WoW! I haven't seen this interview I did with Allan in decades. Not sure where the original tape went. Thanks for posting it. SO fun for me to see it again!!
Mike can you please tell me what the background on this interview was? Meaning, any info on the show itself etc....? Was this a weekly show and did you also do other interviews with other musicians? Thanks very much.
Thanks for the best filmed interview of Allan ever made,a perfect interview "It is a pity though that the whole interview is not included, someone must have it in its entirety!? This is musical history of the highest order! Namaste
Before Allan no one played guitar anything like this Every advanced electric guitarist owes him something without even realising. The man who changed guitar as much as hendrix. Took it much farther in fact. I saw him with nucleus in 1979 in Southampton UK. Then saw his band IOU in a london pub in 1980 before his IOU album was recorded. It was clear Allan was a genius the like of which had never been seen before & would never be seen again. Not merely merely very very good, there's lots of those around. He was instead very very unique & special. Yet the pub was barely full & he couldn't get a record deal 🤔 Hence the band name. Seemed like an injustice & difficult to comprehend. Wish I'd had some spare money to try & help him to get a record deal. Seriously I would if I'd had some.
Watching Allan's mannerisms and demeanor, I can feel the kindness in his energy. Here sits a master musician in his prime and I feel I could approach him as if he was my next-door neighbor. An unassuming genius.
Yeah, he's very down to earth, typical of a Yorkshireman. There's nothing to dislike about him at all, such a good person with amazing talent for writing music.
Mike Pachelli deserves a thumbs up for his sincere curiosities. The music was the man, Allan Holdsworth. If we talk in such a way as to encapsulate a personality it diminishes the truth: The bigger the creative expanse the smaller the ego. Ever notice that about our greatest musicians?
That Gong period was the most algid, beautiful, mystic, progressive, tastefu, sublime, and all the good words could fit for it i wish i could hear something like that nowadays
This is the best interview Allan ever did. Extremely good and informed questions getting to the heart of what real fans geek out to. Pure gold from a truly gifted musician...
I have many of Allan’s interviews throughout his life and one thing that sticks out is how he never wavers or changes any details of his memories. His mind was supreme...
Not sure how I missed Gong in the day. I am/was a huge fusion fan but finally watched them (with AH) on RU-vid yesterday - a new discovery for me albeit 40 years late!
Allan changed perceptions about the way an instrument could be played and the sounds that are achievable. Combine this with his approach to the music and you have something very special indeed.
I would have loved to have been at the NAMM show when Allan first tried the Steinberger. I bet every guitarist at the whole event turned their head to see where that playing was coming from.
'How about your whammy bar approach?' 'I gave up using it just because everybody else does' It is so typical of him. Holdsworth never copied anyone and made it extremely difficult for others to copy him. As he stated that John Coltrane had not learned from others and he had always wanted to be someone like him. Only truly original musicians and artists can do that.
Allan didn’t say Coltrane didn’t LEARN from others, because in fact Trane learned from MANY master musicians either by studying their records or by actually playing with them. Allan meant that Trane, although he DID learn from other musicians, he wasn’t interested in COPYING them verbatim etc. Trane seemed to be able to extrapolate the pertinent info and spirit of whatever and whoever he was studying, but always strived to incorporate what he learned into a personal approach.
These questions and answers are the same thing he was saying in the 70s, and went on saying until a few years ago, he must have got so fed up. And the Temoest album wasn’t his first record. ‘Igginbottom’s Wrench was way before that.
His drinking likely caused the health issues he was having and ultimately took him out if you ask me. Most life long drinkers will die of heart failure like he did. He would have been better off on cannabis…
