Charlie Griffiths lives in South London England. He was given a classical guitar on his eighth birthday. After mastering the C, F and G open chords, he decided to take a well earned break.

Six years later, having been suddenly re-inspired by the music of Queen and Led Zeppelin, Charlie decided to continue his guitar studies. His musical taste was almost immediately steered into metal and became a die-hard fan of Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, Priest and King Diamond. A trip to the guitar shop was inevitable. A Black Explorer was purchased.

Days later Charlie bumped into Martin (who happened to be playing a black Warlock) and Nick. They were soon jamming Painkiller, Hangar18 and Welcome Home. The seeds were sown for a lasting musical partnership.

Starting Guitar lessons with Robert McChesney at age fifteen, Charlie progressed quickly, studying all the modern rock techniques. Two years later, he furthered his studies with Shaun Baxter and went on to complete three intense years at the Guitar Institute, where he developed an interest in jazz and composition. Influences at this stage were players like Allan Holdsworth, Scott Henderson, Mike Stern and George Benson.

For the next eight years Charlie honed his playing in a variety of musical situations including hundreds of gigs, session work and live TV and radio performances. Charlie was also a member of underground cult death metal act “Ten Masked Men”, whose performances gained much notoriety on the death scene. Fans included Glen Benton, members of Ash and comedian Bill Bailey, who incorporated some of the Masked Men music into his show.

Nowadays, when not recording with Linear Sphere, Charlie devotes his time to practicing and developing his style of playing and writing.

Charlie teaches at the Guitar Institute, and writes for Total Guitar magazine. He is currently working on his own side project, which is due to be unveiled early 2007. Contact: band[at]linearsphere[dot]com