Changes

Allan Holdsworth

In a sense, he has had an easier task than those new members who have replaced well-known Softs personnel, though of course he has had to carve out for himself a completely new niche in what was an established set-up, but he didn't consider whether it was more easy or difficult that way.

"So many things have happened in jazz and rock," he points out. "Musicians who are growing up now, young guys who are coming in now, they're influenced not by the separate things but by the combinations of things that people have been playing. So what Softs are doing is a new thing really, though what's gone before affects us as well."

"Before Tempest I wasn't really doing anything really. I'd played with local rock bands round Bradford and then I got into a Mecca palais thing for about three years. That was the longest thing I did, really."