Eddie Van Halen.

 The 6th of October was a very sad day for anyone that loved his music and for all those millions of guitarists out there, who on first sight, couldn't believe their eyes.

I was one of the first lucky few to see him in the UK, 13 dates into a UK tour, with Black Sabbath. They rolled into one of the best places in the midlands at the time, Demontfort Hall - noted for it's acoustics and layout.

A friend and I had managed to get tickets to see Sabbath and travelled to Leicester to see them and for both of us at the time, an unknown band, their support - Van Halen.

This was May 31st, 1978. No internet, no mobile phones - to know what was going on, you would buy the NME and scan through it.

As was the usual case, we would head to the bar for the first part of the evening, as quite a few supports we had seen in the past, were not up to much - this night was different! With a pint of Newcastle Brown each, we stood in the bar and the support struck up. Within seconds, the bar was empty and there was crowd, all open mouthed, staring at this young man in total disbelief!! What the . . . . ? Who is that? How is he doing that? The amthmosephere was one of the most electric I can ever remember, it was, as my friend said, "Truly Amazing"!

What Eddie did in those early days and the following years, was change the face of Guitar Playing, forever!

To me, a real Hero and a true Legend - the memories of that night are still very clear in my mind and to think that aged only 65 years old, he is no longer with us, is very saddening.

Thank you for your time with us, Eddie Van Halen.