He was a key member of both the Blue Aeroplanes and Massive Attack, and his death last year was mourned across Bristol and the world. And now the family of the late Bristol guitarist Angelo Bruschini have put his extensive collection of guitars and equipment, which he used to such effect on two of Massive Attack’s greatest albums, up for sale.
A special auction is being held online for four days with nine guitars and an array of recording equipment, microphones, effects pedals, mixing desks and, poignantly, sets of guitar strings that he never got to use.
The auction is being held next week at Gardiner Houlgate in North Wiltshire, with some of the guitars up for sale playing an important role in the creation of the ‘Bristol Sound’.
Angelo died of lung cancer in October 2023, leaving family, friends and members of the various bands he had played with over 40 years ‘devastated’. The Bristol-born musician was barely out of his teens when he started playing guitars in bands, and became a key member of the cult Bristol band Blue Aeroplanes in the 1980s and at the start of the ’90s when they enjoyed the peak of their commercial fame.
He joined Massive Attack in 1995 as a touring member, and soon became an integral part of the band, recording the guitar sound for the band’s 1998 album Mezzanine, which took the Bristol group to a darker, more atmospheric post-punk sound. That album, with Angelo on guitar, contained classics like Risingson and perhaps Massive Attack’s biggest hit Teardrop.
He also was a touring and recording member of Massive Attack when they recorded the 2003 album 100th Window, another number one hit around the world.
Auctioneer Luke Hobbs said some of Angelo’s extensive collection of guitars have been kept by his musical children, along with other items, like the gold and platinum discs he was awarded, but the sale still includes possibly his most valuable guitar – a 1968 Fender Telecaster guitar.
The guitar is a collector’s item in its own right, but Angelo adapted and altered it to achieve the sound he wanted, that would become part of Massive Attack’s signature sound in the late 1990s.
Read more: Massive Attack guitarist Angelo Bruschini dies as band praise his ‘brilliant and eccentric’ talent
Read next: Tricky shuns ‘hipster Bristol’ to film new video in pub
“This was a guitar used prominently on Mezzanine,” said Mr Hobbs. “You can tell just by listening to how it sounds now where he was playing it on the record itself, so it is a unique and important item in the history of music and of Bristol music in particular.
“A 1968 Telecaster would be worth around £5,000 if it was in original condition, but this one has been modified to produce his unique sound, so the sky is the limit in terms of value,” he added.
For Massive Attack fans, other guitars and items are marked with the band’s tours, showing that this was all equipment he very much used live in performances around the world.
The auction takes place via a live webcast starting on Tuesday, December 3 from 10am.