“Roxy insisted I have a white Strat – I bought that guitar off Brian Eno, who bought it off his milkman for 30 quid!” Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera on how he found his bargain Firebird and why he has no regrets about rendering a ’51 Tele “valueless”

Phil Manzanara photographed at his studio with his iconic Cardinal Red Gibson Firebird, the "flashy" guitar that has stood the test of time in Roxy Music and in his solo career.

There can be few guitarists who have roamed so widely through the landscape of pop music as Phil Manzanera. Born in England but raised in, variously, Cuba, Venezuela and Hawaii, his playing has always possessed a deep spirit of musical adventure.

From era-defining avant-garde rock with Roxy Music to Latin-infused prog and dalliances with experimental synth in his early solo career, his vagabond muse has never settled down. His gift for playing just exactly the right phrase at the right time, combined with a leftfield sensibility that always results in work that’s full of surprises, means that over the past five decades, his music has never lost its vitality.