Guitarist to the stars Robbie McIntosh talks about his remarkable career

WHEN compiling a who’s who of the music business you can guarantee that Robbie McIntosh of Weymouth has rubbed shoulders with many of that list.

From living legends Sirs Paul McCartney and Tom Jones, to contemporary crooners John Mayer and Norah Jones, McIntosh is the go-to session guitarist for them all.

On July 29, the guitar pedigree will be bringing his own original songs with The Robbie McIntosh Band to the Tivoli Theatre, Wimborne.

Born in Sutton, Surrey in 1957, McIntosh puts his musical start down to family influences. His mother played piano while his older sisters’ record collections, including the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix, became early influences and the jazz of Django Reinhardt and Louis Armstrong were introduced to him by his father.

“I picked up the guitar when I was about eight years old, so I was pretty young. I taught myself mainly and had a few classical guitar lessons when I was 13.”

Grade eight on the guitar by age 18, McIntosh said there was never any doubts that he would be a musician.

“It’s the only thing I have ever been able to do. I worked as a lorry driver, delivering sand and cement a few days a week for a bit but that didn’t last long.

“I just joined a pub band when I left school and started playing gigs from there. I’ve been lucky, I’ve never signed on but a lot of musicians have at some point.”

And success followed quickly. In 1978, he received a phone call from singer of Manfred Mann's Earth, Chris Thompson who asked McIntosh to join a project as lead guitarist.

“I was in a group called Night and we went on tour supporting The Doobie Brothers who were massive at the time. I was doing shows playing to 20,000 when I was only 21.”

Four years later he joined The Pretenders and remained with them for the following five years most notably at the landmark Live Aid concert on July 13, 1985.

But Robbie reminisces that the biggest moment in his onstage career came in the five years after he departed from The Pretenders in 1987, gigging with 'Macca'.

“When I was playing with Paul McCartney we got into the Guinness World Records for the biggest concert attendance for a single artist. There were 184,000 in a football stadium in Rio,” he said.

The 1990 gig at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro was part of ‘The Paul McCartney World Tour’ consisting of 104 dates after a ten-year gig hiatus by McCartney.

“It was big news, we beat Frank Sinatra, it was pretty amazing,” he said.

“I found some pictures recently, it brings back memories when I see pictures of that gig. It was a pretty special gig to be part of.”

McIntosh became McCartney’s go-to guitarist and appeared on all McCartney’s albums from 1989 to 1993.

In 1998 McIntosh began to realise the dream of his own band and The Robbie McIntosh Band was formed.

“I decided to pick some of my favourite players and mates for a band that I thought would give a particular sound and edge to my songs.”

Their first album Emotional Bends, which proved a firm favourite with radio legend Bob Harris, was released the following year.

However, after their second album in 2001, the band’s activity waned due to the busy schedules of session musician and domestic commitments.

In 2004, McIntosh went back on the road joining Norah Jones’ Feels Like Home world tour.

But he said it was around this time that he started to take his foot off the pedal.

“I turned down some big things because I had small children. When I toured with Norah Jones I was away for three months and that’s a long time when they’re small,” he said.

But once again, his session prowess took him back on stage when he was brought in for heart-throb John Mayer.

“John actually saw me play with Paul McCartney, when he was young and apparently, I was a bit of an inspiration,” he said.

McIntosh toured with John Mayer for four years but said although he has relished his life as a session musician, having his own band has offered a different kind of liberty.

“I’ve worked with so many people over the years and when you’re working as a session guitarist you are working a trade. You are working for other people and so you play what they want to hear in a song.

“It’s a different discipline playing your own stuff. I just do my thing, if people like it then great.”

And now, with a new album all but finished and an impressive line-up accompanying him, The Robbie McIntosh Band is back with their own unique sound.

“We straddle blues and country I guess and a bit of rock. I just write my own songs and don’t go for any sound in particular. The kind of music I grew up listening to, like the Kinks, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, would be hard to define these days. I’m not interested in genres, I just write.”

The band, now consisting of Stephen Darrell Smith (keyboards and vocals), Paul Beavis (drums), Jody Linscott (percussion), Steve Wilson (bass and vocals) and Peter Hope Evans (harmonica), will be performing at the Tivoli Theatre later in the month, a gig McIntosh is looking forward to.

“I’ve always wanted to play there. It’s a great place to see a gig and it has a great sound. It’s got an old feel to it and is very traditional in that sense. It’s lovely.”

*The Robbie McIntosh Band, Tivoli Theatre, Wimborne, Saturday July 29, 7.30pm. Call 01202 885 556 for tickets and more information.