pads and bass pedal, and no armored notes are presented.

All of the 86 songs in the game are master recordings, a first for the series. Project director Brian Bright claims that they have " a pretty even split between the '80s, '90s, and classic rock " with a " good amount of emerging bands ".

Custom songs

Guitar Hero World Tour allows players to create their own songs through Music Studio and share them with others through the Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection internet capabilities. The Studio is similar to Apple's GarageBand software. The player can create the tracks for each song by playing it in real or slowed time, with the game quantizing offbeat notes to the nearest beat as set by the player, or tracks can be constructed one note at a time. The notes played by the user will be the default Expert difficulty track, and the lower difficulty versions will be generated by the game.

Players can create the tracks for lead, rhythm, and bass guitars and for drums, selecting from a number of different sounds and kits for each instrument. Distortion and other effects can be added to these tracks through Line 6 amplifiers in the " GHMix " mode. Players cannot record vocals directly, but can create a hum-along vocal line in the Studio. PlayStation 3 users with MIDI-compatible computers will also be able to connect their computer to the console and use it for song composition; a similar feature is sought for Xbox 360 owners. Eurogamer reported that a crew at Activision was able to successfully create a " perfectly respectable cover " version of the first verse of " Smells Like Teen Spirit " by Nirvana.

• Phi Psi Kappa (USA)
• Wilted Orchid (Sweden)
• Bone Church (Poland)
• Pang Tang Bay (Hong Kong)
• Amoeba Records (Los Angeles)
• Swamp Shack (Louisiana)
• Rock Brigade (The Pacific)
• Strutter's Farm (Kentucky)
• House of Blues (Los Angeles)
• Ted's Tiki Hut (Tahiti)
• Will Heilm's Keep (England)
• Recording Studio (Canada)
• AT&T Park (San Francisco)
• Tesla's Coil (Australia)
• Ozzfest (Germany)
• Times Square (New York City)
• Sunna's Chariot (Asgard)
• ↑ Elliot, Phil (2007-12-03). " Activision Blizzard fact sheet reveals some unannounced titles in the pipeline ". Game Industry Biz . http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=31168 .  
• ↑ Minkley, Johnny (2008-05-21). " Guitar Hero World Tour revealed " . http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=141762 .  
• ↑ Sinclair, Brendan (2007-01-17). " Activision calls dibs on Guitar Villain, Drum Villain " . http://www.gamespot.com/news/6164293.html .  
• ↑ Boyer, Brandon (2007-08-01). " Janco: Guitar Hero To Add New Instruments In 2008 " . http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14930 .  
• ↑ 5.0 5.1 Template:Cite magazine
• ↑ Hatfield, Daemon (2008-04-21). " Guitar Hero IV Branching Out " . http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/868/868193p1.html .  
• ↑ Faylor, Chris (2008-05-12). " Guitar Hero 4 Includes Song Creation and Sharing, Multiple Instruments, Van Halen, Linkin Park ". Shacknews . http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/52650 .  
• ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 " Neversoft's Alan Flores Interview ". Team Xbox. 2008-09-17 . http://interviews.teamxbox.com/xbox/2304/Neversofts-Alan-Flores-Interview/p1/ .  
• ↑ 9.00 9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 9.06 9.07 9.08 9.09 9.10 Chick, Tom (2008-09-25). " Guitar Hero World Tour Developer Interview " . http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?pager.offset=0&cId=3170171&p= .  
• ↑ Template:Cite magazine
• ↑ Pigna, Kris (2008-05-21). " New Details on Guitar Hero World Tour " . http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3167919 .  
• ↑ Minkley, Johnny (2008-05-21). " Neversoft talks World Tour " . http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=141770 .  
• ↑ Dredge, Stuart (2008-09-10). " Guitar Hero World Tour coming to mobile phones ". Pocket Gamer . http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Mobile/Guitar+Hero:+World+Tour/news.asp?c=8837 .  
• ↑ Linde, Aaron (2008-07-31). " Guitar Hero World Tour PC Edition Listed by ESRB; Logitech to Offer 'Premium' Instrument Controllers ". Shacknews . http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53952 .  
• ↑ " ESL World: Intel Gaming Hall " . http://www.esl-world.net/masters/season3/hannover/intel_gaming_hall/ .  
• ↑ Crecente, Brian (2008-09-18). " Finger-Lickin' Guitar Hero ". Kotaku . https://kotaku.com/finger-lickin-guitar-hero-5051716 .  
• ↑ McWhertor, Michael (2008-10-28). " Guitar Hero: World Tour KFC Fully Loaded Box Meal Unboxing, Impressions ". Kotaku . https://kotaku.com/finger-lickin-guitar-hero-5051716 .  
• ↑ Faylor, Chris (2008-10-07). " Guitar Hero World Tour Gets $240 Deluxe Edition, Regular Band Bundle Priced at $190 ". Shacknews . http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/55142 .  
• ↑ Reed, Kristen (2008-09-19). " Free bass for anyone pre-ordering Guitar Hero: World Tour 'super bundle' " . http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=241639 .  
• ↑ " Activision Publishing Unveils Star-Studded Television Ads Promoting The Highly Anticipated Guitar Hero(R) World Tour Launch ". Activision. 2008-10-24 . http://sev.prnewswire.com/entertainment/20081024/LAF02424102008-1.html .  
• ↑ Template:Cite AV media Template:Cbignore
• ↑ " First Peek At New Lingerie Model In New Guitar Hero Commercial ". 5 March 2009 . https://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/03/first_peek_at_new_lingerie_model_in_new_guitar_hero_commercial-2/ .  
• ↑ Tolito, Stephan (2008-11-20). " Activision Coughs Up Real Story Behind Amazing 'Bike Hero' Clip ". MTV . http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/11/20/real-story-behind-bike-hero/ .  
• 1 Controllers and controller compatibility
• 2 Guitar Hero (series)
• 3 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

• Guitar Hero: World Tour Achievements
• Guitar Hero: World Tour News
• Walkthrough *

4. Guitar Hero: World Tour Band Career

This will be your last playthrough and it won't be such a grind as it was with the " Jack of All Trades "-achievement. On this page we'll cover the band career played offline (means you do it locally), but it can be done online as well. There are a few solutions for to obtain this one offline: let a friend come over and finish all the gigs you don't need to pay for or... place a mic in front of the fan you have used (or find one if you didn't), set the difficulty to beginner & guitar (or drums) on whichever difficulty that suits you best. After completing all gigs, you'll gain an additional achievement.

You completed a band career

There are some score related achievements, but we'll cover those on the next page since it will be easier to find people online then local. Flip the page to find out!

" Bling, Bling "-progress: by the time you finished all 5 playthroughs, you'll have about $120,000 which means you'll have to grind $880,000. This achievement has a huge description on the next page.

Guitar Hero World Tour

It's a rock revolution, people

We’re going to party like it’s 1984. With Guitar Hero World Tour, the latest all-singing, all finger-tapping edition of the Guitar Hero franchise aims to deliver the party vibe. This year’s game is about the social experience of joining together to rock… so let’s jump! Why the Van Halen references? Because they’re just one of the new bands confirmed as exclusive to Guitar Hero World Tour; others include The Eagles, Linkin Park and Irish Eighties post-punks The Answer. There’s also a strong, and so far un-denied, rumour that Metallica will be headlining Activision ’s winter gig.

Above: All images are from the PS3 version

But while you dig out the spandex and hair spray and prepare to get your party frock on, there’s more to Guitar Hero World Tour than a new bunch of tracks (although that new bunch of tracks is going to be in the hundreds). As with Rock Band, World Tour will feature drums and a microphone along with a new guitar being developed by the original fret peripheral manufacturer’s RedOctane. Unlike Rock Band, you will be able to use your old guitars as well as any microphone and the game will be sold separately without the gadgets for those old sods who just want to rock old-school, legs akimbo, hair in the air and Sir Edward Van Halen blaring from the TV.

If you want to get the most from World Tour you will need to spend the cash (less than Rock Band, we’re told) on the full drums-and-all package. There will be a Band Career mode as well as a Bass Career mode to entice teams of players to group together and play through the game, performing online to boost stats and become the world’s best band. It’s worth noting too that the drums are an improvement on Rock Band’s coconut-clapping toy kit. These drums have been created from the remnants of a real digital drum kit. It was taken apart and rebuilt to work with World Tour and comes with two cymbal pads while every main drum pad is covered in thick rubber to dampen noise. The kit even features unique drum sounds when hit – the harder you pound, the louder it becomes.

We were dragged into a room recently and shown the package in action, with staff from NeverSoft performing secret songs from the game. The drum kit in particular looked more fun and realistic than Rock Band’s. Every note in the song needs to be played to score, just like in real life. This neatly ties into the introduction of hip-hop and dance music to the previously thoroughbred rock-only playlist. Bedroom rappers and armchair guitar heroes unite! The big arrival that glues all this together though is the new Music Studio mode. Here you’ll be able to either record over songs on the game, developing the lines of coloured notes into intricate patterns to challenge friends too, or even create your own tracks from scratch.

The guy behind the Music Studio, Travis Chan – a one time hacker now hired by NeverSoft – demoed the tools to us and we were pretty gob-smacked. Firstly, the Music Studio uses the guitar peripheral to navigate the various menus, illustrating that it’s pretty simple. He then went on to record a raggety version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in under five minutes, riffs, drums, bass and all. Various menus enabled Travis to select timing, guitar sound (acoustic, thrash, etc.) and even set markers to drop in guitar solos later or tell the game when to activate special effects (as well as the track you can use to create gig events).

Finally, we were demoed a complete track, a version of “Iron Man”, all recorded in a couple of hours and perfectly recognisable as the Sabbath classic. It will take time to master the delicate intricacies of the Music Studio, but budding Mick Ronsons will pick-up the basics in hours. The scope for Music Studio is what’s so exciting about Guitar Hero World Tour. Every track made in the game will be uploaded to the GHTunes website, iTunes for GH players, where anyone with the game can download them, rate them and send feedback. It sounds too good to be true. Luckily for us, it’s both. Activision will be monitoring the site and highlighting the best songs as they are uploaded – creating an up-to-date download chart, showcasing all the songs from one outstanding gamer or flagging up must-have star tunes. It’s one party we all need an invite to.

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Imagine FX and Creative Bloq editor Ian Dean is an expert on all things digital arts. Formerly the editor of Official PlayStation Magazine, PLAY Magazine, 3D World, XMB, X360, and PlayStation World, he’s no stranger to gaming, either. He’ll happily debate you for hours over the virtues of Days Gone, then settle the argument on the pitch over a game of PES (pausing frequently while he cooks a roast dinner in the background). Just don’t call it eFootball, or it might bring tears to his eyes for the ISS glory days on PS1. 

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Guitar Hero World Tour

Game description.

Guitar Hero World Tour (initially referred to as Guitar Hero IV or Guitar Hero IV: World Tour) is a music rhythm game developed by Neversoft, published by Activision and distributed by RedOctane. It is the fourth main entry in the Guitar Hero series, the sixth on home consoles and the seventh overall. The game was launched in North America in October 2008 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 consoles, and a month later for Europe and Australia. A version of World Tour for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh was later released.

Download Guitar Hero World Tour

We might have the game available for more than one platform. Guitar Hero World Tour is currently available on these platforms:

Windows (2009)

Guitar_Hero_World_Tour_Win_ISO_EN.zip (5.08GB)

How to play on Windows

• Download and Extract Guitar_Hero_World_Tour_Win_ISO_EN.zip.zip
• Mount World Tour PC.iso and run game setup
• Install the game

Additional files, patches and fixes

Guitar hero world tour screenshots.

Similar games

Leave a comment.

I cant even download the torrent? when i click it nothing happens?

You can try downloading x360ce and converting the guitar inputs into an xbox 360 controller inputs. Or you simply need to downloading the guitar driver, like with steering whells

hi, ty for you work! i installed the game and solved the problem with the path but the game doesn’t recognize my guitar and still asking for it. how can i fix this?

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

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“Once in a while, we would start playing a Beatles song, and John would go, ‘Cut that out!’” Session guitar legend Earl Slick on fast times with John Lennon and David Bowie – and saying no to Whitesnake

The venerable session ace has lived a life less ordinary and has the discography to show for it. Earl Slick tells us what it was like to share the stage and studio with music legends

Throughout the ’70s and into the ’80s, Earl Slick was living most rock ’n’ roll guitarists’ dreams. He’d logged several worldwide tours with David Bowie and played a vital musical role on albums such as Young Americans and Station to Station . 

As if working with one British rock legend weren’t enough, in 1980 Slick was chosen by John Lennon to play guitar on the former Beatle’s first album in five years, Double Fantasy .

“That’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Slick says. “I was really, really busy back then. There are days now when I astonish myself going, ‘Christ, did I really do all that?’ I’ll go on Wikipedia and be like, ‘Oh, there’s this and that.’ Or somebody will call and say, ‘I was just on Spotify and you’re on this record.’ I’ll say, ‘Now that you mention it, I am. I forgot about that one.’”

By the mid-’80s, however, the high-profile gigs weren’t coming like they used to. Slick attempted a career reboot with ex-Stray Cats members Slim Jim Phantom and Lee Rocker in Phantom, Rocker & Slick, but their union lasted for only two albums. 

After kicking a debilitating drug and alcohol dependency, he joined the L.A..-based glam-metal band Dirty White Boy, who went belly-up after one album. A short stint with another L.A. outfit, Little Caesar, yielded similar results. Finally, in 1992, fed up with beating his head against the wall, Slick decided to chuck it all and headed to Lake Tahoe. For the next four years, he pursued a “normal job” selling timeshares.

“Only problem was, I sucked at it,” he says with a laugh. “I was no good at it at all. It was a strange time – I was adjusting to being sober, and I was filled with anxiety and discouragement from being jerked around by record companies. I just thought, ‘I need a drastic change.’ So I went somewhere I could be anonymous and get away from it all.”

In an unlikely turn, Slick was tempted to ditch retirement by a Tahoe neighbor, Whitesnake singer David Coverdale, who floated an offer for the guitarist to join the veteran hard rock band. 

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“I gave it some serious thought, but I finally had to say no,” Slick says, “I realized I would have been faking my way through it, and it would have backfired on both of us.” More to the guitarist’s liking was a six-month writing collaboration with Coverdale that resulted in the singer’s third solo record, 2000’s Into the Light .

After recording the album, Slick still wasn’t convinced that he was ready to return to music full time. That all changed in 1999, when he received a vague and bewildering email indicating that somebody was looking for him. Some amateur sleuthing revealed that the somebody was none other than David Bowie. “I contacted David, and before you knew it I was back in,” Slick says.

Over the next 14 years, Slick played with Bowie on Heathen (2002), Reality (2003) and The Next Day (2013) and toured with the singer until 2004 (after suffering a mild heart attack on stage in Prague, Czech Republic, during the Reality Tour, Bowie was forced to cancel his remaining dates and never resumed full-time performing). 

Meanwhile, the guitarist released solid solo albums (2002’s Slick Trax , 2003’s Zig Zag and 2021’s Fist Full of Devils ), toured with the New York Dolls and the Yardbirds, as well as a band called Slinky Vagabond (which included the Sex Pistols’ Glen Matlock and Blondie’s Clem Burke).

Recently, Slick was reunited with various Bowie alumni (among them pianist Mike Garson, guitarist Mark Plati, bassists Gail Ann Dorsey and Tim Lefebvre) on a new band project, KillerStar , spearheaded by singer Rob Fleming and drummer James Sedge. The group recorded an album’s worth of material remotely, and there are plans to perform live.

Thus far, only two tracks have been released – the faintly Bowie-esque Should’ve Known Better blends classic rock and art rock, while Falling Through bears traces of prime Pink Floyd – but Slick isn’t sure which is which.

“I don’t know titles, really,” he says. “I don’t even know half of the Bowie titles I’m on except the hits. But I had fun doing the KillerStar stuff. It seemed like a good opportunity, and it turned out well. Technology is amazing; I can do all this recording without leaving home.”

I’m going to jump around a bit, but I wanted to start by asking you about Mark Plati. You two worked on some of David Bowie’s early 2000s records, and he produced your album Zig Zag . How do you two bond guitar-wise?

“We get on great. He’s a terrific guitar partner, but then he does everything. He’s a motherfucker of a rhythm player. He doesn’t just get the parts down – he gets the feel. Whenever we played together as a guitar team, if he was playing rhythm, I didn’t have to think about anything. It was great.”

Mike Garson is also on the KillerStar album with you. What do you remember about playing with Mike on Young Americans ?

“My recollections are vague. Out of all the stuff I did with David, I have a memory block about Young Americans , which doesn’t make sense because we were far more fucked up when we did Station to Station . On that record, we went in and we stayed there until we finished everything. With Young Americans , we did maybe a week of sessions and then we were back on the road. It wasn’t one continuous job, per se.”

Tony was there and he kept things organized, but the creative ideas, when it came to me, that was David. It was the same way with Harry Maslin and Station to Station

Even with your vague memories of Young Americans , can you speak to the differences in working with producer Tony Visconti on that record versus Bowie’s later albums?

“I might as well just stick my foot in my mouth. One thing about artists like David Bowie – there’s a producer there, but when we worked on parts and stuff, all of that was David. Tony was there and he kept things organized, but the creative ideas, when it came to me, that was David. It was the same way with [producer] Harry Maslin and Station to Station ; it came down to David. Most of it was the two of us working my shit out. Like on The Next Day , my favorite track is Valentine’s Day .”

Beautiful song.

“David played that for me in the control room on an acoustic the day we were going to cut it. As soon as I heard it, I said to him, ‘The Kinks’, and he went, ‘Great.’ If you notice, the rhythm guitars on that song are very Waterloo Sunset .”

That song has a memorable riff and a striking solo. 

“Yeah, well, after I said ‘Kinks,’ I started to noodle around on some rhythmic things, and David said, ‘We need an opening riff and some other riffs.’ He would play a couple of notes, and I’d get an idea and develop it. Then I’d wait to see the smile on his face, and I’d think, ‘OK, now we got it.’ It never really took a lot of time.”

You mentioned Station to Station ; that title track is so revolutionary, and your end solo is way out-there in terms of experimentation. Do you ever listen to it and go, “What the hell were we doing?”

“[Laughs] I mean, on the occasion when I hear something on the radio or I might play a few tracks, part of me is going, ‘Christ Almighty, we really did pull off some cool stuff together, and it was timely.’ In hindsight, it doesn’t sound that outside the box, but at the time we did it, I guess it was.”

Do you remember which guitars you used on it?

“On Station , I used a Strat on some of the rhythm parts; actually, on the first half, where it’s a little dirge-y. Then when it goes uptempo, I’m using my black Les Paul on the rhythm and also on that solo.”

What about on Stay ? That’s another gem on Station to Station .

“The rhythm is the Les Paul, and the solo is the Strat.“

Both of those songs are so freeform; they feel like one-take keepers.

“ Stay was pretty much a one taker. On Station , we sat down with a couple of guitars, and we wanted it to have a little bit more structure to it, a little bit more of a melodic thing, which Stay wasn’t – that was just going to be a bluesy kind of free-form solo. But on Station , we wanted something different, so we were just sitting there with a few guitars and coming up with different licks for each little bit.”

Back to Young Americans for a second, was that your first contact with John Lennon?

“It was, but I can’t remember it.”

Because you were high at the time?

“Well, yes, I was. This is so strange because John is my favorite Beatle.”

No memory at all of working with him on Fame ?

“No, I can’t remember… So fast-forward to 1980. I was uncharacteristically nervous before Double Fantasy started. I went in early on the first day. I thought if I could grab a cup of coffee and a smoke and just chill out… I got to the studio and nobody was there – except for John. I introduced myself, and his reaction was, ‘Why?’ Because to him, we already knew each other. And I said, ‘Well… I don’t remember.’ 

“The second I said it, I thought, ‘Oh, God, this could go really bad.’ You know – he called me to play on his record, and he is who he is, and I’m telling him that I can’t remember playing with him on a Number 1 record. But he thought it was hysterical. It became kind of a joke during the recordings.”

Do you recall which guitars you used on Double Fantasy ?

“I used my ’65 SG Junior a lot. I had a black early ’70s Les Paul Special. Those were the two main ones. There was a Strat on a few of those things, as well as my ’68 Gibson J-45.”

Did John have firm thoughts on guitar sounds or parts? Would he direct you at all?

“None of that came up at first. John didn’t lay out anything like, ‘OK, guys, maybe you should go for this sound or that sound.’ We would learn the songs – me, John and the other guitar player, Hugh McCracken – and as we went, John would say, ‘Slick, why don’t you go a little dirtier?’ Then he’d say to Huey, ‘Why don’t you try this?’ But that would happen as the tracks were being run down.”

Every day John would break into some ’50s or ’60s thing – Eddie Cochran or Buddy Holly. We’d all join in for a while, and then he’d say, ‘OK, back to work’

This was after a period when John sort of retired for five years. Was he a little rusty on the guitar, or did he have all his skills together?

“All of his guitar chops were there. His vocal chops were there. He was right on the money.”

As you and Hugh worked things out, did you do any jamming with John?

“Absolutely – and it was a gas. Every day John would break into some Fifties or Sixties thing – Eddie Cochran or Buddy Holly. We’d all join in for a while, and then he’d say, ‘OK, back to work.’ Once in a while, Hugh and I would start playing a Beatles song, and John would go, ‘Cut that shit out!’ It was really funny.”

Which Beatles songs would you play?

“There were a few things. One that would really get to him was She’s a Woman , which isn’t a Lennon song. It’s a McCartney song.”

In his last interviews, John said he planned to tour. Did he talk to you about being in the band?

“Oh yeah, it was all set. He started to talk about it during the last couple of weeks of recording, and in the final week he went to everybody individually and asked if we wanted to do it. The obvious answer was yes. [Laughs] At the time, I had just signed to Columbia, and I was supposed to start a record in February of ’81. 

“At that point, John had a plan to do Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey at the same time, but then the plan changed to put out Double Fantasy first, and then we’d finish Milk and Honey and go out on tour.

“I explained my situation to John, that I had a record deal and all that. He got in touch with my management, and they worked everything out with Columbia, who were actually thrilled I’d be going out with Lennon before my record. Sadly, none of that happened.”

Soon after, you were working with Yoko again on Season of Glass with Phil Spector producing.

“Yeah, for the first two weeks. Thank God she got rid of him. It was a nightmare. I mean, he was crazy.”

I’ll do my best deadpan: No, really?

“Yeah. [Laughs] It was the same band from Double Fantasy , but [producer] Jack Douglas wasn’t there. When Yoko said Phil was doing the record, I thought, ‘I’ve worked with a lot of the best producers, and it will be great to work with Phil Spector.’ Well, my tune changed within the first 24 hours of being in a studio with him. He was a fucking nut.”

Phil Spector had a bodyguard the size of the Empire State Building with him, and he was carrying one of those long barrel Clint Eastwood .44 Magnums in a shoulder holster

Did he bring guns to the studio?

“Oh yeah. He had a bodyguard the size of the Empire State Building with him, and he was carrying one of those long barrel Clint Eastwood .44 Magnums in a shoulder holster. I’m going, ‘Dude, this woman’s husband was just killed, and you’re walking around with a gun.’

“The sessions were torturous. I got in the elevator one day with Yoko, and I said, ‘What time is Phil coming in?’ She goes, ‘He’s not going to be here today.’ I asked when he was coming back, and she said, ‘He’s not.’ That was the entire conversation.”

Moving forward, after a while apart, you were pulled back into Bowie’s orbit. Was there a pattern in how and when he called you for various albums and tours?

“I had to learn how David’s mind works. Whatever hit him at a particular time, that’s what he did. I had to go with the flow. I remember I played with him in 2000 – we did Glastonbury and a gig at the BBC Theatre. There were some gigs in New York. 

“A while later, he was talking about touring on the Heathen record. So this is weird – I got a call from Mark Plati, and he said, ‘Before you hear this from somebody else, it looks like David’s got another guitar player, so you won’t be going on the tour.’ I just went, ‘Well, another day with David.’

“I was in New York for the week, so I emailed David and asked if he wanted to have coffee. We were supposed to meet, but then his assistant called and said he wasn’t feeling well, and then she asked me to lunch. I went to meet her, and then we went to Looking Glass Studios, where David was doing some vocals. He wasn’t well; he had a cold or the flu. I said hi and was there for a bit, and finally he said, ‘By the way, what are you doing in April?’ I just laughed and said, ‘Why, what’s going on?’ He said, ‘We’re going out.’ I said, ‘Great.’ That’s just the way it went.”

You’re on a couple of other songs on The Next Day – Dirty Boys and (You Will) Set the World on Fire . How did David arrive at which songs he wanted you to play on?

“On that album, unbeknownst to me, David had been in the studio on and off for a year. I was in touch with the guys playing on it, but nobody could say a word because they signed NDAs. So I’m in Montclair, New Jersey, doing a blues gig. I was with a surgeon friend and he had a Cobra car. He said, ‘Hey, let’s drive the Cobra to the gig.’ Sounded good to me… On the way there, the engine caught fire and the car blew up.”

“We’re in this high-end neighborhood, and there’s this car in the middle of the street engulfed in flames. The police and news people came down. Somebody spotted me, and it hit the internet. David saw this and he sent me an email – ‘Are you OK?’ I wrote him back and said I was fine. A couple hours later, I got another email – ‘So how have you been?’ ‘Good, how are you doing?’ 

“We started doing these weird emails throughout the day, and finally I said, 'Are you going somewhere with this?' He goes, 'I’m in the studio making a record, and you need to play on it.' When I got to the studio, I said to him, ‘Did I have to blow up a fucking car?’ [Laughs] You can’t make this shit up.”

Were you surprised when he didn’t call you for Blackstar ?

“No. The thing with Blackstar was, none of us knew he was ill. We knew he was ill when the announcement came that he was dead. I spoke to him on the phone the October before he died. I had to ask him some questions because I was doing that Station to Station tour in the U.K. and Japan with Bernard Fowler.

“We had a conversation, but he didn’t mention Blackstar . None of us from the band are on that record, and I can see why. It’s a different kettle of fish from what we would’ve done; it’s kind of an odd jazz thing going on. With David, people were always coming in and out.”

The thing with Blackstar was, none of us knew he was ill. We knew he was ill when the announcement came that he was dead

Another guitarist David worked with quite extensively was Reeves Gabrels. You two never played together with David, though, right?

“Not with David, but Reeves did work on my last solo record. We met around 2010 or so, and we discovered we had more than David in common. When I was just starting out, my bands would play in Staten Island, and Reeves would come to watch me. I had no idea about that until we met.”

You two have jammed together?

“Oh, yeah. A while ago, I was in England working with Glen Matlock, and Reeves was around. We had him come in and sit in with us. As weird as he can play, he can play anything. He’s fantastic.” 

You turned down joining Whitesnake because you knew it wouldn’t be a good fit, but have you ever accepted a gig and regretted it?

“There has been that. There have been times when things were slow, and something would come up and I’d do it. But I try to suss that out beforehand so I don’t wind up in something that doesn’t work.”

What kinds of guitars are you playing these days? I assume it’s a lot of your signature guitars …

“Slick Guitars – we’ve got a new batch coming soon. We had one last year [the SL56] with f-holes. It’s really lightweight. The pickups kick ass. They’re made by GFS, but they’re Slick brand pickups. The Tele -style pickups are like old-school Tele models. I play Nash guitars a lot, and I’ve been playing Teles again. 

“I’m back to Fender amps . For the last 10 years, I’ve been playing Teles. A few years ago I went out and used Supros. Then when I got home, I plugged into a Bassman and a Marshall Plexi, and I went, ‘A Telecaster with these amps – that’s the shit.’”

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Joe is a freelance journalist who has, over the past few decades, interviewed hundreds of guitarists for Guitar World , Guitar Player , MusicRadar and Classic Rock . He is also a former editor of Guitar World , contributing writer for Guitar Aficionado and VP of A&R for Island Records. He’s an enthusiastic guitarist, but he’s nowhere near the likes of the people he interviews. Surprisingly, his skills are more suited to the drums. If you need a drummer for your Beatles tribute band, look him up.

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Mdou Moctar’s Guitar Is a Screaming Siren Against Africa’s Colonial Legacy

“Funeral for Justice,” the musician from Niger’s album due next month, amps up the urgency in his work: “I want you to know how serious this is.”

By Ben Sisario

“Funeral for Justice,” the new album by the African musician Mdou Moctar , opens with a blast of angry, snarling guitar and an accusation raised like a fist against the rulers of his native Niger and beyond.

“African leaders, hear my burning question,” Moctar sings, as his band churns with a ragged intensity reminiscent of vintage White Stripes. “Why does your ear only heed France and America?”

Over about a decade of touring in the West, Moctar, 40, has carved out a niche as a modern African guitar hero and one of the very few voices in the pop world calling attention to the struggles of the Tuareg people, a historically nomadic ethnic group in the Sahara region. On the guitar, he is a spellbinding psychedelic soloist, with a style that draws as much from Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen as from traditional Tuareg wedding dances, and he has earned an awed respect from some of rock’s most famous axe-wielders.

“Us guitar players in the West, we all have the same base vocabulary, the same handful of stereotypical licks,” Kirk Hammett of Metallica said in an interview. “But Mdou’s music, it’s almost free of that stuff. And because of that, it sounds more spontaneous. It sounds fresh. It’s amazing.”

Moctar’s last album, “ Afrique Victime ,” was on many music critics’ year-end lists in 2021, with Jon Pareles of The New York Times saying it “expands the sonic possibilities of Tuareg rock.” But “Funeral for Justice,” due May 3, amps up the urgency in his work. It is a cri de coeur of screaming guitars and lyrics decrying the legacy of colonialism in Niger and throughout Africa, where Western powers retain a strong but not always welcome influence, and political and economic instability are endemic hazards.

In a wide-ranging recent interview at the Manhattan offices of his record label, the lanky, bearded Moctar — who often wears a turban and robes onstage but was dressed in a teal hoodie and matching socks — described the political and social crisis behind his latest songs. Among those are “Oh France,” a bitter broadside against Niger’s former ruling power, which maintained a military presence there until late last year ; and “Modern Slaves,” inspired by the desperate, sometimes deadly, paths of African migrants in the West.

“What we’re seeing today is just a modernized version of colonialism, something that’s been inherited by the descendants of colonizers,” said Moctar, who spoke in English and French, with the help of an interpreter. “Of course, today it’s being done with modern technologies and more subtle ways of manipulating people.”

“It seems that only our raw resources that are extracted from the ground are free,” he added. “But our currency, which was created by others for us, is not welcome. And neither are we. Is that freedom? Is that justice? Is that equality?”

The problems of Niger, a landlocked desert nation in West Africa, may be little known to most Americans, and Google Translate is no help when it comes to Tamasheq, the Tuareg language that Moctar sings in (along with some French). But it could be time for Moctar to get his message heard widely. “Funeral for Justice,” his seventh LP, is the second one released by Matador Records, an indie-rock powerhouse with a legacy of acts like Pavement, Yo La Tengo and Liz Phair. Last summer, Moctar and his band performed at Central Park SummerStage, and earlier this month they played at Coachella, alongside stars like Lana Del Rey and Tyler, the Creator.

“I want to be calling out crimes or injustice in the world, and I want you to feel like the sound you’re hearing is someone calling out, ‘Help!’” he said. “If you hear a siren going ‘wee-oo, wee-oo,’ that tells you that something terrible is happening, right? So I want you to know how serious this is.”

MOCTAR’S ORIGINS ARE about as far from the Coachella stage as you can get.

He grew up in Tchintabaraden, near Niger’s western border with Mali, with minimal knowledge of Western pop culture. He said he was aware of Michael Jackson, Bob Marley and Celine Dion but knew little about them, calling them all “white,” which he defined as meaning “not from my hometown.” (“But Michael Jackson,” Moctar added with a sly smile, “when I see him, he is not dark, right?”)

Moctar built his first guitar using brake wires from a bicycle, and by the late 2000s he was tinkering with the fundamentals of desert blues — the sound the Tuaregs are known for — blending guitars with electronic tools like Auto-Tune and drum machines. One such hybrid track, “ Tahoultine ,” became a regional underground hit when people traded it via cellphones. In 2010, the tune made its way to Christopher Kirkley, an American who had quit his tech job and was traveling in West Africa and blogging about its musical culture.

Back home in Portland, Ore., Kirkley was fascinated by “Tahoultine,” but the song’s author was a mystery, identified on the track only as “Mdou” (pronounced EM-doo). After a year of online sleuthing, Kirkley finally made contact with Moctar and traveled back to Niger to meet him and discuss working together. One of the first things Moctar said to him, Kirkley recalled, was, “How do I get to tour?”

Kirkley became Moctar’s promoter, making five albums with Moctar on his small label, Sahel Sounds, and helping organize his first tours in Europe. In 2015, Kirkley raised $18,000 on Kickstarter to direct Moctar in a Tuareg remake of Prince’s “Purple Rain,” casting Moctar as a motorcycle-riding guitar rebel struggling to make his mark. Its title was “ Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai ,” or “Rain the Color of Blue With a Little Red in It” — Tamasheq, Moctar told Kirkley, has no word for purple.

On tour in Europe and the United States, Moctar played dive bars, D.I.Y. punk spaces and sedate world-music venues. With his band, he began to develop a sound that could wow any audience: hypnotic grooves built on the harmonic foundations that West African music shares with the blues, lit up by Moctar’s pyrotechnic solos — a type of shredding that, to Western ears, can sound completely uninhibited, like an inspired poet crying in some unknown language.

“When I compose my solos,” Moctar said, “I’m not trying to look for them very hard. It’s more that they come to me.”

By 2019, when Moctar released “Ilana (The Creator),” his last record on Sahel Sounds, he was touring more widely in the West, and his music was beginning to circulate among rock’s cognoscenti. Last summer, when military leaders staged a coup in Niger, temporarily closing the nation’s borders, the band was on tour in the United States, and a crowdfunding campaign was begun to support the members until they could return. The biggest donation — $10,000 — came from Jack White.

Moctar signed with Matador in 2020. To some extent, the rock market has been primed for an artist like him. About a decade ago, American indie labels signed a raft of African artists , including Blk Jks and Sidi Touré. And other Tuareg acts have made inroads, including Tinariwen, a Malian collective, and Bombino , a fellow Nigerien guitarist whose 2013 album “Nomad” was produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys.

Gerard Cosloy, a co-owner of Matador, acknowledged that language barriers are a problem not easily overcome in the selling of a rock band, but he said the label was committed to helping Moctar reach as wide an audience as possible.

“We’re going to find people one at a time, five at a time, 10 at a time,” Cosloy said. “And if this doesn’t achieve critical mass on the level of the biggest acts in the world, well, that’ll be something else that Mdou has in common with Pavement and Yo La Tengo.”

SINCE 2017, MOCTAR’S bassist and primary musical collaborator has been Mikey Coltun, 31, who grew up amid the punk scene in Washington, D.C., and, as a teenager, made a life-changing trip to Africa with his guitarist father. Moctar — who at one point during our interview excused himself for Islamic prayers — praised Coltun’s musicianship and added: “The fact that Mikey doesn’t smoke or drink helps us on tour.”

“Funeral for Justice” was recorded over five days in 2022 in a rented house near the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. Moctar’s band had been developing the songs on the road, and Coltun, who produced the album, wanted to capture the same spontaneity and fire of their live show. He encouraged Moctar to ignore the clock and “just play,” and told Souleymane Ibrahim, the drummer, to bash away without restraint.

“In the moments where I’m maybe speeding up a bit, I can read in the other members’ faces that I’m doing good,” Ibrahim said. “And that’s the moment where I want to go even more crazy.” (The band also includes Ahmoudou Madassane on rhythm guitar.)

Coltun took digital files of the band’s long jams and edited them into tighter cuts of four to five minutes. The result is more focused and intense than any of the band’s previous work. “This is a record that we couldn’t have made until now,” Coltun says. “There’s a trust that we have between the four of us.”

In the lyrics, Moctar attacks weak African leaders (“Occupiers are carving up your lands,” he sings, “gallantly marching all over your resources”) and calls for pride among the Tuareg, a people divided by national borders who have fought Niger over land and access to resources like uranium. In calling out France, Moctar says that his musical ancestors may have written more oblique complaints, but he prefers to name names.

“I would rather say the truth directly, even if it endangers me,” Moctar said, adding that he received death threats after voicing support for Niger’s ousted president, Mohamed Bazoum. Moctar said he was not in favor of the coup, but was glad that the new leaders asked the French to leave. “That’s a good thing in and of itself.”

The cover art for Moctar’s last three albums, including “Funeral for Justice,” established a sleek, retro visual brand for the group, adapting a classic rock look with African iconography including a purple-black pied crow — common in Niger — and various iterations of the continent’s horned shape.

All were created by Robert Beatty, a musician and artist in Lexington, Ky., who said that when he was first approached, for “Ilana,” the band gave a very specific brief, including the crow and the Cross of Agadez . The band also cited airbrushed rock albums from the late 1970s and early ’80s by Judas Priest, ELO and Journey, with a dramatic, cartoonish aesthetic and repeated motifs and characters.

For “Funeral for Justice,” Beatty depicted bleeding crows falling over a coffin surrounded by a rising tide of blood. As he sent drafts of the image for approval, Beatty said, the band made a request: “More blood! More blood!”

Despite the mythos, Moctar is a typically practical working musician. Cosloy, of Matador, said that at their first meeting Moctar asked specific questions about getting vinyl records pressed. And behind the scenes, Moctar’s career has also involved a standard music-industry story of a rising star shedding business partners along the way.

After the band’s profile was raised by “Ilana,” Moctar took on new management and began to negotiate with Matador. Kirkley, who said he never had any contracts with Moctar for his work on Sahel Sounds, was left out of the loop. After the deal was done, Moctar took his earlier recordings with him, which are now being released online by Matador. Kirkley said he has not spoken to Moctar since. “In retrospect,” he said, “I was really naïve to think that I could be friends with musicians on the label.”

When asked why left Sahel Sounds, Moctar said: “Matador offered me a new market and I found it interesting. It’s not me who’s trying to leave Sahel, it’s my music that has taken on dimension. And if you grow up, you have to change the size.”

Moctar is more interested in talking about how his music can convey the struggles of Niger and, possibly, change them. The specifics of the political situation there may be obscure to many Americans, but the anticolonial sentiment at the heart of his music may well register.

He criticizes the United States for maintaining a drone base in his country, ostensibly to help combat terrorism, though, he says, the American forces have accomplished little in that regard. He points to an attack in March 2021 by “criminals on motorbikes” near his home in the Tahoua area, which he says left 270 dead. (The U.S. State Department has reported an incident at that time in which “ terrorists ” killed an estimated 177 civilians in three villages there.)

“As long as Americans see the situation as acceptable the way it is now,” he said, “things don’t change.”

He added: “I’m coming from very far in a country in which people today are being killed every day with all this suffering, and I come to the U.S. to make people smile and dance. And it is a big effort. So what I would like is for people to then also want to help improve the lives of where I come from.”

Ben Sisario covers the music industry. He has been writing for The Times since 1998. More about Ben Sisario

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