Alan Lancaster ...

[uwe]

Rob mad me aware of his passing in the Golden Earring thread, but I did not want to turn that into an obituary.

Alan was one of my early (and lasting) influences, he was my favorite Quo member with his no-nonsense attitude, the 'tache, curly hair and small but muscular frame. His insistent pick downstroke style in eights with lots of octave slides up and down plus the melodic parts he would always slip in were something I patterned my bass playing after. Other influences would come over time, but Alan was there first. I also liked his singing (of which he did a lot more in the 70ies when he sang live the lion's share of material with Rossi and Parfitt singing mostly the singles). The NME once quipped while reviewing Quo's 'Live!' album (where most songs are sung by Alan): "Rossi has a fine pop voice, but the other guy who sings with him (meaning Lancaster) would have a hard time getting a job with Bachman Turner Overdrive."





Bass playing-wise, a good example for his isdiosyncratic style is this here here at 3:52 and 5:00.



Pummel that Mustang in eternity, Alan!

[Basvarken]

RIP Alan Lancaster.

Multiple Sclerosis is such an awful disease.
Really a slow wrecker.

[uwe]

You could even see its crippling effects as the Frantic Four Reunion progressed. He was already only a shadow of his former pushy bass playing at the 2013 autumn gigs, but by the European 2014 Spring tour, he would frankly have needed Rhino to step in for him playing bass (his voice was mostly fine); at the gig I saw the bass dropped out frequently, even a pick taped to his fingers couldn't help that, Rossi was throwing sideways glances all the time - partly appalled at the bands uneven performance, partly worried about Alan who was by then not only just stiff, but shaky. Towards the end when they were playing Bye Bye Johnny, even his voice left him and Francis had to take over singing a song that had always been one of Alan's trademark tracks. From that gig I went with the realization that I would never see him play and sing again, he was living on borrowed time. 

[uwe]

Never knew there was a vid of this track here, one of his great moments and the opening track to Quo's Blue For You album, the energy from the bass playing is unbelievable:



I love that "Beatles waltz" they put in there at 01:00. Status Quo changing meters? It happens!