As both a virtuoso guitarist and an Irishman (Hailing from near Belfast, Northern Ireland) comparisons are often made with Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore, though Simon sounds like neither in particular. McBride started playing the guitar when he was ten. By age 15 he entered Guitarist Magazine’s Young Guitarist of The Year, a performance competition staged that year at Wembley Conference Centre, which he won. Less than a year later, a few months after his sixteenth birthday