Ollie Halsall

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BucketBucket Frets: 7751
edited February 2015 in Guitar
Think I've mentioned him on here before but it bears repeating... this chap was a truly remarkable player.



Fantastic rhythm playing, really intricate part that always keeps moving... and a face-melting solo at 1:40. He's the earliest guy I can find who played really, really fast in the context of a rock band. Almost a proto-shredder, if you will... but that's unfair really, because his playing was more reliant on very fast four-finger legato (not tapping) and there's a fair bit of angular jazz-fusion influence to be heard. He was a very significant influence on Allan Holdsworth, which makes total sense. He also apparently influenced Bill Nelson of Be Bop Deluxe, another one of my favourite players - so I think directly and indirectly, Halsall's been a fairly major influence on my own playing since I found him.

He recorded a few albums with Patto, but their stuff is somewhat spoiled for me by the singer, whose voice I don't really like and whose lyrics are gibberish. Here he is with (IMO) a much better band, still shredding like an absolute demon.



Then at 3:20, we find this, you can really see where Holdsworth got it from:



Absolutely stunning. He was very, very ahead of his time as a player, I think... which may be why he never got much attention. He's no longer with us - drugs got to him in the early 90s. Some other things about him...

1) He was left-handed, but numerous reports confirm that he was equally good right-handed. And with the strings either way round.

2) I have it on good authority that he would sometimes tie knots in his strings when they broke. (!)

3) At the time the first track I posted came out, he'd been playing guitar for only four years. He'd switched from the vibraphone, apparently also having been a virtuoso at that.

I don't know, but I suspect he might have actually been Superman.
- "I'm going to write a very stiff letter. A VERY stiff letter. On cardboard."
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Comments

  • Philly_QPhilly_Q Frets: 22516
    Yeah, terrific player!

    I've had that Tempest album for many years, so long in fact that I have a copy on vinyl.

    Of course his predecessor in that band was Allan Holdsworth.  I must confess at one time, before I knew better, I had a daft theory that they were the same person - "Allan Holdsworth", "Ollie Halsall".... they sound almost like aliases.


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  • dogloaddogload Frets: 1495
    edited February 2015
    Here he is with the sublime Kevin Ayers


    It was this connection that made me aware of Halsall. Great player and one-time Rutle, of course!
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  • stickersticker Frets: 869
    I've only ever heard him in The Rutles .... I look forward to giving this a listen later .
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  • xSkarloeyxSkarloey Frets: 2962
    Great player.

    In his later years he was based more out of Madrid where he was working with a great Spanish band called Radio Futura. Unfortunately he developed a hard drug habit at the same time.

    He's all over their last album Veneno en la Piel. His playing on that is a real lesson in how to play sympathetically within the context of a song but really drive a band at the same time.
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  • SassafrasSassafras Frets: 30273
    He was pretty cool and didn't do the agonised guitar hero face.
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  • scrumhalfscrumhalf Frets: 11262
    That Tempest album, Living In Fear is great. I bought it as a double pack with another Tempest album with Holdsworth on guitar, and at that point in time Ollie was streets ahead.

    Oh for the days when I used to walk into Terrapin Trucking and Simon would say "you have to hear this" and I'd walk out having dropped a ton on the credit card.
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  • dogloaddogload Frets: 1495
    scrumhalf said:
    Oh for the days when I used to walk into Terrapin Trucking and Simon would say "you have to hear this" and I'd walk out having dropped a ton on the credit card.
    I loved that shop! An ex-gf moved to Hornsey and I used to come down and visit frequently. I used to spend hours in Terrapin and Rock Around The Clock which was just down the road.
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  • hobbiohobbio Frets: 3440
    Can't view the vids at work, but I'll be checking them out later. I've never heard of him but it sounds like I should have.

    electric proddy probe machine

    My trading feedback thread

     

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  • and ... just don't make it sound like Sergio Mendes ... ;)

     

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  • i saw them in 1972 at the teachers training collage in darlington  when i was 16 with a mate who also played guitar , man i walked home after and we both said , i will burn my guitar  when i get home, ollie just blow us away he was fantastic speed and great touch ,and a sound to die for with 2 fender twins . great night great gig , 
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  • SkippedSkipped Frets: 2371

    Bucket said:
    He also apparently influenced Bill Nelson of Be Bop Deluxe, another one of my favourite players

    I didn't know that.
    I wonder if that is why Nelson had a very brief flirtation with a white Gibson Sg Custom. When I say brief, I clocked it at less than 15 minutes. At an early Be Bop Deluxe gig he turned up with said guitar and told the audience in the pub that this was his "dream guitar". 10 minutes into the gig he looked down at the Sg and started wondering out loud if he "could take it back". He then switched to the Es-345.
    That sticks in my mind so clearly because I also wanted a 60's white custom.....and I was also underwhelmed when I finally got my hands on one.

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  • FezFez Frets: 499
    Excellent Kevin Ayers clip.
    Don't touch that dial.
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  • FretwiredFretwired Frets: 24601
    Cool clips .. thanks ...

    Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
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  • Moe_ZambeekMoe_Zambeek Frets: 3419
    edited February 2015
    Reminds me of John Coltrane in the earlier clips. It also sounds like a great guitarist in need of a decent band in the case of Patto and Tempest...
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