Chris Spedding | Artist
Chris Spedding is an English musician, singer, guitarist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and record producer born 1944 in Stavely UK. Over his 50 year career Spedding has cut sixteen solo albums plus been a member of the bands Nucleus, Pete Brown's Battered Ornaments, Sharks, The Necessaries and King Mob. As one of rock's most sought after session players, Spedding's characteristic guitar sound can be heard on albums by Bryan Ferry, John Cale, Brian Eno, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce, Harry Nilsson, Roger Daltrey, Elton John, Roy Harper, Art Garfunkel and Robert Gordon. Spedding also produced the first three demo recordings for the Sex Pistols and, to cap it off, was a member of The Wombles, appearing on BBC TV with guitar wearing a Womble Suit! Spedding was also a long-time friend of Chrissie Hynde, and was a regular concert feature artist with the Pretenders on their US tour in March/April 1980. He appeared regularly during the band's encores, playing the guitar solos on their version of the Kinks' song "Stop Your Sobbing." Spedding's solo style has ranged from Jazz-Prog in his earliest days, through rock, rockabilly, and then blues-rock style on his latter albums. Spedding started his career as guitarist and vocalist for the jazz-prog outfit Battered Ornaments, headed by poet and singer Pete Brown, who contributed lyrics to Cream and Jack Bruce. During this time, he was also playing jazz-fusion with Nucleus and recorded and toured with Mike Gibbs, featuring as lead soloist on the track "Five for England" on Gibbs's Tanglewood '63 album. He played guitar on the Pete Atkin/Clive James album Driving Through Mythical America. He was a session player on Harry Nilsson's breakthrough album, Nilsson Schmilsson, in 1970, he played on the original recording of Jesus Christ Superstar, and in 1971 he also played on Pieces of Me by Linda Hoyle and Coming from Reality by Sixto Rodriguez. During 1972–74, Spedding played a central role in Sharks, initially with ex-Free bassist Andy Fraser. They recorded two albums and toured with Roxy Music. After that, he toured and recorded with John Cale. He also played with Roy Harper's occasional backing band Trigger, notably on 1975's HQ album. In 1972–76, he played in Mike Batt's novelty band The Wombles taking part in their UK tour in full costume wielding his trademark Gibson Flying V. Spedding then recorded his own instrumental album, Songs Without Words (1970) for Harvest Records, which was released only in Japan. Over the course of his career Spedding has released 17 studio albums, including collaborations with Robert Gordon and The Vibrators. Standiout solo albums include Songs Without Words (1971), Chris Spedding (1976), Hurt (1977), and One Step Ahead of the Blues (2002). Allmusic has described Spedding as "one of the UK's most versatile session guitarists, he has had a long career on two continents that saw him tackle nearly every style of rock and roll ..." In march 1971 Spedding came runner-up in the Melody Maker award for best jazz guitarist, coming in behind John McLaughlin in first place.
Artist Website: chrisspedding.com
Featured Albums: Chris Spedding
Related Artists: The Necessaries, Bryan Ferry, John Cale, Sharks, Nucleus, Pete Brown, Robert Gordon, The Wombles
