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  3. Total Guitar

10 odd-couple guitar duos

By Total Guitar
published 4 June 2014

From Pete and Carl to Angus and Malcolm

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Pete Doherty & Carl Barât
The Libertines
(Image credit: Corbis)

Pete Doherty & Carl Barât

From mic-sharing homoeroticism to bust-ups so violent they had to be restrained in the studio by bouncers, Pete and Carl were 2000s-indie’s most combustible bromance.

“If you put them in a room together, you got explosive music,” says former Libertines manager Alan McGee, “but there was always the chance someone was going to get hurt.”

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James Dean Bradfield & Richey Edwards
Manic Street Preachers

James Dean Bradfield & Richey Edwards

The early Manic Street Preachers line-up was chalk-and-cheese, with Bradfield cast as the technically impeccable lead man, and Edwards as the arm-slicing iconoclast with chops so rudimentary, the band often didn’t plug him in (when they did, festival soundmen would occasionally turn up the wrong guitarist, causing much cacophony and embarrassment).

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Page 2 of 10
Dan & Justin Hawkins
The Darkness
(Image credit: Corbis)

Dan & Justin Hawkins

Two brothers, two wildly different personas, as Justin prances across the Darkness stage in shrink-wrap spandex, while Dan locks down straight-faced rhythm in a sober black T-shirt.

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Page 3 of 10
Kirk Hammett & James Hetfield
Metallica
(Image credit: Corbis)

Kirk Hammett & James Hetfield

The phrase ‘fire and ice’ springs to mind. Hetfield is the teeth-baring grizzly whose pint you wouldn’t spill, while Hammett is the sort of kohl-eyed human pipecleaner you’d expect the frontman to have bog-flushed at school. Somehow, it works...

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Page 4 of 10
Billie Joe Armstrong & Norah Jones
This unlikely pair teamed up on Everly Brothers tribute album Foreverly

Billie Joe Armstrong & Norah Jones

Green Day’s punk prince and the fragrant coffee- table jazz chanteuse donned acoustics for a shared tribute to the Everly Brothers on Foreverly – but Billie Joe didn’t offer to gob into her mouth, as he used to with Mike Dirnt in the early years.

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Keith Richards & Mick Taylor
The Rolling Stones
(Image credit: Corbis)

Keith Richards & Mick Taylor

Taylor seemed an unlikely wingman for the cackling, perma-sozzled Keef of the early 70s. Yet when the pair locked guitars, the planets aligned. Frustratingly, it was over by 1974, and Richards recruited virtual doppelganger, Ronnie Wood.

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John 5 & Les Paul
This man shared the stage with a pensioner.
(Image credit: Corbis)

John 5 & Les Paul

Admittedly, it was for one night only in 2003 – but it’s hard to imagine the octogenarian’s thoughts when the ghoul-faced rocker climbed onstage with him in New York. “It was another of those situations,” said John 5, “where I turned up with makeup all over my face.”

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Tim Wheeler & Charlotte Hatherley
Ash
(Image credit: Corbis)

Tim Wheeler & Charlotte Hatherley

Ash became roughly 100 per cent more sophisticated when the saucer-eyed, SG-wielding guitarist joined in 1997. “I think a lot of people were a bit upset that I’d joined,” Hatherley told TG. “Loads of female fans were a bit like ‘What the fuck?’, especially as Ash were known as a young teenage boy band.”

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Phil Collen & Steve Clark
Def Leppard
(Image credit: Corbis)

Phil Collen & Steve Clark

Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott nailed the disparity when he described Colle as “a total, utter technician” and Clark as “the creative one”. Offstage, the so-called terror twins had more in common. “We once rode a tandem bicycle through the lobby of a hotel,” Collen told TG, “and we were sober...”

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Page 9 of 10
Angus & Malcolm Young
AC/DC
(Image credit: Corbis)

Angus & Malcolm Young

It’s hard to believe these men are in the same band, let alone from the same gene pool. There’s Malcolm: rooted to the spot, face etched with concentration. And there’s Angus: writhing, spasming, duckwalking and feigning electrocution. Sometimes, you suspect Young Snr is dying to give his kid brother a clip round the ear and tell him to stop showing off...

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