Unequalled as a British-blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, he left behind a body of work studded with guitar-playing brilliance.

Green is the only guitarist whose tone BB King said gave him the cold sweats.

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A uniquely soulful guitarist, singer and songwriter, Peter Green was one of the architects of British blues rock. In 1966, at the age of 19, he replaced Eric Clapton in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, and recorded the classic album A Hard Road which was released the following year. Many other recordings from his time in the Bluesbreakers – singles, B-sides, live performances – have (re-)surfaced in more recent times, ranging from standards like Stormy Monday to Green’s own deep-blue compositions such as Out Of Reach, which further underline the supernatural brilliance of his playing.

Green then founded Fleetwood Mac in 1967 with whom he recorded three ‘official’ studio albums and authored a string of classic rock singles not included on any of the band’s albums at the time, including: Black Magic Woman, Man Of The World and Oh Well. Blessed with a rich vocal tone tinged with a deep, dark sadness, he wrote world-weary lyrics that on occasions touched a nerve of unutterable despair. “I was always a sad person,” Green once remarked. “I don’t know why.”

His melancholy disposition was not helped by the pressures and temptations of life in the rock-celebrity circus. He left Fleetwood Mac soon after taking an extended acid trip in March 1970, and released his first solo album, prophetically entitled The End Of The Game, in December the same year. He spent the rest of the 70s wandering through a maze of rehab clinics and mental health institutions where he was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia. The nadir came in 1977 when he was arrested and brief ly detained in prison following an incident of threatening behaviour with a shotgun.