Electric Guitars were an English band formed early in 1980 by Neil Davenport (vocals, lyrics) and Richard Hall (bass, vocals) who were both studying English at Bristol University. The band soon increased to a five-man line-up, with Andy Saunders (guitar, vocals), Matt Salt (drums) and Dick Truscott (keyboards), they also later added two backing singers: Sara and Wendy. Their first single "Health" / "Continental Shelf" was released on local label Fried Egg Records in 1980.

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses a pickup to convert the vibration of its strings—which are typically made of metal, and which occurs when a guitarist strums, plucks or fingerpicks the strings—into electrical impulses. The vibrations of the strings are sensed by a pickup (music technology), of which the most common type is the magnetic pickup, which uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is plugged into a guitar amplifier before being sent to a loudspeaker, which makes a sound loud enough to hear. The output of an electric guitar is an electric signal, and the signal can easily be altered by electronic circuits to add "color" to the sound or change the sound. Often the signal is modified using effects such as reverb and distortion and "overdrive", with the latter being a key element of the sound of the electric guitar as it is used in blues and rock.