Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry (born October 18, 1926) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter and is one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive, with lyrics focusing on teen life and consumerism and music featuring guitar solos and showmanship that were a major influence on subsequent rock music.
A pioneer of rock and roll, Berry was a significant influence on the development of both the music and the attitude associated with the rock music lifestyle. He refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive, with lyrics successfully aimed to appeal to the early teenage market by using graphic and humorous descriptions of teen dances, fast cars, high school life, and consumer culture, and utilizing guitar solos and showmanship that would be a major influence on subsequent rock music.
His records are a rich storehouse of the essential lyrical, showmanship and musical components of rock and roll. In addition to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, a large number of significant popular-music performers have recorded Berry's songs. Though not technically accomplished, his guitar style is distinctive—he incorporated electronic effects to mimic the sound of bottleneck blues guitarists and drew on the influence of guitar players such as Carl Hogan, and T-Bone Walker to produce a clear and exciting sound that many later guitarists would acknowledge as an influence in their own style.
Berry's showmanship has been influential on other rock guitarists, particularly his one-legged hop routine, and the "duck walk", which he first used as a child when he walked "stooping with full-bended knees, but with my back and head vertical" under a table to retrieve a ball and his family found it entertaining; he used it when "performing in New York for the first time and some journalist branded it the duck walk."
The Pyramid Stage and Glastonbury Tor captured beautifully by Jill Furmanovsky at the 2000 Glastonbury Festival
Jimmy Page playing his legendary bowed guitar solo during 'Dazed & Confused' whilst onstage with Led Zeppelin in Belfast in March 1971
Iconic photo of John Lennon with a flower in his eye, fondly known as 'Adoration'.
The Cure on the road in Holland and Belgium during their 1980 'Seventeen Seconds' tour.
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band who were in the vanguard of the British music Invasion that became popular in the US in 1964–65.
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band formed in 1975. Without them popular culture in the last 30+ years would be very different.
Oasis were an English rock music band formed in Manchester in 1991, to date the band have sold over 70 million records worldwide.
Tom Waits is an American singer-songwriter known for his musical tales of bohemians, drifters, misfits & his blend of blues, folk & jazz.
Here are the very latest prints we have added to our collection. We hope you love them as much as we do.
Our contact sheet collection is a rare opportunity to look back at the hidden moments surrounding some of rocks most iconic images.
Jill Furmanovsky is one of the greatest ever rock & roll photographers with a huge archive of iconic shots of the world's best music artists
Album covers can define a band almost as much as the music itself. Now you can put this great art on your wall as well as your turntable
