by Gary Hill\r Steve Howe was born in London on April 8, 1947. When he began playing guitar he had quite a few influences, chief among them was Chet Atkins. When you consider that two of the others were Django Reinhardt and the duo of Les Paul & Mary Ford, it is really hard to believe that he would become one of the most influential guitarists in progressive rock. In fact, his first band was a Chuck Berry-infused band called the Syndicats. He began playing with that group in 1964. They released several singles before Howe left the group. His next band was the In Crowd, which eventually became Tomorrow. Under the newer name they released two singles in 1967 and an self-titled album the following year. When the group broke up in 1968, Howe went on to a band called Bodast. Bodast built up quite a following and recorded an album. However, when their label went bankrupt, the still unreleased album was scrapped and the band eventually becam...