Legendary guitarist Jeff Beck dies aged 78

Jeff Beck, the celebrated rock guitarist who played with the Yardbirds and led the Jeff Beck Group, has died aged 78, the BBC reports. Beck was known as a keen innovator - he pioneered jazz-rock, experimented with fuzz and distortion effects, and opened the way for psych-rock and heavy metal. Beck, whose fingers and thumbs were famously insured for £7m, was an eight-time Grammy winner, recipient of the Ivor Novello for outstanding contribution to British music, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame both as a solo artist and as a member of the Yardbirds. His Yardbirds bandmate, Jimmy Page wrote on Twitter - “The six stringed Warrior is no longer here for us to admire the spell he could weave around our mortal emotions. Jeff could channel music from the ethereal. His technique unique. His imaginations apparently limitless". Rod Stewart, who sang in the Jeff Beck Group, tweeted: "He was one of the few guitarists that when playing live would actually listen to me sing and respond".