“I turned up at my first audition with my Squier Telecaster – that was all I owned”: The 18-year-old who replaced one of Britpop’s most revered guitarists

Richard Oakes of Suede performs onstage during a concert at Cambridge Corn Exchange on February 11, 2026 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire.

At 17 going on 18, Richard Oakes found himself with the unenviable – or enviable, depending on your perspective – task of replacing Bernard Butler, Suede's widely revered Britpop guitarist. And he did that with some truly humble gear.

“I turned up at my first audition with my Squier Telecaster, as that was all I owned,” he tells Guitar World in a new interview. “They quickly put a rig together for me, based vaguely on what had been used previously; it was all about getting a ‘Suede sound’ so we could go on tour. I didn’t experiment with guitars or amps; there wasn’t time for that.”