Les Fradkin plays a Starr Labs Ztar MIDI Guitar Controller which he uses to single handedly construct all the backings on his recordings. He also plays Wilson Bros VM-65 and VM-10 Ventures Model Guitars. Other guitars on board include a Fender "George Harrison " "Rocky" Stratocaster with a Roland GK-2A Pickup, Fender "Jimmie Vaughn" Stratocaster with a Roland GK-2A Pickup, a Fender Stratocaster XII and a Rickenbacker 360/12v64 12-string guitar.
Les Fradkin endorses the Starr Labs Z7S MIDI Guitar
The Beatles, The Byrds, ELO (Electric Light Orchestra), Roy Wood, Jeff Beck, Yes, Rick Wakeman, Asia, King Crimson, Robert Fripp, Yngwie Malmsteen, Baroque Music, Jean Michel Jarre, The Ventures, Nokie Edwards, J.S. Bach, Niccolo Paganini, Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, Joe Meek, Phil Spector.
Guitarist Les Fradkin is one of the original members of the hit Broadway show "Beatlemania", a Guitar Synthesizer pioneer of the 1980's, surf guitar trendsetter in the 1990's and is a 21st Century innovator on the Starr Labs Ztar. A classically trained musician as well as being a rock guitarist, he has found success as a recording artist, composer and producer with MGM Sunflower, ESP-Disk, Bell, Arista, RCA, and Laurie Records. Les has written the well known French hit "La Chansons Des Souvenirs" ("Song Of A Thousand Voices") for the famous French songstress Mireille Mathieu and the Latin Pop icon Roberto Jordan ("Donde"). He has played Mellotron, 12 and 6-string Guitar, Bass and Piano on dozens of Top 40 hit records throughout the early 1970's , scoring many US and UK chart placings throughout his career.
He was also an original member / singer / guitarist for the pop group California on Laurie Records in the US and RCA Records in the UK for it's entire existence from 1973 through 1985. California had several chart records including the 1981 release "Summer Fun Medley"-a medley of Beach Boys hits, "Jeans On", "He's Almost You" (charting in the United Kingdom) and an appearance on the Dick Clark American Bandstand television show.
In 1976, Les was selected over thousands of other auditioning guitarists to appear in the original cast of the smash hit Broadway musical "Beatlemania" playing lead guitar and the part of "George Harrison" in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. Running for two and a half years from May 1977 thru October 1979, every show (including over 1200 in New York alone) was sold out and the musicians quickly became celebrities with magazine cover stories ("Newsweek","Time", "People", "Rolling Stone") and many major television show appearances. With his guitar-playing in the international spotlight from the show, Fradkin developed a cult following that has avidly followed his career and made him a celebrity among guitar fans.
IIn 1996, he founded the surf rock group "Get Wet" and started a new surf guitar trend with Neo Classic Surf featuring a blend of stylistic references including The Ventures, Nokie Edwards, Dick Dale, Jeff Beck as well as Classical Composers such as Bach, Paganinni, Vivaldi and others. This music found immediate success on the mp3.com charts with Get Wet enjoying 230,000 downloads and 16 Number 1 mp3.com hit singles from 1999 thru 2001. Les and the band were also featured in the first edition of "MP3 For Dummies" as an example of early indie musician success stories.
New Gandy Dancer Rock Magazine named Les' CD "A Day At The Beach" it's 2004 Album Of The Year. In addition, Les has performed with The Ventures as 2nd Lead Guitarist. Nokie Edwards of The Ventures has performed with Les on several occasions and is a featured guest on his "While My Guitar Only Plays" and "Strat Heaven" CD's. In fact, Les has been acknowledged as a guitar virtuoso for over 30 years and he has been featured in issues of 20th Century Guitar Magazine, Pipeline and New Gandy Dancer Magazines.
Les has scored the theme and three additional songs for the documentary "An Accidental Icon-The True Story Of Gidget".
To date, Les has released 20 solo CD's on his RRO Entertainment Indie label and has had over 340,000 downloads bringing him several substantial hits on Apple iTunes and other download sites across the Internet.
His current music is a mixture of various influences and signposts including Rock, Progressive and Classical. ..
QUITE AN ACCOMPLISHMENT ON YOUR MUSIC CAREER MY FRIEND. CONGRADULATIONS. HAVE YOU HEARD STEVE HOWE'S VERSION OF THE VENTURES SONG "WALK DON'T RUN"? I AM SURE YOU HAVE, IF NOT LET ME KNOW AND I WILL SEND IT TO YOU. A NICE RENDITION ! THANKS AGAIN FOR THE ADD REQUEST LES, AND LOOK FORWARD TO TALKING WITH YOU MORE WHEN YOU HAVE TIME. GOOD MUSIC LES!!!!!!, EXCELLENT! HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK ROB AND YESSONGS
Hi Les I hope you are well. Thank you for your incredible contribution to our big peace special event to day. Take good care my friend Warmest wishes as ever Chris
Les, Heeeey - it's been a while eh;) even tho it is too late - Happy Easter anyways :) and - I don't know if you'd be interested or not, but - in case you would - check it out, I finally gave in ...you can follow me around on www.Twitter.com/ArmandVio7 Ciao for now, - Armand
P.S. Stay tuned... Vio7 is about to put out a major announcement in about a week or two...
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