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.