The first of a two-part appreciation of Allan Holdsworth, a favourite of both Hugh Lynch and myself. Edison Rex suffering from his piece of BT Internet wet string drying out, and with a very poor and intermittent connection, could not host the show. This accounts for why mine was the only voice from the team that you heard – apart from the jingle, that is.
Preshow began with a Tony Williams Lifetime track, from one of Allan’s happiest collaborations, then a track from one of his albums as a sideman with French electric violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, before playing the title track from what must be the only studio bootleg album, Velvet Darkness. Holdsworth and bandmates performed some warm-ups and run-throughs, and were just ready to record the album when the producer said “Right, we’ve got enough tracks for the album now, thank you and goodnight”! We finished with some of Allan Holdsworth’s earliest recorded work, with his band of Yorkshire mates ‘Igginbottom (covering the Beach Boys, of all things) and with jazz fusion trumpeter Ian Carr’s Nucleus.
The last track in the postshow is a relatively rare example of Holdsworth’s work on accoustic guitar.
Preshow
| Million Dollar Legs | Tony Williams Lifetime | Million Dollar Legs | 1976 |
| Enigmatic Ocean | Jean-Luc Ponty | Enigmatic Ocean | 1977 |
| Velvet Darkness | Allan Holdsworth | Velvet Darkness | 1977 |
| California Dreamin’ | ‘Igginbottom | ‘Igginbottom’s Wrench | 1969 |
| Sweet Dry Biscuits | ‘Igginbottom | ‘Igginbottom’s Wrench | 1969 |
| Hector’s House | Ian Carr With Nucleus | Belladonna | 1972 |
The Show
| Hazard Profile Part 1 | Soft Machine | Bundles | 1975 |
| Wildlife | Tony Williams Lifetime | Believe It | 1975 |
| Joy Filled Summer | Tony Williams Lifetime | Million Dollar Legs | 1976 |
| What You Do to Me | Tony Williams Lifetime | Million Dollar Legs | 1976 |
| Expresso | Gong | Gazeuse! | 1976 |
| Night Illusion | Gong | Gazeuse! | 1976 |
| Esnuria | Gong | Gazeuse! | 1976 |
| Soli | Gong | Expresso II | 1978 |
| Nostalgic Lady | Jean-Luc Ponty | Enigmatic Ocean | 1977 |
| Sample And Hold | Bill Bruford | Feels Good To Me | 1977 |
| Hell’s Bells | Bill Bruford | One of a Kind | 1979 |
| The Abingdon Chasp | Bill Bruford | One of a Kind | 1979 |
| In The Dead Of Night | UK | UK | 1978 |
| Second Summer | Allan Holdsworth & Gordon Beck | Sunbird | 1979 |
| The Things You See (When You Haven’t Got Your Gun) | Allan Holdsworth & Gordon Beck | The Things You See | 1980 |
| Arabesque | Pierre Moerlen’s Gong | Time Is The Key | 1979 |
| Sly Monkey | Soft Machine | Land Of Cockayne | 1981 |
Postshow
| Shadows Of | Gong | Gazeuse! | 1976 |
| Sleepy | Gong | Expresso II | 1978 |
| Five G | Bill Bruford | One of a Kind | 1979 |
| Forever Until Sunday | Bill Bruford | One of a Kind | 1979 |
| Diminished Responsability | Allan Holdsworth and Gordon Beck | The Things You See | 1979 |