In Memoriam Alan Murphy, died 19 October 1989

Bellycaster

Have a WOW @digitalkettle

Blimey, you must have quite an enviable collection of Guitarist Magazines. KK was right with a Keith it seems.

Nice find and I'll check out the Solos.

Kebabkid

@digitalkettle - if you happen to have the June '85 edition of Guitarist magazine, which funnily enough also has Pino Palladino on the front cover, I got on the letter's page (p.5) asking what gear Alan uses and it's as I described above except that I omitted he was using Squier guitars with kahler trems. I'd also seen him with one that had both a regular trem arm and an additional, shorter palm arm.

digitalkettle

1985 is a year or two before my time!

dindude

Never really explored AM, mainly because the source material is always a little too uncomfortably 80's (obviously) sounding for my taste. BUT, judging from this thread alone, what an incredible player, wow!

bigjon

There's corker of an Alan Murphy solo on this extended mix of 'Tracie' from 3:34 to 4:12, which I only discovered today

Kebabkid

And another from SFX  -
Christ, I miss not watching that band at The Oval Cricketers. They were a class act and were essentially the backing band for Go West!

Still to this day, he had some of the best clean and dirty sounds I've ever heard live! RIP AM

xSkarloey

Luckily I came across this thread. I vaguely remember him from Level42 when I was a lot younger, but all your comments and links have put me properly in the picture about this great player.

Thanks.

bigjon

Heard 'Silent Running' by Mike & the Mechanics on the radio & thought 'great guitar solo, bet that's not Mike Rutherford, I wonder if it's Lukather?' Turns out not, it's another Alan Murphy one! Starts at 3:22 and there's another brief blast at 4:50

mellowsun

Brilliant guitarist. As technically adept as Holdsworth, but with good tunes to boot. His sound defined 80s pop. 

sweepy

Murphy is responsible for me picking up the guitar again after a few yrs layoff. lovely player and v tasty. sadly missed

bigjon

Anniversary bump.

bigjon

Just had my tweet about this retweeted by Mark King, Mike Lindup AND Gary Husband!

Lev

digitalkettle;63314" said:

'In The Style Of Alan Murphy'...could be a good Fretboard Task*.

* hardtailers need not apply

I've definitely been trying to add some AM vibe to my entry for the current 80's challenge. Great guitarist RIP.

thisisguitar

His solo on SOS - Go West is amazing.

When I studied at ACM we had to try and learn it, and Pete Callard was teaching us. Come the final run Pete was struggling to get it nailed… in walks Guthrie Govan, and Pete asks if he can do it (Guthrie was teaching the same thing to the parallel class). Guthrie exchanges a few words with Pete, then grabs a guitar and plays it as if it's the simplest things ever written. Jaw dropping.

Needless to say none of us could get it!

mellowsun

thisisguitar said:

His solo on SOS - Go West is amazing.

When I studied at ACM we had to try and learn it, and Pete Callard was teaching us. Come the final run Pete was struggling to get it nailed… in walks Guthrie Govan, and Pete asks if he can do it (Guthrie was teaching the same thing to the parallel class). Guthrie exchanges a few words with Pete, then grabs a guitar and plays it as if it's the simplest things ever written. Jaw dropping.

Needless to say none of us could get it!

That's a great story, thanks for posting.

This is a really good cover and tutorial of the solo, he gets it closer than I ever could

I think Phil Hilborne transcribed the SOS solo in his book 'Solo'

mellowsun

Some cracking playing in this live vid from The Tube back in 1985, just makes it look so easy Check out from 3:10

thisisguitar

Thanks for sharing that @mellowsun, handy tutorial…. when my fingers stop hurting from pretending to be Gilmour on the weekend (at home), I'll have a look :-)

He's got an extra bar attached to the whammy on the live video too, unusual!

sweepy

Murphy had a surprisingly simple technique, but the co-ordination of trem arm slurs and note choices certain;y made him very memorable, and yes i am a huge fan, bless him . Check to Nick Heyward's warning sign on Youtube for some very catchy playing

mrgiblet

Just joined the site - great thread!!!

FretKing

Holy thread resurrection.

Always great to re-live some truly nice comments/recollections

about such a wonderful player.

\m/