John Knightsbridge - Guitar and Vocals (1981-1999)

A founder member of Ruthless Blues in 1979, John remained the musical driving force behind the band throughout the 80’s and 90’s. Although several personnel changes took place over the yearsJohn always ensured that the musical integrity of the band was maintained at the highest level.

Although not a household name, John is a stunning guitarist and one of the great "undiscovered" rock musicians of our time. By simply using the volume and tone controls of his guitar and technique he got sounds that other lesser players had to use a battery of special effects pedals to achieve.

John claimed that his early influences were Chet Atkins, Duane Eddy, The Shadows, and The Ventures, although even the most knowledgeable music fan would be very hard pressed to detect any trace of their influence in his later highly individualistic style.

Having turned professional at the age of eighteen, John left England and worked in Germany for five years playing the rock club circuit as well as entertaining American troops at the numerous U.S bases there. It was during his time in Germany that he first met John "Irish" Earle.

In the years between his return to England and the formation of Ruthless Blues, John appeared and recorded with many artistes including Mike Hugg, Illusion, Dana Gillespie, Telemacque (with Paul McCallum and "Irish"), The Roy Hill Band (with Tony Fernandez), and Third World War, the latter having the dubious distinction of having both of their albums banned by the BBC!

The high spot in John's career probably came in 1983 when he was invited to join the reformed Yardbirds as lead guitarist. As any self respecting R'n'B fan knows, this spot had previously been filled by none other than messers Clapton, Beck, and Page. A very tall order indeed for JK, but he fitted the bill more than adequately. A write-up on the Yardbirds reunion gig at the famous Marquee Club in London, written by Chris Welch in Kerrang magazine began, "A superstar guitarist joined the Yardbirds for their historic comeback at the Marquee. It wasn't Beck, Page or Clapton. Instead John Knightsbridge played with a power and distinction I wonder if the other ex Yardbirds could have matched - if they'd the bottle to show up!". That particular iteration of The Yardbirds went on to tour the U.K, Spain, Denmark, and Sweden before unfortunately coming to an untimely end just as everything was beginning to look very interesting for them.

In more recent years, in addition to working with Ruthless Blues, John appeared on albums by The Box Of Frogs (along with Jimmy Page, Rory Gallagher, Ian Dury, and Graham Parker), and also guested on the Rick Wakeman album "Time Machine".

John left Ruthless Blues in February 1999 to pursue other interests.