Guitarist magazine - powered by MusicRadar

Imelda May's second full album Mayhem was released on 4 October on Decca and we asked guitarist Darrel Higham to talk us through each track. The album is reviewed in the next issue of Guitaristwhich is on sale 27 October.

1. Pulling The Plug

A sultry opening number driven by Al Gare's slapping whale-fiddle, a cool acoustic and a suitably twanging electric melody line. The solo shows off some of Darrel Higham's best techniques.

Darrel Higham: "Probably my favourite track on the album, due to its bass intro and Bo Diddley-esque beat. Al Gare (bass) and Steve Rushton (drums) are quite brilliant on this.

"This needed lots of strong rhythm parts, hence the high level of acoustic (my Favilla, made in 1973) and one more electric rhythm guitar sort of echoing the acoustic. This solo was a one-take-wonder – I love a good banjo roll and feel that the world could always do with another... Peavey Rockinghams through a Peavey Delta Blues (with the one 15-inch speaker) are the main weapons of choice throughout the album, however further overdubs and guitar parts were replaced at Sphere Studios in Battersea, London, during the mixing phase with Andy Wright and Gavin Goldberg."

"I used whatever I could get my hands on during this period – my Gretsch guitars (a White Falcon and a US custom shop 6120) and an old Telecaster belonging to Andy. The album was recorded at a studio I co-own own in Hampshire called Embassy Studio."

^{Darrel Higham (c) Future/Mick Taylor}

2. Psycho

A sumptuous mix of contemporary swagger and fifties flavour, the chorus is catchier than a cold in a nursery. Darrel nods towards both Vic Flick and Duane Eddy during the Bigbsy-bending lead break.

"This track took awhile to gel. We'd been gigging it for ages and on early versions I played a six-string baritone guitar. However, it wasn't working for our ears and felt it needed more of a jangly hook to mesh it altogether. I just had to spend a bit more brain-time on it. The solo was tortuous as it's a rhythm that I find hard to play to so I just decided to keep it very simple and, hopefully, relatively tuneful.

Around the web: