Raven - John Gallagher's Top 9 Musical Influences

The man who was the eye of the storm known as The Who.

He practically reinvented the instrument. The bass solo (who played bass solos in 1965 other than him?!) on "My Generation" JUMPED out of the speakers.

Even to my fledgling ears, this was special... John personified cool with his ever-changing outrageous instruments (the flying V bass in the "Tommy" movie, the Red Explorer in the "Who are you " video...(which actually inspired my own red explorer!) and that bold, aggressive sound & style. He was a true original.

John Entwistle is the only guy who could have played with Mr. Moon!

I remember getting the Rush album "All The World's A Stage" and thinking "you can actually HEAR what he's doing!"

It was powerful, melodic and it negated the need for a second guitarist (and that went into my bank & gained my f*ture interest)... and it kicked ass!!! Geddy's supremely melodic approach was/is a huge part of what makes Rush so unique. His tight, percussive finger-style playing has been an inspiration and I've spent many hours playing along with the aforementioned album learning my trade!

When I was a kid back in Newcastle Upon Tyne, the band "Free" was like a religion and the no. 1 hymn was the timeless classic "All Right Now" - the bass breakdown in the middle of that song was something else - covering the bass part & adding a wonderful, suspended/released figure that just slayed me..and the guy was what..18 years old? Amazing!!!

With an astounding restraint in his choice of notes, he would leave these holes in exactly the right place... the bass solo in "Mr. Big"? Killer. Listen to a song like "Little Bit Of Love" with those high, bending bass notes... moving to the big slide dooooown to the bottom!

Such a unique talent...

Another one of our favourite bands was Uriah Heep - just an amazingly powerful juggernaut of an outfit...after hearing a few songs I got the "Uriah Heep Live" album - and Gary Thain's bass playing was just astounding - going up against the monster-distorted Hammond of Ken Hensley & the wall of sludge from Mick Box on guitar - Thain came up trumps every time with his killer melodic punchy bass lines.

Songs like "Sweet Lorraine", "July Morning" and "Circle Of Hands" were taken to a whole different level just by the way he played off the band almost like he was the soloist - all the time - and (most impressive of all) it actually worked!