Alan Holdsworth gone at age 70...

bobdcat

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Probably my favorite electric guitar player. His work with Soft Machine, Gong, and Bill Bruford is probably the highest statement of the 70s & 80s progressive genre. And he was a pioneer of the guitar synthesizer. So many who came after him owe him a huge debt.
 

bluesypicky

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The guitar world has lost one of its heroes.... his work helped shape the musical psyche of so many in the great 70's... including my own. RIP Alan!
 

adorshki

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This thread fell off of my radar, but yes, another one of my heroes too.
Loved Soft Machine's Bundles and UK but wasn't a big fan of the version of Gong he was in, no fault of Holdsworth's.
I did get to see him in '82 or 3 in the trio version of IOU at a small 250 seat club.
No guitar synth yet, but it probably would have only got in the way, he was that fluid and intricate.
In fact at the time he was probably equal to Jeff Beck for me.
f I'd known what Eddie Van Halen thought of him at the time I might have started giving him (Eddie) some respect a lot earlier than I did.
From "the usual source":
"Immediately after I.O.U.'s release, guitarist Eddie Van Halen brought Holdsworth to the attention of Warner Bros. Records executive Mo Ostin. Van Halen had previously enthused about Holdsworth in a 1980 issue of Guitar Player magazine, saying "That guy is bad! He's fantastic; I love him", and that Holdsworth was "the best, in my book".[2] Furthermore, in a 1981 interview for Guitar World magazine, he said that "To me Allan Holdsworth is number one".[24]
Jazz fusion lovers should look for his work with Nucleus and Tony Williams.
Seem to remember somebody big saying they'd copy him if the could only figure out what he was doing.
:glee:
But one of his single greatest contributions to mankind wasn't even in music:
"He was also a keen aficionado of beer, with a particular fondness for Northern English cask ale.[46][49] He experimented with brewing his own beer in the 1990s and invented a specialised beer pump named "The Fizzbuster", which, in his own words, creates "a beautiful creamy head."

:very_drunk:


Thanks for never quitting, Alan.
 
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bluesypicky

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This thread fell off of my radar
Actually, (as reflected by the responses on Waly's thread, yes all 3 of them! lol) you can say that Alan fell off many folks' radar.... Alan who? they say. :)
Comes to prove that fame and talent are two distinct parameters.
 

walrus

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Actually, (as reflected by the responses on Waly's thread, yes all 3 of them! lol) you can say that Alan fell off many folks' radar.... Alan who? they say. :)
Comes to prove that fame and talent are two distinct parameters.

Agreed! I thought more LTGer's would know who he is, but in the overall world of music, I guess he is a little obscure.

walrus
 
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