Allan Holdsworth: shuts forum down as a result of negative comments about other guitarists

News:
29-03-2009:
I found this posted on YouTube:

This kind of "bashing all other guitarists but Allan" is exactly one of the main reasons why Allan temporary shut his own forum down. The man is much more broad-minded towards other musicians than most of his so called fans. Or like he states on his homepage: "Hate speech and pissing matches are not what we're about, and they're not what I'm about". Please enjoy the amazing music and stop spreading hate.

So I ran on over to his web site... and sure enough Allan has closed his forum!

Greetings, all! This is Allan.
I'm getting ready to hit the road for a quick tour of Holland and Germany. We've managed to get our daily road trip average down to three hours a day, as opposed to ten, so life is good.

While I'm away, I've decided to temporarily discontinue the forum. To be frank, I'm not pleased with it's current form-- it's veered into a "National Enquirer" style mosh pit of misinformation and untruths, as well as the occasional racial slur. I've stayed away from trying to "control" the free exchange of ideas, but such postings poorly represent this community. Hate speech and pissing matches are not what we're about, and they're not what I'm about.

The forum was designed to give fans and fellow musicians a playground, and an opportunity to connect. As such, it's important that everyone feel safe and not antagonized if they should contribute. I want to get back to that and figure a way to stay there, so we can all have fun with it. Once we get it worked out, we'll relaunch the forum.

I appreciate very much all of your support, and thank you for your patience.

Yours,
Allan

I have to say although I'm disappointed, I give my 100% backing to Allan on this subject, which continually troubles me on my way around guitar forums... As Thumper's mom said "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all"...

To compound the loss of the forum, I spotted this video:

Guitar god Allan Holdsworth live in Leverkusen 2009. Unfortunately, the video is a bit short, but the camera's batteries were empty. At least, I was close to the master... ;-). I met him and his band 3 days later in Cologne during a workshop and had the opportunity to talk with him for a while. He surely is one of the nicest persons you can find in the music business. Thanks, Allan...

Guitar legend Allan Holdsworth