Steve Topping

Steve Topping is a British guitarist and composer. Topping played with Allan in a improvisational band called Handlebars around 1980, together with Gary Husband and various bass players, notably Paul Carmichael. Steve appears in Gary Husband's instructional video, "Interplay and improvisation on the drums" alongside Allan.

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Allan Holdsworth (International Musician 1981)

Do you have any favourite players?

ALAN: There's a guy called Steve Topping I like very much. Mostly it's musicians who play other instruments that move me, horn players for example. I'm more interested in trying to figure out what they're playing than what some other guitarist is playing. Actually Hendrix didn't make any kind of impression on me until after he died.

Allan Holdsworth (Music UK 1983)

There's lots of good things in England the record companies don't even know exist, the public know about them though'

Such as?

‘Steve Topping is a fine player and so is Eric Johnson.'

Holdsworth & Co. A New Side Of Allan's Music. (Guitar 1980)

Have you heard any new and interesting players recently?

Well the most interesting guy I've heard for ages is Steve Topping. He's a friend of Gary's and he's a fantastic player. It's ‘watch out all the imitators' because he's really doing something else and going off in another direction. We did a couple of gigs with him, sort of added him to the band, and we'll probably do that again in the future. His development shows an early interest in John McLaughlin, but he's gone further and channeled his own route from it. It's one thing to pick up things from somebody, and then it's easy to just carry on chasing that guy, but with Steve I feel he's just listened to things for their musical value. He's a very inspiring player, yet I don't think he's playing with anybody or doing much at the moment. It's very encouraging because there are so many impersonators around, and l got very disillusioned trying to find a bass player - the world is full of miniature Jaco Pastorius's That's why I like Steve Topping so much, because he's not only a fantastic guitar player but he's also cutting out a new hole for himself. It's the essence you should look for in music, not just what it sounds like. I really haven't seen that for a long time.

The Unreachable Star (Guitar World 1989)

There is one English guy I admire who never gets any mention - Steve Topping. There's a guy who's amazing. And it's typical of England that he can't get out or get a deal or anything, because, like Gary Husband, he suffers too much opposition to what he's doing. Steve plays really; really interesting harmonic lines - and definitely absolutely, not bop. His lines are so unusual that the bop guys would have a hard time figuring them out [laughs]. And he plays chords that I've never heard people play before. He's got ridiculous chops - I've seen him demonstrate both left- and right-hand facility; but he's got just outrageous right-hand chops. He's got it all covered. We had a band back in England called Handlebars: just him, Gary myself, and anybody we could get on bass. It was a really free thing where we'd just go, and some very interesting things happened, mostly because of him. He has this unbelievable control of space.