Tawny was a rocker

[uwe]

Yet he has never really considered himself either a jazz- or prog-rocker. He no doubt could.

PS: Even if you mute the vid and just watch Holdworth's fretting hand, you know that he is in a league of his own. Some people just look skillful.

To my eternal chagrin, I never do!  It used to bug me endlessly as a young man. Some idiot would say: "Your bassist, eh, he's not doing too much, is he?" And it was all (I was actually a busy player, just stayed in one place much of the time) because I had been taught by a jazz rock bassist who was adamant: "Don't jump about on the fretboard, Uwe, you have four strings, four long fingers and 90% of all the notes you need are within reach for you, besides the bass is more tonally true the longer you leave the string when fretting und there is less string noise too!"

Consequently, I spent the first five to ten years of my bass playing either below the 7th fret or - Glenn Hughes, yes! - above the 12th fret! 

Now, in the sundown of my rock star career, I actually play a lot between the 7th and the 12th fret, no doubt because I am now covering Rolling Stones - und that is where old "small hands" Bill made all his money too. I had an interesting experience yesterday at the rehearsal: After half a dozen rehearsals where I had only played a flatwound-strung short-scale vintage LP Junior (in TV yellow, so it looks better on our copious artsy black & white vids we do), I played my Yamaha Billy Sheehan Sig with Sheehan's Rotosound sig strings (just for the heck of it, it stood in the rehearsal rack). But whatever I did with it - it's a fine bass -, it didn't sound right. Stones music doesn't require a bass with an authoritative voice (as you would expect, the Yamaha is designed to take no prisoners), it needs something that sort of "mumbles around" liberally and rather unperturbed in the background! 

[amptech]

You don't get to play with Bill Bruford and Allan Holdsworth (and Dave Stewart) by being a slouch on the bass. 

Thanks, I don't think I have seen this one before!

Yet he has never really considered himself either a jazz- or prog-rocker. He no doubt could.

Neil confessed that when he worked with Allan (Allan's band, not Bruford) he was really struggling to keep afloat.
In bands like Bruford, or National Health I suppose, you have tricky songs but there will probably be sheet music for the players
to learn. Allan's songs however, were constructed as platforms for improvisations and I suppose you'd need to really dig into his mind to follow. Paul Carmichael did a great job on the IOU album, and of course Jimmy Johnson is a natural force in this context. When Allan goes for a cosmic ride with a great drummer, it must be a near impossible task to hold the song together. I saw Jimmy Haslip sink like a stone on a few songs live; with nothing solid to cling to for the next few minutes you just have to play lots of 16th note chromatic runs and hope nobody takes a notice I was lucky enough to meet Allan a couple of times, but he only talked about drummers and ale

[gearHed289]

Jimmy Johnson posted a "chart" from Holdsworth over at the Alembic club last summer. 

you just have to play lots of 16th note chromatic runs and hope nobody takes a notice

Yes!

[uwe]

Tawny is crawling all up the charts again, in leaps and bounds!

"The hairspray version of Whitesnake's Here I Go Again re-entered the charts in the week of May 13, 2021. It went straight to #1 on Billboard Hot Hard Rock Songs chart with 2.5 million US streams (up 22%) and 1,000 downloads sold (up 178%). The renewed interest in the track is attributed to the death of Julie 'Tawny' Kitaen. The indomitable miss Kitaen was the star of the video, along with two Jaguars, and a some carefully coiffured dudes. She passed away at her home in Newport Beach, California, on May 7 at the age of 59."

https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/whitesnakes-here-i-go-again-tops-hot-hard-rock-songs-chart-following-tawny-kitaens-death/

And my country(wo)man Claudia would have almost become the second German Mrs Coverdale, Himmel!, ze mind böggles:

In a 2019 interview with Consequence Of Sound, Coverdale confirmed that Kitaen was not the first choice for the female figure featured in the video. "Claudia Schiffer was supposed to be 'the WHITESNAKE woman,' when she was the Guess jeans girl," he said. "But that fell apart near the actual shoot. And I was taking Tawny out for dinner, when Marty Callner called me, and said, 'You have to stop by, we have problems.' We went to his house on the way to dinner, he opened the door, his jaw hit the floor — as you know, Tawny was an absolute beauty — and he said, 'That's her! She's the WHITESNAKE woman!' And I said, 'Marty, this is a friend of mine. She's an actress.' And she said, 'No, David. I'm happy to do it!' So, sorry Claudia — you did very well afterwards, too."

In the end, however, I believe, Herr Coverdale prudently opted for someone who would be easier for him to tell apart from his Dutch lead guitarist. You know ... those dimly lit backstage wardrobe rooms and how the Dutch - inquisitive folk they are - are really up to anything at least once, twice and more if they like it.


Adrian Vandenberg, in his younger years, promo picture


Claudia Schiffer, relaxing during a pret-a-porter show break

Do keep in mind, how David's eyesight was never that great!