Bradley Rant

[Ian Price]

This guy is one of the freelance writers for them (Adrian Clark):

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8dyVpXv9aa4&feature=channel
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YbLGxTq90z0&feature=channel

Very good indeed. I once bought a sequencer from eBay and agreed to collect bit in person - it was this guy that I bought it from. I asked him what he did for a living and he said that he writes freelance for various music/guitar mags. Now looks very different from the profile photo in guitarist.

A nice guy and a great player.

[Simon D]

They are all privileged jobs really and they're lucky to have them. How they get them I don't know but its obviously not always on the ability to do well at what subjects they cover, it's who they know.

To be fair, some of the guys on the mags are very good at what they do - Dave Burrluck and Neville Martin spring to mind. Bradley isn't a bad writer, but like people have said, his demo work lacks variety and giving the gear the chance to shine.

As for the jobs being privileged, I agree they get their paws on some very nice gear and other perks, but the downside is the pay is rubbish. I'm a journalist myself, and know several people who have worked for Future Publishing, and I'm told that the purse strings at that place pretty much have a padlock on them!

I know Guitarist have some fantastic players on board. I think what were are all saying is lets have them doing some demos.
I realise mags pay terrible wages nowadays. The publishers exploit the love people have for the subjects they cover.

I'd like nothing more than to hear some of the other players do some demos. Variety is the spice and all! As for the publishers exploiting people's love or a subject, you'll hear no argument from me on that one. In fact, they do it on both sides of the fence. They exploit the love of the journos working for the publication, and they exploit the love of the readers for the subject too, whatever it may be. It's no accident that magazine/reader relationship is sometimes likened to an addiction!

+1 on the Guitar World demo stuff too - it's almost always playing that's appropriate to the gear.

[38thBeatle]

The thing is Bradders is not a poor player-he just does himself no favours. I went back over a few demos he has done and in some cases the playing is fine-it is just the fact that he is supposed to be showing us how the instruments sound and falls short. Maybe he has a perception of what he thinks everyone wants to hear- bless him.

[Ted 'N' Leo]

I don't usually mind him that much, but this months review of the Puretone (which after reading the review i was quite interested in hearing), it was just his usual stuff, power chords etc. He didn't really do the amp justice.

I also wanted to know what the Fender Road Worn was like, and the video was very unhelpful.

[tomjackson]

2 years on.  This month he's just done a video demo the Tubemeister 18, Melody Maker Les Paul and a Knaggs Chesapeke guitar.  The worst reveiws I've ever seen.

Still not learned to play anything good and makes everything sound sh!t. 

What a waste of a nice CD rom......

[Ian Price]

I stopped buying Guitarist a while ago and switched to Guitar Buyer. I'm amazed that Bradley hasn't been moved on to something new yet - Mick Taylor should be doing the video reviews really. A much much better player.

[Lezard]

For review demos I much prefer the Guitar World ones, although I don't really like the mag  :roll:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez5QSNW4Iyg&feature=related

I've never been able to find the mag....I've heard tell that it is sandwiched between all the ads but I've seen no evidence of it...

[tomjackson]

I stopped buying Guitarist a while ago and switched to Guitar Buyer. I'm amazed that Bradley hasn't been moved on to something new yet - Mick Taylor should be doing the video reviews really. A much much better player.

Definitely, he can play he can.

[Matt77]

I forgot about this rant.
I try not to type bad stuff so much these days.
I've stopped buying the mags completely since then.
Not because of Mr Bradley, just the endless marketing involved in them.
Bill Hicks got it right about marketing

[Twinfan]

Bradley is the media manager or something, so he "runs" the CD.  Hence he plays on it all the time.

I think his forte is metal-ish stuff, certainly truckloads of gain etc.  The trouble is, he's more often that not demoing stuff that would benefit from a multi-skilled demoer, or specialists in jazz/blues/indie etc.

Mick Taylor is very good - love his demos  :)