Guthrie Govan - 2005 Live @ Tone Merchants

Guthrie Govan (born December 27, 1971 in Chelmsford, Essex, England) is a guitarist and winner of Guitarist Magazine's "Guitarist of the Year" award. He was a member of Asia from 2001 to 2006.

Govan attended King Edward VI Grammar School (Chelmsford). He began his involvement with Asia playing on the album Aura. He came to Asia through the recommendation of Michael Sturgis, the band's long-time session drummer. Sturgis had been a colleague of Govan's at the UK's Academy of Contemporary Music. With his work on the album complete, Govan was added to the Asia line-up for the tour to support the new album. "Bad Asteroid", an instrumental in the live shows, was a Govan original composition. It came from the guitarist's past work with other bands.


In 2006, with Asia keyboardist Geoff Downes leaving to reform an earlier Asia line-up, Govan and the other two band members, John Payne and Jay Schellen, formed GPS.

Govan has recorded a number of guitar parts for the forthcoming debut album of UK electronic dance music act The Young Punx and is now part of their live act, having performed with them at the Nano Mugen Festival in Yokohama, Japan, on two dates in July 2006.

Guthrie now attends many jazz clubs in Chelmsford, performing weekly with his brother Seth Govan. His debut solo album, Erotic Cakes, was released through Cornford Records in August 2006.


Harking from Chelmsford in Essex, England, Guthrie was born into a household which featured guitars in abundance; it was only natural that he should pick one up and start playing, which he did at about age five. Govan received musical sustenance in the form of Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix and The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, and by the age of nine had appeared on a Thames Television programme called 'Ace Reports', singing and playing guitar alongside his rhythm guitar-playing brother. Guthrie played at a few local gigs with various school bands before discovering Frank Zappa (the Them or Us album, with Steve Vai) at age fourteen. Like others before him, the impressionable young guitarist went on to discover the likes of Yngwie Malmsteen, Tony MacAlpine, and the neo-classical movement in general.

Govan attended Oxford University for a year to read English, but soon discovered that his first love was music. After sending a tape to Mike Varney and receiving praise from the man himself, he decided to take a year off from university to write and record some new tunes. He then sent a tape to Mike's brother, Mark who included him on his Guitar on the Edge CD series.

Guthrie's demo tape includes four carefully constructed compositions, each displaying strong melodic ideas and thoughtful phrasing along with the application of a highly developed technique. The likes of 'Bad Asteroid' and 'Waves' demonstrate this perfectly, with their Satriani-like tone and southern rock influence reminiscent of one of Govan's favourite guitarists, Steve Morse. His style includes very fast runs, combined with a tasteful arrangement of taps, slides and sweeping sequences, all played in short bursts that leave the listener wanting more.

In 1993, he won Guitarist magazine's 'Guitarist Of The Year' competition (won the previous year by Dave Kilminster). Beating hundreds of highly competent entries, Guthrie's journey along the road to success was, if nothing else, given a boost in the right direction. On his position as a musician of the 90s, he says: 'It's quite a daunting prospect -- almost a responsibility!' One he seems to take very seriously.

All i need to say about this guy, is he's one of the best guitarist i've ever heard.
I first heard him on 'Guitar On The Edge Vol 1, No.4 (1993), a various artists CD that features many great guitarists, they gave him 2 tracks on the CD!
See if you don't agree.

Guthrie Govan - LIVE