Born on this day in 1948: Terence ‘Snowy’ White, guitarist, who worked with Thin Lizzy, Pink Floyd and Roger Waters. As a solo artist, he had a 1983 UK Top 10 hit single ‘Bird Of Paradise’.
White grew up on the Isle of Wight, self-taught as a guitarist, having received his first guitar from his parents at the age of ten. He moved to Stockholm in 1965 at the age of seventeen, spending more than a year there playing in a trio called the Train. In 1968 he purchased his signature guitar, a Gibson Les Paul Goldtop. By 1970 he made his way to London and found work as a session player and as a member of Heavy Heart. During this time he met Peter Green and the two began a lifelong friendship (White later appeared on Green’s album In the Skies). In the 1960s Snowy White went on to play with Island Friends Patrick Bradley and Les Payne.
White had been recommended to Pink Floyd by Kate Bush’s former manager Hilary Walker, as they were looking for an additional guitarist for the live band on the Animals tour in 1977. White’s solo on “Pigs on the Wing” (it appears on the 8-track version), was his first time playing for the band. During the tour, White started off the show by playing bass guitar on the song “Sheep”, as well as soloing during “Have a Cigar” and “Shine on You Crazy Diamond Part VIII”.
In 1979 Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham, having seen White play with Pink Floyd in New York City during the Animals tour, approached him about joining Thin Lizzy.
The collaboration with these two bands was very complicated; the invitation to rehearse the live show of The Wall for Pink Floyd, happened at the same time he was invited to become a full-time member of Thin Lizzy, with whom he recorded/co-wrote their Chinatown and Renegade albums. White left Thin Lizzy in August 1982.
White’s connection to Pink Floyd continued in later decades. White was invited by former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters to perform at The Wall Concert in Berlin in 1990, by the ruins of the Berlin Wall, along with other artists. Waters also called on White in 1991 for the “Guitar Legends” concert, in Seville. David Gilmour was the guest on White’s 1994 album Highway to the Sun, appearing on the track “Love, Pain and Sorrow”, with Gilmour playing his Digitech Whammy pedal-induced Fender Stratocaster, which was recorded at Gilmour’s houseboat studio, The Astoria.
In 1999 White joined Waters for his band’s In the Flesh US tour and in 2000, Waters again toured the US, this time recording a live album and making a film of the show. Again, from February to July 2002 White toured the world with Roger Waters.
In 2010 White toured again with Roger Waters, in The Wall Live. In 2016, White’s “Midnight Blues” was sampled on rapper Meek Mills’ mega-hit “Blue Notes”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w0fmUkW6Qo
