Simon Lees

Life and career

Lees was born in Wolverhampton, England. He formed the Wombourne based rock band, Osprey, in 1986. They recorded "Scene of the Action", a six-song demo at Far Heath Studios in January 1989. It was engineered and produced by Angus Wallace. Lees left the band in August that year. In 1988, he began giving private guitar lessons. In April 1990 he formed Nitebreed, who supported The Mock Turtles at Wolverhampton’s Wulfrun Hall in May that year, although the band soon broke up. He then undertook session work with The Red House Snakes in August 1990, and recorded a four-song demo in Stourbridge, which was produced by Brian Tatler. In January 1991, Lees played guitar, bass and sang backing vocals on the Red House Snakes second demo at produced by Paul Hodson.

In September 1991, Lees recorded his first solo demo, "Buggy – When Will I Learn", before reforming Nitebreed the following May and recorded their first demo. In October 1992, he formed Plain Jain and they recorded the "Better Late Than Never" demo. In 1993, he co-produced demos by Wolverhampton bands, Almost Human and Graveyard Shift. In September 1993, he won a place in the finals of Guitarist magazine's 'Guitarist of the Year' competition, a title won that year by Guthrie Govan. In January 1994, Lees recorded and produced Plain Jain’s second demo and played over 50 gigs in the West Midlands with Plain Jain. In April 1994, he joined Tantrum.

In September 1994, he again got a place in the finals of Guitarist's 'Guitarist of the Year' competition. The live performances from each contestant were recorded, and released on the album Guitarist of the Year 1994 on Music Maker. By October Lees left Tantrum to work on his one-man show. He again reached the finals of the 'Guitarist of the Year' competition.

In November 1998, Lees released his first solo album, My World. The same month Lees won the 'Guitarist of the Year' competition. An interview on ITV’s Central News followed along with several newspaper articles. In January 1999, Lees performed an acoustic version of his song "Hunted" on BBC Radio WM. He formed and had a short spell with the band Lost Souls, before joining Ozzmosis. In November 2000, Lees appeared on Stars in Their Eyes where he sang Aerosmith's "I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing". In 2002 he tested a new guitar amplifier designed by the Kidderminster based company, Blue Tone.

In 2003, Lees recorded two new songs for Al Atkins' remastered solo album, Heavy Thoughts. These were "Cradle to the Grave" and "Sentenced". The remastered version of the album was released in 2006 on the Market Square label. In February 2003, Lees joined Budgie and recorded seven songs with the band which would later appear as bonus tracks on four of Budgie's remastered albums. Later that year, Lees released his second solo album, Freethinka. In 2004, Lees recorded guitar solos for an album by Neil Murray from The Hamptons, called Krankschaft – Der Varterlands.

In 2004 and 2005, Lees recorded guitar parts for Al Atkins album, Demon Deceiver (2207), and also wrote the title track. Lees also produced a guitar tuition DVD, Signpost to the Fretboard. In 2006 Lees wrote a series of tuition articles for the internet magazine, All Out Guitar, was interviewed by The Express and Star and on BBC Radio WM. During 2005 and 2006, he co-wrote and recorded the Budgie album, You're All Living in Cuckooland (2006), with bassist and singer Burke Shelley at his studio in Cardiff. Lees played classical guitar on "Black Velvet Stallion" for the remastered Budgie album, If I Were Brittania I'd Waive the Rules. He left Budgie in July 2007.

In April 2007, Lees performed as 'Pop' in the musical We Will Rock You at the Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton. The same month he performed "Rockin' All Over the World" at Molineux Stadium before kick-off between Wolves and Birmingham City. The same year he formed Anubis, who released Sibuna in January 2008. He co-wrote, co-produced and mastered Anubis' follow-up EP, Avatar, which was released in November 2008.

In June 2009, Lees performed his first One Man Rock Show at the Kulttuurikeskus Kaisain, in Helsinki, Finland. During the latter half of 2009 he produced Anubis' second album, Waking the Dead, which was released in March 2010. In February 2010, Lees recorded a three-hour radio programme called "The Pharaoh Rock Show" which was broadcast on internet radio. In September 2010, Lees produced Anubis' third album, Anubis Live, which had been recorded at their gig at the Sonic Rock Solstice Festival in June 2010.