10 odd-couple guitar duos
![Pete Doherty & Carl Barât](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/5670537f6ed2dec8138f2e48f7da476e-320-80.jpg)
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.”
![James Dean Bradfield & Richey Edwards](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/cecae7cad07dac2988af02bd272e0208-320-80.jpg)
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).
![Dan & Justin Hawkins](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7aa291f396c47b77eccfa4db0123eb43-320-80.jpg)
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.
![Kirk Hammett & James Hetfield](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/6df049c77d29374b5e399a9f756af12a-320-80.jpg)
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...
![Billie Joe Armstrong & Norah Jones](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/c816c0e3876b0b3533dede092008ba71-320-80.jpg)
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.
![Keith Richards & Mick Taylor](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/622b977e2a5d73566642af886539ba3f-320-80.jpg)
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.
![John 5 & Les Paul](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/d47a09d931c9fd953232b82eae79f9cc-320-80.jpg)
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.”
![Tim Wheeler & Charlotte Hatherley](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/d031912b99f800cf2cdb366a8c5cf4be-320-80.jpg)
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.”
![Phil Collen & Steve Clark](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/6ed2b8d748092168c1de320e0e8ef92e-320-80.jpg)
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...”
![Angus & Malcolm Young](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/225d2ea7fc3ac42d25261557fdcabfb5-320-80.jpg)
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...