Allan Holdsworth Discography

Allan Holdsworth discography: Original releases

(Note: A first draft of compilations is found here: Allan Holdsworth discography: Noteworthy compilations)

Artist	Album name	Year	Role	Performance
Igginbottom	Igginbottom's Wrench	1969	Band member	Guitar, vocals, composer
Ian Carr	Belladonna	1973	Band member	Guitar
Tempest	Tempest	1973	Band member	Guitar, vocals, violin, composer
Soft Machine	Bundles	1975	Band member	Guitar, composer
The New Tony Williams Lifetime	Believe It	1975	Band member	Guitar, composer
The New Tony Williams Lifetime	Million Dollar Legs	1976	Band member	Guitar
Allan Holdsworth	Velvet Darkness	1976	Solo artist	Guitar, violin, composer
Gong	Gazeuse!	1976	Band member	Guitar, violin, steel guitar, composer
Bruford	Feels Good To Me	1977	Band member	Guitar
Esther Phillips	Capricorn Princess	1977	Session, 1 track	Pedal steel guitar
Jean-Luc Ponty	Enigmatic Ocean	1977	Band member	Guitar
John Stevens	Retouch	1977	Band member	Guitar, composer
Gong	Expresso II	1978	Session, 4 tracks	Guitar
U.K.	U.K.	1978	Band member	Guitar, composer
John Stevens	Touching On	1978	Band member	Guitar, composer
Bruford	One Of A Kind	1979	Band member	Guitar, composer
Gordon Beck	Sunbird	1979	Band member	Guitar, violin
Pierre Moerlen's Gong	Time Is The Key	1979	Session, 2 tracks	Guitar
Allan Holdsworth, Gordon Beck, Jeff Clyne, John Stevens	Conversation Piece	1980	Band member	Guitar, composer
Soft Machine	Land Of Cockayne	1981	Session	Guitar
Allan Holdsworth & Gordon Beck	The Things You See	1981	Band member	Guitar, vocals, composer
Allan Holdsworth	I.O.U.	1982	Solo artist	Guitar, composer
Allan Holdsworth	Road Games	1983	Solo artist	Guitar, composer
Jean-Luc Ponty	Individual Choice	1983	Session, 2 tracks	Guitar
Jon St. James	Transatlantic	1984	Session, 2 tracks	Guitar
Allan Holdsworth	Metal Fatigue	1985	Solo artist	Guitar, composer
Rege Burrell	Victim Of Emotion	1985	Session, 1 track	Guitar
Allan Holdsworth	Atavachron	1986	Solo artist	Guitar, SynthAxe
Soma	Soma	1986	Session, 5 tracks	Guitar
Jon St. James	Fast Impressions	1986	Session, 2 tracks	Guitar, SynthAxe
Krokus	Change Of Address	1986	Session, 1 track	Guitar
Allan Holdsworth	Sand	1987	Solo artist	Guitar, SynthAxe, composer
Stanley Clarke	If This Bass Could Only Talk	1988	Session, 1 track	Guitar
Stuart Hamm	Radio Free Albemuth	1988	Session, 1 track	SynthAxe
Allan Holdsworth	Secrets	1989	Solo artist	Guitar, SynthAxe, composer
Alex Masi	Attack Of The Neon Shark	1989	Session, 1 track	SynthAxe
Strange Advance	The Distance Between	1989	Session, 2 tracks	Guitar
Jack Bruce	A Question Of Time	1989	Session, 2 tracks	Guitar, SynthAxe
Allan Holdsworth & Gordon Beck	With A Heart In My Song	1989	Band member	Guitar, SynthAxe, composer
Gordon Beck	Dreams	1989	Producer	Producer only
Carl Verheyen	No Borders	1989	Session, 1 track	SynthAxe
Various Artists	Guitar's Practicing Musicians	1989	Session, 1 track w/ Jeff Watson	Guitar
MVP	Truth In Shredding	1990	Band member	Guitar, SynthAxe
Steve Tavaglione	Blue Tav	1990	Session, 1 track	Guitar/SynthAxe
Andrea Marcelli	Silent Will	1990	Session, 3 tracks	Guitar/SynthAxe
Level 42	Guaranteed	1991	Band member	Guitar
Chad Wackerman	Forty Reasons	1991	Band member	Guitar
Paz	Love In Peace (Amour Empaz)	1991	Session, 1 track	Guitar
Jeff Watson	Lone Ranger	1992	Session, 1 track	Guitar
Andrea Marcelli	Oneness	1992	Session, 2 tracks	Guitar/baritone guitar
Allan Holdsworth	Wardenclyffe Tower	1993	Solo artist	Guitar, SynthAxe, composer
Allan Holdsworth	Wardenclyffe Tower +3	1993	Solo artist	Guitar, SynthAxe, composer
Various Artists	Come Together	1993	Session, 1 track	Guitar
Chad Wackerman	The View	1993	Session, 6 tracks	Guitar
Allan Holdsworth	Hard Hat Area	1993	Solo artist	Guitar, SynthAxe, composer
Allan Holdsworth	Just For The Curious	1993	Solo artist	Guitar, composer
Gongzilla	Suffer	1995	Session, 4 tracks	Guitar
Allan Holdsworth	None Too Soon	1996	Solo artist	Guitar, SynthAxe
Anders Johansson, Jens Johansson & Allan Holdsworth	Heavy Machinery	1996	Band member	Guitar
Gorky Park	Stare	1996	Session, 1 track	Guitar
Allan Holdsworth	I.O.U. Live	1997	Solo artist	Guitar, composer
Steve Hunt	From Your Heart And From Your Soul	1997	Session, 1 track	Guitar
Allan Holdsworth	The Sixteen Men Of Tain	2000	Solo artist	Guitar, composer
Allan Holdsworth	Flat Tire	2001	Solo artist	Guitar, SynthAxe, composer
Allan Holdsworth	All Night Wrong	2002	Solo artist	Guitar, composer
Soft Machine	BBC Radio 1971-1974	2003	Band member	Guitar
Soft Works	Abracadabra	2003	Band member	Guitar, composer
Atlantis	Pray For Rain	2003	Session, 1 track	Guitar
Allan Holdsworth Group	Then!	2003	Solo artist	Guitar, composer
Derek Sherinian	Mythology	2004	Session, 2 tracks	Guitar
K2	Book Of The Dead	2004	Session, 4 tracks	Guitar
Riptyde	Sonic Undertow	2004	Session/featured soloist	Guitar
David Hines	Nebula	2005	Session, 2 tracks	Guitar
Allan Holdsworth	Against The Clock	2005	Solo artist	Guitar, SynthAxe, composer
Tempest	Under The Blossom: The Anthology	2005	Band member	Guitar
Soft Machine	Floating World Live	2006	Band member	Guitar, composer
Bruford	Rock Goes To College	2006	Band member	Guitar
Planet X	Quantum	2007	Session, 2 tracks	Guitar
Jean-Luc Ponty	The Acatama Experience	2007	Session, 1 track	Guitar
Dan Carlin & Friends	Prowlin’	2007	Session, 1 track	Guitar, SynthAxe
Chris Buck	Progosaurus	2008	Session, 1 track	Guitar
Holdsworth, Pasqua, Haslip, Wackerman	Blues For Tony	2009	Band member	Guitar, composer
Danny Thompson, Allan Holdsworth, John Stevens	Propensity	2009	Band member	Guitar, composer
Snew	Highway Star	2009	Session, 1 track	Guitar
Paul Korda	Early Years	2009	Session, 1 track	Guitar
Eric Keyes	No One Knows My Thirst	2009	Session, 1 track	Guitar
Gary Husband	Dirty And Beautiful Volume 1	2010	Session, 3 tracks	Guitar
Corrado Rustici	Deconstruction Of A Postmodern Musician	2010	Session, 1 track	Guitar
Level 42	Living It Up	2010	Session, 1 track	Guitar
Gary Husband	Dirty And Beautiful Volume 2	2012	Session, 1 track	Guitar
Chad Wackerman	Dreams Nightmares And Improvisations	2012	Band member	Guitar, SynthAxe, Starr Switch
Soft Machine	Switzerland 1974	2015	Band member	Guitar, composer
U.K.	Ultimate Collector's Edition	2016	Band member	Guitar, composer
Allan Holdsworth	Tales From The Vault	2016	Solo artist	Guitar, SynthAxe, composer
Allan Holdsworth	Eidolon	2017	Solo artist	Guitar, SynthAxe, composer
Allan Holdsworth	The Man Who Changed Guitar Forever	2017	Solo artist	Box Set
MSM Schmidt	Life	2017	Session	Guitar
Allan Holdsworth	Live In Japan 1984	2018	Solo artist	Guitar, composer

Discography notes

There are many ways of doing a discography. For this version, the following applies:

The listing includes music released officially on vinyl, compact disc and digitally. Though some records were released officially, their legality was contested by Allan, and some were withdrawn from the market, such as reissues of “Velvet Darkness”. More information on this will eventually appear in the articles.

Outright bootlegs will not be listed. Films and books will go on a separate list. Allan in the capacity of producer, engineer or other tasks will go on a separate list (with some notable exceptions.)

The list is categorized by artist, album name, year of release, Allan’s role, and by the type of performance, as follows:

• Artist and album name are listed as it appears on the cover. This means that ”Belladonna”, for example, is listed as an Ian Carr release, and not Nucleus.
• The albums are listed chronologically on the year of original release. The chronology is sometimes dubious, but is intended to show the records roughly in the order they were released.
• Allan is listed according to whether he appears as a band member, a session musician, or a solo artist. These definitions are somewhat subjective, but as a general rule, albums with only one or two tracks will count as sessions. On these albums, the number of tracks where Allan appears is listed. Where Allan appears throughout the album he will generally be listed as band member. He is listed as a solo artist on recordings released in his own name alone.
• For the performance category, Allan is listed as to whether he contributed with guitar, SynthAxe, violin or vocals. Albums featuring his compositions are also noted.

The list does not contain albums with re-releases and compilations of previously released material, except where the new releases also contain previously unreleased music. That means that the Tempest anthology “Under The Blossom” is listed, for example, as it contains previously unreleased recordings from the BBC. Also, “Wardenclyffe Tower +3” is listed as a separate release. An exception is made for the 2017 box set.

Updates, errors and omissions: A discography will usually be based on some subjective criteria, which may also be revised. Some revisions are in order: Some albums by U.K. released after the band broke up need to be added to the list. There are special editions of some albums featuring previously unreleased material that need to be added for consistency, such as the special edition of “Sixteen Men Of Tain”.

Unreleased albums

Allan made numerous references to albums that he was working on that were not finished. One of these projects was referred to as Snakes And Ladders.

Allan recorded a full album's worth of guitar parts for Soma's second album. At present, this album remains unreleased, but bootleg copies of rough mixes circulate. More information can be found on the Soma page.

Non-appearances

Allan is credited on some works where he does in fact not appear:

Speed: Allan is credited as soloist on the soundtrack for the movie "Speed". Apparently, the score composer was a fan, and commissioned some work from Allan. He delivered some SynthAxe material, which was ultimately not used in the final film. It may have had to do with some technical issues. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0390380/?ref_=nv_sr_2

Steve Morse Band: Stand up. Allan was slated to appear on Steve Morse's album "Stand Up", but for some reason he was not able to deliver his tracks in time. Curiously, the cassette tape cover was already sent to the printer when this happened, and thus the cassette cover lists Allan as appearing on "English Rancher". https://www.discogs.com/Steve-Morse-Band-Stand-Up/release/8933270