John Foottit was born and bred in York in 1960 and now lives in Darlington with his wife Sandra.

I have been in Darlington for about 30 years.

Is music in the family?

There is no musical history in my family so I am not sure where it has come from. I had a couple of toy guitars as a kid and apparently my mother said I used to play nursery rhymes on one string.

Who were your influences?

Back in the day I loved Hank Marvin and the Shadows and I wanted to play guitar. I broke my ankle at 14 and I asked my mother for a guitar. That was it. The bug was there and I started to learn. I’m self taught and practice for hours. No instructional videos, dvd’s, YouTube etc it’s all by ear and books.

When I started an apprenticeship at 16, I was getting into early Queen, Thin Lizzy, Priest. I was lent an album by UFO featuring Michael Schenker. That was when serious practicing started.

When were your first gigs?

I was in my first gigging band at about 18. Nerve Senta we were called. We just played local gigs in York which had a good music scene back in the day.

I have been in some quite successful bands throughout the years with lots of material on YouTube. Mai Rouge, Change of Heart, Chrome Molly and my own instrumental album called ‘Equilibrium’. It is very influenced by my guitar hero’s Michael Schenker, John Petrucci, Joe Satriani, Randy Rhodes and George Lynch.

How did the job with the Tygers come about?

The Tygers job came through knowing Huw (Holding) the bass player who I’ve known a few years. We play in a covers band together and one evening he asked me if I was interested in a guitar position that had become available with the Tygers. I knew a few of the band already through gigging and festivals. They knew me and knew I could play so there was no audition as such. We met and it was mainly about how we would get on as people working and travelling together.

What’s next for the Tygers?

The new album is recorded and the first single comes out on May 4th. It’s titled Electrifyed. As is the album. The album was recorded remotely, due to the logistics of the band being so far apart. Some was recorded in Italy, the Netherlands and back home in the North East. It was completed at Christmas.

The songs were pretty much written prior to me joining but I played all the rhythm guitar parts along with Robb (Weir) and 80% of the leads were mine.

It’s a bit heavier than a lot of the albums but is full of catchy hook lines and still has the character of a Tyger’s song. I think it will be received well by the Tyger’s fans. The people that have heard it really like the single Electrifyed. Did I say it is due out on 4th May!

Any gigs lined up this year?

We have just completed a four day Spanish tour supporting FM. It went really well and I’m starting to bed in with the rest of the band now.

We have three UK shows coming up this week. Shows in Europe for the festival season are arranged and we have a South American tour at the end of May for 10 days.

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Alikivi   May 2026