No holding Beck

Incredible life of late virtuoso guitarist and blues rock pioneer, 78

- MATT ROPER

IT was while he was cutting carrots for a homemade stew 12 years ago that Jeff Beck clumsily hacked off the tip of his left index finger.

Surgeons managed to sew it back on but following the mishap the shaken guitarist, then aged 65, got his fingers and thumbs insured for £7million.

Rightly so, as they were the digits of one of the most influential and innovative musicians of all time.

Jeff, who died suddenly of bacterial meningitis on Tuesday aged 78, pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock; the "guitarist's guitarist" whose expressive, lyrical playing blazed a trail.

And the virtuoso was still wowing at sell-out gigs up until his last one in November in Nevada. Tributes continued to pour in for Jeff yesterday, ranked fifth in Rolling Stone Magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page said he was "the six-stringed warrior" and Queen's Brian May described him as "inimitable, irreplaceable the absolute pinnacle of guitar playing. And a damn fine human being.

Guns N' Roses and Jon Bon Jovi also praised Jeff, who won eight Grammys and was twice inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Born in 1944, he grew up in Wallington, South London, the son of an accountant father and mother who worked in a chocolate factory.

After falling in love with rock'n'roll, he built his first instrument himself.