Q&A
NICK FLETCHER
The jazz rock guitarist and John Hackett Band member discusses his classical influences and the threads of mysticism that run through his work.
Words: Mike Barnes Portrait: Liv Roberts
Initially drawn to rock music, Nick Fletcher was inspired by Julian Bream and Andrés Segovia to study classical guitar at Huddersfield School Of Music. And although “for a teenager it wasn’t the coolest thing to do”, he felt justified in that Steve Hackett and Jan Akkerman had also explored that style.
On graduating in 1981, Fletcher played electric guitar in a prog band, Plan B, with keyboardist Dave Bainbridge, but they struggled to gain recognition. From 1990 there followed a period of 25 years spent teaching and composing classical guitar music, with solo albums, and duets with flautist John Hackett. In 2015 Fletcher took up the electric again and has played and recorded with the John Hackett Band and released a number of prog/jazz fusion solo albums. The most recent, the instrumental Quadrivium, released on Rough Draft Audio in September, features Bainbridge and Caroline Bonnett on keyboards and former Jeff Beck drummer Anika Nilles.