guitarist to replace John McLaughlin in Williams' Lifetime project in 1975, as Holdsworth appeared on the Williams recordings Believe It and Million Dollar Legs. But Holdsworth's union with Williams was a brief one, as the guitarist joined up with French-English prog-rockers Gong (for such albums as 1976's Expresso and Gazeuse!, plus 1978's Expresso II), in addition to guesting on recordings by Jean-Luc Ponty, Bill Bruford, Gordon Beck, Jack Bruce, UK, and Soft Machine.
Also in the late '70s, Holdsworth launched a solo career, which over the years has seen the release of 17 albums (a few standouts include 1983's Road Games, 1985's Metal Fatigue, 1994's Hard Hat Area, and 2000's The Sixteen Men of Tain), as the guitarist has been joined by such acclaimed musicians as Paul Williams (a former bandmate of Holdsworth's in Tempest), Gary Husband, Chad Wackerman, Gary Husband, Jimmy Johnson, Steve Hunt, and Alan Pasqua, among others. In the mid-'80s, Holdsworth was one of the first musicians to use a Synthaxe, a guitar that contained a breath controller that proved to be a cross between a synthesizer, guitar, and saxophone (Holdsworth was awarded Best Guitar Synthesist from 1989 through 1994 in Guitar Player Magazine's Readers' Poll). In the '90s, Holdsworth created his own signature guitar model with the Carvin company.
