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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
I have always gone on record as saying that I much preferred the albums that Asia made when they were no longer a supergroup- the John Payne era, in other words. Whilst Steve Howe and Carl Palmer occasionally contributed to these albums, the band were seemingly generally led by Geoffrey Downes and Payne. I think that 'Aura' and 'Aria' in particular were superlative albums, with a slightly more progressive feel than the bombastic AOR of the 80s albums. However, whilst 'Silent Nation' might feature some of their most progressive material, it's something of a disappointment to me, particularly after the superb 'Aura' which I rated as their best album ever.
I agree with a previous reviewer that said this album has a demo-style sound. It's the production job that I find to be one of the album's weakest elements; whilst I have criticised the 80s albums for having a rather overcooked production (I can think of few 80s albums by the prog big guns, or indeed few 80s albums full stop, that do not, in fairness), this album goes completely the other way and it almost has no real production at all. It's as if the band just pressed record and didn't really mix the album to any great degree- it's a shame after the wonderful work that was done on 'Aria' and 'Aura'.
The other flaw here, though, is that some of the material is rather below par. 'What About Love', to these ears, falls rather flat as an opening track- despite the welcome presence of a Hammond organ and a fairly organic sound, it has about it the feel of an 80s power ballad in the manner of Whitesnake or Def Leppard. It sure as hell does not hold a candle to the wonderful 'Awake' on 'Aura'! 'Ghost In The Mirror' and 'Gone Too Far' continue this relative lethargy, being disappointingly average AOR fodder.
Some of the other AOR songs are better- 'Long Way From Home' is the best of these, with a great chorus and a wonderful lead vocal from John Payne that has real sincerity throughout. 'I Will Be There For You' is a slightly better attempt at a power ballad, although is far from original and (I guess you're getting sick of this comparison...) nothing compared to what I hold to be the best ever Asia track, their cover of 'Ready To Go Home', from 'Aura'.
There are some tracks which push the boat out slightly, and these are definitely the best tracks. 'Midnight' is the most progressive, reminding me a bit of Uriah Heep's song of the same title, with its churning Hammond organ introduction, some neat harmonies and a rather twiddly mid-section where Downes gets to show off a bit on the synthesiser. 'Blue Moon Monday' is an intriguing number that nevertheless, feels a bit underdeveloped, perhaps owing to the bare-bones production job. Still, the track's essential quality remains. The title track and 'The Prophet' are the best of the rest, to my ears.
I would not call this a weak album, but the band have proved themselves to be capable of more than this- indeed, even the releases that followed this, such as the Wetton/Downes album 'Icon' and the GPS (Payne and the other members that were in Asia at that time, with Spock's Beard's Ryo Okumoto replacing Downes) album 'Window To The Soul', showed their talents to better effect. Unfortunately, however, this slightly disappointing effort looks likely to be the last word from the John Payne era of Asia.
Studio Album, released in 2004
Track Listings
1. What About Love? (5:25)
2. Long Way From Home (5:58)
3. Midnight (6:23)
4. Blue Moon Monday (7:16)
5. Silent Nation (6:03)
6. Ghost In The Mirror (4:35)
7. Gone Too Far (6:47)
8. I Will Be There For You (4:09)
9. Darkness Day (6:17)
10. The Prophet (5:15)
Total Time: 58:08
Line-up/Musicians
- John Payne / bass, vocals
- Geoff Downes / keyboard
- Chris Slade / drums
- Guthrie Govan / guitar
TrackList:
01. Awake (6:08)
02. Wherever You Are (5:14)
03. Ready To Go Home (4:50)
04. The Last Time (4:56)
05. Forgive Me (5:26)
06. Kings Of The Day (6:51)
07. On The Coldest Day In Hell (6:25)
08. Free (8:51)
09. You're The Stranger (6:05)
10. The Longest Night (5:28)
11. Aura (4:14)
Bonus Tracks:
12. Under The Gun (4:48)
13. Come Make My Day (5:01)
14. Hands Of Time (5:23)
Line-up:
- Geoff Downes / keyboards
- John Payne / vocals, bass, guitar
Guest:
- Ian Crichton / guitar
- Vinnie Colaiuta / drums
- Guthrie Govan / guitar
- Steve Howe / guitar
- Luis Jardim / percussion
- Tony Levin / bass
- Gary Liederman / bass
- Neil Lockwood / backing vocals
- Simon Phillips / drums
- Elliott Randall / guitar
- Chris Slade / drums
- Michael Sturgis / drums
- Pat Thrall / guitar
Links, LinKs
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.
