Tomato ketchup

Salt, sugar, and ground black pepper corns are commonly placed on Western restaurant tables.

A condiment is an edible substance, such as sauce or seasoning, added to food to impart a particular flavor, enhance its flavor^[1], or in some cultures, to complement the dish. The term originally described pickled or preserved foods, but has shifted meaning over time.^[2] Many condiments are available packaged in single-serving sachets (packets), like mustard or ketchup, particularly when supplied with take-out or fast-food meals. Condiments are usually applied by the diner. Condiments are sometimes added prior to serving, for example a sandwich made with ketchup or mustard. Some condiments are used during cooking to add flavor or texture to the food; barbecue sauce, teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, marmite are examples.

Examples[link]

• salt^[3][4][5]
• pepper
• ketchup
• chili sauce
• mustard
• olive oil
• vinegar
• relish
• mayonnaise
• syrup
• whipped cream

Gallery[link]

• 

  Dijon mustard

• 

  Packets of duck sauce

• 

  Common Chinese condiments: soy sauce, vinegar, chili oil, white pepper

• 

  Classic American yellow mustard

• Steak Sauce.jpg

  American Steak sauce

• Worcestershiresauce bottle.jpg

  Worcestershire sauce

• Maulls24oz.jpg

  Barbecue sauce

• 

  Chutneys

• Flying goose sriracha th.jpg

  Sriracha chili sauces

• 

  A jar of Shichimi

• 

  A jar of mayonnaise

See also[link]

Food portal

• Condiments by country
• Black pepper
• Chutney
• Dip
• Garnish
• Hot sauce
• Spice
• Sugar

References[link]

Sean Bean
Bean at the 2009 Empire Film Awards
Born	Shaun Mark Bean (1959-04-17) 17 April 1959 (age 53) Handsworth, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1986–present
Spouse	Debra James (1981-88) Melanie Hill (1990-97) Abigail Cruttenden (1997-2000) Georgina Sutcliffe (2008-10)

Shaun Mark "Sean" Bean (born 17 April 1959) is an English actor of stage and screen. Bean is known for playing Boromir in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and, previously, British Colonel Richard Sharpe in the ITV television series Sharpe. He is also known for his film work playing such roles as Alec Trevelyan in GoldenEye, Jason Locke in Essex Boys, Odysseus in Troy, Ian Howe in National Treasure and Andy McNab in Bravo Two Zero. Bean has also acted in a number of television productions and character roles such as playing Robert Aske in Henry VIII and Eddard Stark in HBO's Game of Thrones. He has also performed voice work for computer games, including Martin Septim in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

Early life and family[link]

Bean was born Shaun Mark Bean in the Handsworth district of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, the son of Rita (née Tuckwood) and Brian Bean.^[1] Bean's father owned a fabrication shop, which he had set up with a colleague. The business employed 50 people, including Bean's mother, who worked as a secretary. He has a younger sister named Lorraine. Despite becoming relatively wealthy (his father owned a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow), the family never moved away from the council estate, because they preferred to remain close to friends and family.^[2]

As a child, Bean smashed a glass door due to an argument over scissors. It left a piece of glass embedded in his leg that briefly impeded his walking and left a large scar.^[1] This accident prevented him from pursuing his dream of playing football professionally. In 1975, Bean left Brook Comprehensive School with two O Levels in Art and English.^[3] After a job at a supermarket and another for the council, Bean started working for his father's firm with a day release at Rotherham College of Arts and Technology to take a welding course. While at Rotherham he stumbled into an arts class and decided to pursue his interest in art. After attending courses at two other colleges, one for half a day and the other for less than a week, he returned to Rotherham College, where he came across a drama course for which he subsequently enrolled. After some college plays and one at Rotherham Civic Theatre, he applied for and received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), starting a seven term course in January 1981.^[1]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

He graduated from RADA in 1983. He made his professional acting début in 1983 at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury, Berkshire as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet.^[1] His early work involved a mixture of stage and screen work. As an actor, he adopted the Irish spelling "Sean" of his first name. His first national exposure came in an advert for non-alcoholic lager.^[4] Between 1986 and 1988 he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company appearing in productions of Romeo and Juliet, The Fair Maid of the West, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.^[5][6] He appeared in his first film in 1986 when he played Ranuccio Tomassoni in Derek Jarman's film Caravaggio. He then reunited with the director on War Requiem in 1988, which also starred Laurence Olivier. In 1989 he starred as the evil Dominic O'Brien in Catherine Cookson's The Fifteen Streets where he gained a dedicated following.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, he became an established actor on British television.^[7] He had notable performances in the BBC productions Clarissa and Lady Chatterley. His role in the latter became infamous for his sex scenes with Joely Richardson.^[8] In 1990, Bean co-starred with Richard Harris in Jim Sheridan's adaption of the John B. Keane play, The Field; also in 1990, his role as the journalist Anton in Windprints examined the difficult problems of apartheid in South Africa.

In 1996 he appeared in what became a famous Sky Sports commercial for the Premier League and, that year, he combined his love of football with his career, to finally achieve his childhood dream of playing for Sheffield United, albeit as Jimmy Muir in the film When Saturday Comes. Although the film was not critically acclaimed, Sean Bean received credit for a good performance.^[9]

[edit] Sharpe

His critical successes in Caravaggio and Lady Chatterley contributed to his emerging image as a sex symbol, but he became most closely associated with the character of Richard Sharpe, the maverick Napoleonic Wars rifleman. Bean was not the first actor to be chosen to play Sharpe, but Paul McGann, the first choice, was injured while playing football two days into filming. Initially, producers tried to work around McGann's injury, but it proved impossible and Bean received the call.^[10] The 16-episode Sharpe television series was based loosely on Bernard Cornwell's novels about the Peninsular War, and the fictional experiences of a band of soldiers in the famed 95th Rifles. Starting with Sharpe's Rifles, the series followed the fortunes and misfortunes of Richard Sharpe as he rose from the ranks as a Sergeant to Lieutenant Colonel by the time of the Battle of Waterloo. It ran from 1993 to 1997, with three episodes produced each year. The series was filmed under challenging conditions, first in Ukraine, and later in Portugal. After several years of rumours, more episodes were produced, called Sharpe's Challenge, which aired in April 2006, and Sharpe's Peril which aired on ITV in the autumn of 2008 and was later released on DVD.^[11]

Hollywood villain[link]

With a mini-series role as enigmatic Lord Richard Fenton in the TV miniseries Scarlett, loosely based on the sequel to Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, Bean made the transition to Hollywood feature films. His first notable Hollywood appearance was that of an Irish republican terrorist in the 1992 film adaptation of Patriot Games; in a fight scene, Harrison Ford hit him with a boat hook, giving him a permanent scar. Bean's rough-cut looks made him a patent choice for a villain, and this role in Patriot Games was the first of several villains that he would portray, all of whom come to sticky ends.^[12]

He played Alec Trevelyan (MI6's 006) and James Bond's nemesis in the 1995 film GoldenEye; the weak-stomached Spence (with Robert De Niro) in Ronin (1998); a wife-beating ex-con in Essex Boys (2000); the malevolent kidnapper-jewel thief in Don't Say a Word (2001). He was also widely recognised as villainous treasure hunter Ian Howe in the popular National Treasure opposite Nicolas Cage. He played a villainous scientist in The Island (2005) and a dedicated husband in Silent Hill. In the independent film, Far North, he played a Russian mercenary, lost in the tundra and rescued by an Inuit woman and her daughter; he ends up pitting his two female rescuers against one another.

[edit] The Lord of the Rings

Arguably, Bean's most prominent role was as Boromir in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. His major screen-time occurs in the first installment, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. He appeared briefly in flashbacks in the theatre releases of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; he also appears in a scene from the extended edition of The Two Towers. Before casting finished, rumours circulated that Jackson had considered Bean for the role of Aragorn, but neither Bean nor Jackson confirmed this in subsequent interviews. Bean's well-known fear of flying, with helicopters, caused him difficulties in mountainous New Zealand, where the trilogy was filmed. After a particularly rough ride, he vowed not to fly to a location again. In one instance, he chose to take a ski lift into the mountains and then hike the final few miles, in full costume complete with shield, armour and sword.^[13]

Bean has a tattoo of the English word "nine" written using Tengwar on his shoulder, a reference to his involvement in the Lord of the Rings and the fact that his character was one of the original nine companions of the Fellowship of the Ring. The other actors of "The Fellowship"—Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan and Viggo Mortensen—acquired the same tattoo. John Rhys-Davies, whose character was Gimli, also one of the original nine companions, arranged for his stunt double to get the tattoo.^[14]

Later career[link]

Other roles gave more scope for his acting abilities. In 1999's Extremely Dangerous, his character walked a fine line between villain and hero, reminiscent of the 1960s American TV series, The Fugitive.^[15] He became a repentant, poetry-reading Grammaton cleric who succumbs to his emotions in 2002's Equilibrium; a quirky alien cowboy in 2003's The Big Empty, and a sympathetic and cunning Odysseus in the 2004 film Troy.

He cameoed with other Hollywood stars in Moby's music video "We Are All Made of Stars" in February 2002.^[16] In the same year, he returned to the stage in London performing in Macbeth alongside Samantha Bond.^[17] Due to popular demand, the production ran until March 2003.

Bean's high profile and recognisable voice have created opportunities for voice-over work, especially in the British advertising industry.^[18] He has featured in television adverts for O2, Morrisons and Barnardos as well as for Acuvue and the Sci-Fi Channel in the United States. He also does the voice over for the National Blood Service's television and radio campaign. For the role playing video game, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, he voiced Martin Septim.^[19]

Bean has completed a one hour pilot, Faceless, for US television. He has also appeared in Outlaw, an independent British production, and a remake of 1986 horror film, The Hitcher (released in January 2007); here he used an American accent again. He also starred in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, playing the role of Zeus, the king of Mount Olympus and God of lightning, in February 2010. Also that year, Bean starred in CASH (CA$H), playing the lead role of Pyke Kubic, a dangerous man determined to recover his wealth in a bad economy. CASH (CA$H), which co-starred Chris Hemsworth, explored the role money plays in today's hard economic times. Bean also played the villain's twin brother, Reese. The film was directed and written by Stephen Milburn Anderson (South Central).

Bean stars in the first season of Game of Thrones, HBO's adaptation of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R.R. Martin, playing the part of Lord Eddard Stark.^[20] Bean and Peter Dinklage were the two actors whose inclusion show runners David Benioff and Dan Weiss considered necessary for the show to become a success, and for whose roles no other actors were considered. His nuanced portrayal of what could have been a stereotypical "noble leader" character won him critical praise; as the A.V. Club's reviewer put it, he "portrayed Ned as a man who knew he lived in the muck but hoped for better and assumed everyone else would come along for the ride."^[21] HBO's promotional efforts focused on Bean as the show's leading man and best-known actor. The photograph of him as Ned sitting on the Iron Throne, holding his greatsword, was used for promotional posters and on the cover of the first season's DVD box set as well as the cover of a tie-in reedition of the novel A Game of Thrones. Also according to the A.V. Club, "he is the touchstone. In a series filled with people whose morals are a slippery slope, he’s the closest thing we have to a decent man ... Ned belongs to the kinds of stories we like to tell ourselves, and that means that in the grittier, darker world of Game Of Thrones, he has to die."^[21]

Bean will star in Soldiers of Fortune, alongside Ving Rhames and Christian Slater. Bean has completed filming Cleanskin, in which he plays a secret service agent faced with the task of pursuing and eliminating a suicide bomber and his terrorist cell. The film stars Charlotte Rampling, James Fox, Abhin Galeya, Tuppence Middleton and Michelle Ryan. The film was written, produced and directed by Hadi Hajaig and is being released by Warner Brothers in UK cinemas on 9 March 2012.

He appeared in Tarsem Singh's Snow White film, Mirror Mirror, which was released in the U.S. in March 2012.^[22]

Bean will reprise his role as Christopher Da Silva in the Silent Hill film sequel Silent Hill: Revelation 3D.^[23] He will co-star with Ashley Judd in the upcoming ABC drama series, Missing, which is slated to premiere in early 2012 ^[24]. Bean is slated to star with Aaron Eckhart, Anna Sophia Robb and Terence Stamp in Pan, a modern-day spin on J.M. Barrie's tale of Peter Pan, where Pan is a villain being hunted by a police captain named Hook.^[25]

Image[link]

Often described as down to earth, Sean Bean has retained his Sheffield accent, despite now living in London.^[8] Partly due to his role as Sharpe, he is also described as a sex symbol. He was voted the UK's second sexiest man in 2004; his Trilogy co-star Orlando Bloom received the highest votes.^[26] He admits he does not mind being considered as a "bit of rough" by women.^[27] Bean's first love was football and he has been a passionate Sheffield United supporter from a young age; he has a tattoo on his left shoulder that reads 100% Blade.^[28] He was a director of the club until December 2007, but decided to "go back to the terraces, where (he) truly belong(s)".^[29] He had some issues with Neil Warnock, former manager of Sheffield United, after Warnock claimed that Bean stormed into his office and shouted at him in front of his wife and daughter after the final game of the 2006–07 season, when the club had just been relegated from the Premier League. Bean denies it, calling Warnock "bitter" and "hypocritical".^[30] He also wrote the foreword and helped to promote a book of anecdotes called Sheffield United: The Biography.^[31] He also follows Yorkshire County Cricket Club.^[32]

In addition to his image as a sex symbol and an admitted "bit of rough", Bean has developed a reputation as a loner, a label he considers unfair.^[8] He has described himself instead as quiet, and interviewers confirm that he is a "man of few words";^[33] a recent interviewer even called him surprisingly shy.^[34] Although he admits he can be a workaholic, in his spare time he relaxes with a book or listens to music, and is a talented pianist. He is also a keen gardener, and does both welding and sketching.^[35]

Acting style[link]

Northern

Despite being professionally trained, Sean Bean adopts an instinctive style of acting that some say makes him especially well-suited to portraying his characters' depths.^[36] He has said in interviews that the most difficult part is at the start of filming when trying to understand the character.^[37] After achieving this he can snap in and out of character instantly. This ability to go from the quiet man on set to the warrior Boromir "amazed" Sean Astin during filming of The Fellowship of the Ring.^[38] Other fans include the directors Mike Figgis (Stormy Monday) and Wolfgang Petersen (Troy), who described working with Bean as a "beautiful thing".^[36]

Personal life[link]

Bean has been married and divorced four times. He married his secondary school sweetheart Debra James on 11 April 1981. The marriage ended in divorce in 1988. He met actress Melanie Hill at RADA, and they married on 27 February 1990. The couple's first daughter, Lorna, was born in October 1987; their second, Molly, was born in September 1991. Bean and Hill's marriage ended in divorce in August 1997.

During the filming of Sharpe, Bean met actress Abigail Cruttenden, and they married on 22 November 1997. Their daughter, Evie Natasha, was born in November 1998. Bean and Cruttenden divorced in July 2000. Bean began dating actress Georgina Sutcliffe in 2006. After cancelling their planned January 2008 wedding on the eve of the ceremony for "personal reasons", Bean married Sutcliffe at the Marylebone Register Office in London on 19 February 2008. Amid allegations that Bean physically abused Sutcliffe in 2009,^[34] domestic disturbances resulted in the police being called to their home in Belsize Park on three occasions. On 9 May 2012 Bean was reportedly arrested over claims he made harassing phone calls and sent abusive text messages to his former wife, actress Georgina Sutcliffe and was later released on bail.^[39][40] Bean and Sutcliffe's separation was announced^[41] on 6 August 2010,^[42] and the divorce was finalised on 21 December 2010.^[43]

Bean is a well known supporter of Sheffield United and was on the board for several years.

Awards and honours[link]

Bean has yet to receive a major individual award in the film industry. However he did receive three separate awards as part of the ensemble cast in The Return of the King:^[44] from the Screen Actors Guild, the National Board of Review and the Broadcast Film Critics Association all in 2004.

In his home city of Sheffield, he received an honorary doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University in 1997 and a second doctorate, a Doctor of Letters in English Literature from the University of Sheffield in July 2007.^[44][45] Afterward, Bean commented, "I did get a doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University about 11 or 12 years ago so now I'm a double doctor. But this was wonderful, especially from my home city."^[44][45] He was also selected as one of the inaugural members of Sheffield Legends, the Sheffield equivalent of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He now has a plaque in his honour placed in front of Sheffield Town Hall.^[46]

Filmography[link]

The 4th Reich- Sergeant Major Gordon - Pre Production - Coming Out 2013

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Trowbridge, Simon: The Company: A Biographical Dictionary of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Oxford: Editions Albert Creed (2010) ISBN 978-0-9559830-2-3

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sean Bean

• Sean Bean at the Internet Movie Database
• Sean Bean at Yahoo! Movies
• The Company: A Biographical Dictionary of the RSC: Online database
• Works by or about Sean Bean in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Allan Holdsworth
Holdsworth in the 1970s
Background information
Born	(1946-08-06) 6 August 1946 (age 65) Bradford, West Yorkshire, England[1]
Genres	Jazz fusion, jazz, instrumental rock, progressive rock
Occupations	Musician, composer, producer
Instruments	Guitar, SynthAxe
Years active	1969–present
Labels	Eidolon Efformation
Associated acts	'Igginbottom, Tempest, Bill Bruford, U.K., The New Tony Williams Lifetime, Gordon Beck, Chad Wackerman, HoBoLeMa
Website	therealallanholdsworth.com
Notable instruments
SynthAxe

Allan Holdsworth (born 6 August 1946) is an English guitarist and composer. He has released twelve studio albums as a solo artist and played a variety of musical styles spanning a period of more than four decades, but is best known for his work in jazz fusion. A player noted for his advanced knowledge of the fretboard and unique playing, Holdsworth is cited as an influence by such renowned rock and instrumental guitarists as Eddie Van Halen,^[2] Joe Satriani,^[3] Greg Howe,^[4] Shawn Lane,^[5] Richie Kotzen,^[6] John Petrucci^[7] and Alex Lifeson.^[8] Frank Zappa once lauded him as "one of the most interesting guys on guitar on the planet".^[9]

Recording career[link]

Early career and 1970s[link]

Holdsworth first recorded in 1969 with the band 'Igginbottom on their lone release, Igginbottom's Wrench (later reissued under the group name of "Allan Holdsworth & Friends"). In 1971 he joined Sunship, an improvisational band featuring keyboardist Alan Gowen, future King Crimson percussionist Jamie Muir and bassist Laurie Baker. They played live but would never release any recorded material.^[10] Next came a brief stint with jazz rock band Nucleus, with whom Holdsworth played on their 1972 album, Belladonna; likewise with progressive rock band Tempest, on their self-titled first studio album in 1973.^[11] His playing can also be heard on a live BBC Radio concert from that year, which was released several decades later in 2005 as part of Under the Blossom: The Anthology, a Tempest compilation album.

During the middle part of the decade, Holdsworth went on to work with various well-known progressive rock and jazz fusion artists. These included Soft Machine (Bundles), The New Tony Williams Lifetime (Believe It and Million Dollar Legs), Pierre Moerlen's Gong (Gazeuse! and Expresso II) and Jean-Luc Ponty (Enigmatic Ocean). He has often since expressed his enjoyment of the experience gained with all of these groups, in particular his time spent with drummer Tony Williams.^[10][11][12] 1976 brought about the first of Holdsworth's many frustrations with the music industry, when CTI Records released a recording of a rehearsal session with which he was involved, passing it off as an official studio album entitled Velvet Darkness. This angered Holdsworth, who says he still loathes the album intensely and wishes it was never made public.^[10]

As the 1970s wore on, Holdsworth was recruited by drummer and Yes founder Bill Bruford to play on his 1978 debut album, Feels Good to Me. Shortly afterwards, Bruford formed the progressive rock supergroup U.K. with keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson and bassist John Wetton. As they were looking for a guitarist, Holdsworth was brought in on the recommendation of Bruford. Despite getting along well with them personally and enjoying the recording of their 1978 self-titled album, Holdsworth claims that his time spent with the group was "miserable" due to numerous musical differences whilst on tour, namely Jobson and Wetton's desire for Holdsworth play his solos to an organised structure for each show; something to which he vehemently objected.^[10][12]

Whilst U.K. continued with different musicians, Bruford returned to the core line-up of his solo band now simply named Bruford, with Holdsworth retained as guitarist. Their second album, One of a Kind, was released in 1979 and featured extensive contributions by Holdsworth, but by this point he wished to pursue his own musical aspirations and soon left the group, albeit with some reluctance.^[10][13]

1980s[link]

Holdsworth's first significant collaborator was jazz pianist Gordon Beck, with whom he first played on Beck's Sunbird album in 1979. Their first collaborative release, The Things You See, followed in 1980, which was a largely similar effort but without percussion or bass. They would later work together again in the decades to come. Soon afterwards, Holdsworth joined up with drummer Gary Husband and bassist Paul Carmichael in a trio that became known as False Alarm. This was to be Holdsworth's first outing as a bandleader and, after the acquisition of former Tempest singer Paul Williams, the band was renamed I.O.U. Their self-titled debut album was released independently in 1982, followed by a mainstream reissue through Enigma Records in 1985.^[14]

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 an issue of Guitar Player magazine, saying "That guy is bad! He's fantastic; I love him", and that Holdsworth was "[t]he best, in my book".^[2] This resulted in the Warner Bros. release of Road Games in 1983. It was produced by longtime Van Halen executive producer Ted Templeman, and received a nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 1984 Grammy Awards. Holdsworth, however, has always disliked the EP because of creative issues which arose with Templeman.^[12] At that time, the latest incarnation of the I.O.U. band consisted of drummer Chad Wackerman (who, along with Husband, would become a regular Holdsworth bandmember for the next three decades) and bassist Jeff Berlin. Former Cream singer Jack Bruce provided vocal duties, as well as a returning Paul Williams.

Having relocated permanently to Southern California and acrimoniously parted ways with Warner Bros.,^[14] Holdsworth signed to Enigma for the 1985 release of Metal Fatigue (along with the aforementioned I.O.U. reissue). It was during this time that Flim & the BB's bassist Jimmy Johnson joined the band and, like Husband and Wackerman, has remained a regular member of Holdsworth's touring bands to this day. Making his last appearance on vocals was Paul Williams, with whom Holdsworth claims to have fallen out due to the selling of live bootlegs by the former.^[1]

The Atavachron album in 1986 was a landmark, in that it was the first to feature Holdsworth's work with a brand new instrument named the SynthAxe. This unusually designed MIDI controller^[15] (different to that of a guitar synthesizer) would become a staple of Holdsworth's playing for the next fifteen years, during which he would effectively become the public face of the instrument. The next year saw the release of a fourth album, Sand, which featured no vocals and showcased further SynthAxe experimentation. A second collaboration with Gordon Beck, With a Heart in My Song, followed in 1988.

In the late 1980s, Holdsworth set up his own recording studio named The Brewery in North County, San Diego, which would become one of the main recording locations for all of his studio albums beginning with Secrets in 1989, and throughout the 1990s. In a 2005 interview, he stated that he no longer owned the studio following his divorce in 1999.^[1][11][12] Secrets introduced pianist Steve Hunt, who went on to play keyboard as a member of Holdsworth's touring band, and for two further albums.

1990s[link]

A collaboration in 1990 with fusion guitarist Frank Gambale came about in the form of Truth in Shredding, an ambitious collaborative project put together by Mark Varney (brother of Shrapnel Records founder Mike Varney) through his Legato Records label.^[16] In December of that year, following the death of Level 42 guitarist Alan Murphy in 1989, Holdsworth was recruited by the band to play as a guest musician during a series of concerts at London's Hammersmith Odeon. With former I.O.U. partner Gary Husband now being the drummer for Level 42, these factors all led to Holdsworth contributing guitar work on five tracks for their 1991 album, Guaranteed. Holdsworth would also play on Chad Wackerman's first two studio albums, Forty Reasons (1991) and The View (1993).

Holdsworth's first solo album of the decade was 1992's Wardenclyffe Tower, which continued to feature the SynthAxe but also displayed his newfound interest in self-designed baritone guitars built by luthier Bill DeLap.^[17] With the 1994 release of Hard Hat Area, Holdsworth's touring band for that and the following year was composed of Steve Hunt, Husband and bassist Skúli Sverrisson. A collaboration in 1996 with brothers Anders and Jens Johansson resulted in Heavy Machinery, an album which featured considerably more hard-edged playing from Holdsworth than was usual. In the same year, he was once again joined by Gordon Beck on None Too Soon, which comprised interpretations of some of Holdsworth's favourite jazz standards.^[18]

2000s–present[link]

The decade began positively with The Sixteen Men of Tain in 2000, but it would turn out to be Holdsworth's last album recorded at The Brewery. Immediately afterwards, he abruptly slowed down his solo output due to events within his personal life.^[11][12][19] A pair of official live albums, All Night Wrong and Then!, were released in 2002 and 2003, respectively, along with a double compilation album, The Best of Allan Holdsworth: Against the Clock, in 2005.

His eleventh album, Flat Tire: Music for a Non-Existent Movie, was released in 2001 and remains his most recent studio effort. Holdsworth once mentioned that a new studio album entitled Snakes and Ladders was slated for a 2008 release on guitarist Steve Vai's Favored Nations label, but as of 2012 this has not come about. Further new material with Chad Wackerman and Jimmy Johnson was also said to be in the works.^[11] In a 2010 interview, he again claimed to have enough material for two albums, which he planned to begin recording after a show in Tel Aviv, Israel.^[12]

Throughout the latter half of the 2000s he toured both North America and Europe extensively, and played as a guest on albums by numerous artists. In 2004 he was featured on keyboardist Derek Sherinian's album, Mythology, as well as in 2007 with the latter's progressive metal supergroup Planet X, on Quantum.

In 2006 he performed with pianist Alan Pasqua, Wackerman and bassist Jimmy Haslip as part of a live tribute act in honour of the late Tony Williams; a DVD (Live at Yoshi's) and double album (Blues for Tony) of this tour were released in 2007 and 2009, respectively. Throughout 2008–10, he toured with drummers Terry Bozzio and Pat Mastelotto, and bassist Tony Levin as HoBoLeMa, a supergroup playing improvised experimental music. On 3 November 2011, Holdsworth performed in Mumbai, India as part of drummer Virgil Donati's touring band.^[20] March, April and May of 2012 features extensive touring for Holdsworth, in a trio format with Donati and Haslip, in the US and Europe.^{[citation needed]}

Compositions and style[link]

Holdsworth's solo compositions are primarily instrumental, but vocals were prominent on all his 1980s albums except Sand. Two of his most recurring singers were Paul Williams (featured on I.O.U., Road Games and Metal Fatigue) and Rowanne Mark (Atavachron and Secrets). Additionally, he himself sang on Igginbottom's Wrench and The Things You See. In his early career he occasionally played violin^[1] (Velvet Darkness, Sunbird, The Things You See and I.O.U.) and acoustic guitar (Velvet Darkness, U.K., Gazeuse! and Metal Fatigue), but claims not to be proficient at the latter;^[19] this being due to its percussive tonal quality, and hence a lack of desire to play an instrument which isn't optimised for legato playing (as explained below).^[17]

He has a distinctive style that involves a strong scalar sense, combining elements of jazz and progressive rock. The harmonic structure of his pieces can be highly abstruse, with frequently shifting tonal centres, and his soloing follows from a self-taught advanced modal framework derived directly from his unusually-voiced chords. His phrasing almost always features striking yet subtle transitions between notes that often work contrary to the listener's expectations of consonance and dissonance, with wide and unpredictable intervallic leaps. In his solos he predominantly uses various legato techniques such as slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs (the latter being a personalised method which works more akin to a 'reversed' hammer-on);^[21] all of which result in an extremely fluid lead sound. One of the reasons for his renowned emphasis on legato, as opposed to picking, stems from a desire to make the sound between picked and legato notes indistinguishable.^[22]

Another of his most identifiable traits is the use of rich, fingerpicked chords (often awash with delay, chorus and other complex effects), which are articulated and sustained using volume swells to create sounds reminiscent of the horn and saxophone.^[23] He has said that he prefers both of these instruments to the guitar, the latter of which was not his first choice of instrument upon receiving one from his father when beginning to play.^[24][25][26] It was because of this unfamiliarity with the guitar, combined with attempting to make it sound more like a saxophone, that he originally began to use legato without realising that it was not a common method of playing at the time.^[17] Furthermore, he was influenced greatly by such saxophonists as John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Michael Brecker and Charlie Parker,^[26][27][28] whilst some of his favourite guitarists were Django Reinhardt, Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, Jimmy Raney, Charlie Christian and Hank Marvin.^[25][28]

Equipment[link]

Over the course of his career, Holdsworth has worked with many different guitar manufacturers in a lifelong quest to evolve his unique sound—the latter of which he feels he has never been able to perfect.^[13] From the late 1960s through to his time spent with Tony Williams in the mid-1970s, his main instrument was the Gibson SG.^[1][29] He then switched to playing custom Fender Stratocaster guitars that were modified with humbucker pickups, whilst also endorsing DiMarzio pickups; during this time he was pictured in a contemporary DiMarzio catalogue (around 1981) playing one of his modified Stratocasters. He continued to play this type of design in the early 1980s, developing custom models with Charvel and Jackson that feature on I.O.U. and Road Games.

In 1984 he developed his first signature guitars with Ibanez, known as the AH-10 and AH-20. These instruments have a semi-hollow body made from basswood with a hollow cavity underneath the pickguard, and can be heard on Metal Fatigue and Atavachron. His long association with Steinberger guitars began in 1987: these are made from graphite and carbon fibre, and distinctively have no headstock. With designer Ned Steinberger, he developed the GL2TA-AH signature model. He started playing customised headless guitars made by luthier Bill DeLap in the 1990s, which included an extended-range baritone model with a 38-inch scale length.^[17] However, he has since said that he only owns one of the latter instruments (with a 34-inch scale).^[1] He has also developed a line of signature guitars with Carvin, including the semi-hollow H2 in 1996 and the completely hollow HF2 Fatboy in 1999.^[30]

On Atavachron, Holdsworth first recorded with the SynthAxe; a fretted, guitar-like MIDI controller with keys and string triggers instead of a strung neck, and a tube that dynamically alters note volume and tone via breathing in a similar manner to a talk box.^[31] Sound-wise, he uses patches which are mainly Oberheim synthesizers, as he considers them to be "great sounds".^[32] Although he has used the SynthAxe on all his solo releases since Atavachron and still enjoys using his two remaining ones in the studio, he says he no longer wishes to make it such an integral part of his playing—especially live—mainly because of it being so rare (only a thousand units are said to still exist), and difficult to maintain and repair as a result.^{[1][10][27][32]}

Personal life[link]

Holdsworth has lived in California permanently since the early 1980s, and often mentions cycling as one of his favourite pastimes.^[27][32] He is also a keen aficionado of beer, with a particular fondness for Northern English ale.^[25][28] Such is his taste for ale that he went as far as experimenting with brewing his own in the 1990s and inventing a specialised beer pump named "The Fizzbuster" which, in his own words, creates "a beautiful creamy head".^[18][32] With ex-wife Claire he has three children named Louise, Samuel (who was named after Allan's father) and Emily; all three live in Southern California.^{[citation needed]} He has a daughter from his first marriage to Angela Slater named Lynne, who resides in England.^{[citation needed]} He became a grandfather in December 2010 when his daughter Louise gave birth to a baby girl named Rori.^[33]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• 1976: Velvet Darkness
• 1982: I.O.U.
• 1983: Road Games (EP)
• 1985: Metal Fatigue
• 1986: Atavachron
• 1987: Sand
• 1989: Secrets
• 1992: Wardenclyffe Tower
• 1993: Hard Hat Area
• 1996: None Too Soon
• 2000: The Sixteen Men of Tain
• 2001: Flat Tire: Music for a Non-Existent Movie
• 2005: The Best of Allan Holdsworth: Against the Clock (compilation)

Live albums[link]

• 1997: I.O.U. Live
• 2002: All Night Wrong
• 2003: Then!

Collaborative albums[link]

• 1980: The Things You See, with Gordon Beck
• 1988: With a Heart in My Song, with Gordon Beck
• 1990: Truth in Shredding, with Frank Gambale/The Mark Varney Project
• 1996: Heavy Machinery, with Jens Johansson and Anders Johansson
• 2009: Blues for Tony, with Alan Pasqua, Chad Wackerman and Jimmy Haslip (live double album)

Videos[link]

• 1992: REH Video: Allan Holdsworth (VHS, reissued on DVD in 2007)
• 2002: Live at the Galaxy Theatre (DVD)
• 2007: Live at Yoshi's (DVD)

Books[link]

• 1987: Reaching for the Uncommon Chord. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 978-0-634-07002-0.
• 1994: Just for the Curious. Warner Bros. ISBN 978-0-7692-2015-4.
• 1997: Melody Chords for Guitar. Centerstream Publications. ISBN 978-1-57424-051-1.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Allan Holdsworth discography at MusicBrainz
• Allan Holdsworth - Hard Hat Area & None Too Soon reissues reviewed on Prog-Sphere.com