George Borowski
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George Borowski is a British guitarist and singer-songwriter, who has gained an indirect claim to immortality as Guitar George, a guitar player in the Dire Straits hit Sultans of Swing, who may have been a reference to Borowski.[1]
He was born in 1950, in Wrexham in North Wales to Russian and Polish parents. He is a great-nephew of the Russian composer, Sergei Rachmaninov. His family later moved to the north-west of England, where, as a teenager, he taught himself to play guitar, and played in a number of short-lived bands. After some years of this, while playing for a group known as The Out in Manchester, he was complimented by Mark Knopfler, who later wrote:
- Check out Guitar George, he knows all the chords
- Mind, he's strictly rhythm, he doesn't want to make it cry or sing
- Yes, and an old guitar is all he can afford
- When he gets up under the lights to play his thing.
Over the years that followed, George played with several other well-known musicians, including Sad Café, Meat Loaf and Teenage Fanclub.
He has released an album of his own compositions, "12 Cecil Road", in 2003.
[edit] Trivia
- On stage, he still plays the "old guitar" that was all he could afford in 1976.
- Like Mark Knopfler, his preferred tipple before going on stage is non-alcoholic; in his case, a large mug of coffee.
- His half-brother Tim is a highly rated footballer for German side Werder Bremen
[edit] References
- ^ "Guitar George", Q Magazine, 1996
