Trevor Bolder

Trevor Bolder (born 9 June 1950, Kingston upon Hull, England) is an English rock bass guitarist.

Biography

Bolder was active in his native R&B scene in the mid 1960s. He first came to prominence in The Rats, which also featured Mick Ronson on lead guitar. His big break arrived in 1971, when he replaced Tony Visconti in David Bowie's backing band, which would soon be known as the "Spiders from Mars". Bolder's bass (and occasional trumpet) work appeared on the studio albums "Hunky Dory" (1971), "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" (1972), "Aladdin Sane" (1973), and "Pin Ups" (1973), the Spiders' swan-song with their leader. At the time Bolder sported legendary sideburns, well in-keeping with the 1970s.

In 1976 Bolder was recruited to join Uriah Heep, replacing John Wetton. Bolder's tenure with Uriah Heep was, initially, relatively short-lived. Although he did contribute to the albums "Firefly", "Innocent Victim", "Fallen Angel" and "Conquest", when the line-up that had recorded the latter disbanded Bolder alone was left with Mick Box, guitarist, founder-member and legal owner of the band's name. The attempt to put a new line-up together temporarily stalled and Bolder, needing to be earning a living, accepted an offer in 1981 to join Wishbone Ash, a band who much earlier had tenuous links with Hull. Bolder had, co-incidentally, again swapped places with John Wetton, becoming The Ash's bass player for their 1982 album "Twin Barrels Burning". It was another short-lived connection, as by 1983 he returned to the rhythm section with Uriah Heep, playing on the "Head First" tour (although Bob Daisley played on the album) and all albums since.

As well as his usual bass-playing and backing vocal duties, Bolder also produced Heep's 1991 abum "Different World". He sang lead on "Fear Of Falling", one of the tracks he had written for "Sea Of Light" in 1995. (NB although credited on the album cover with lead vocals on "It Ain't Easy", last track on "Conquest", it is not Bolder singing. It was simply too late to amend the sleeve.)

He remains a member of Uriah Heep, and has also played with Cybernauts.

Discography

With David Bowie

*"Hunky Dory" (1971)
*"The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" (1972)
*"Aladdin Sane" (1973)
*"Pin Ups" (1973)
*"Ziggy Stardust - The Motion Picture" (recorded live 1973, officially released 1983)
*"Santa Monica '72" (recorded live 1972, officially released 1994)

With Cybernauts

*"Cybernauts Live"

With Dana Gillespie

*"Weren't Born a Man"

With Ken Hensley

*"Free Spirit"
*"From Time to Time"

With Mick Ronson

*"Slaughter On 10th Avenue" (1974)
*"Play Don't Worry" (1975)
*"Main Man"
*"Memorial Concert"

With The Spiders From Mars

*"Spiders From Mars" (1976)

With Uriah Heep

*"Firefly" (1977)
*"Innocent Victim" (1977)
*"Fallen Angel" (1978)
*"Conquest" (1980)
*"Equator" (1985)
*"Live in Europe 1979" (1986) – recorded 1979
*"Live in Moscow" (live, 1988)
*"Raging Silence" (1989)
*"Different World" (1991)
*"Sea of Light" (1995)
*"Spellbinder" (live, 1996)
*"Sonic Origami" (1998)
*"Future Echoes Of The Past" (live, 2000)
*"Acoustically Driven" (live, 2001)
*"Electrically Driven" (live, 2001)
*"The Magician's Birthday Party" (live, 2002)
*"Live in the USA" (2003)
*"Magic Night" (live, 2004)
*"Between Two Worlds" (live, 2005)
*"Wake the Sleeper" (2008)

With Wishbone Ash

*"Twin Barrels Burning" (1982)

Equipment

Throughout his career Bolder has used many different basses including:
*Fender Mustang Bass
*Gibson EB-3
*Rickenbacker 4001
*Fender Precision Bass (1971 version - maple fretboard; with jazz bass pick-up added later)
*D'Alegria Defender TB (signature bass - as seen in the picture above)

External links

* [http://www.uriah-heep.com/ Uriah Heep official website]
* [http://www.myspace.com/trevorbolder Trevor Bolder's official MySpace page]
* [http://dmme.net/interviews/bolder.html Exhaustive interview with Trevor Bolder]
* [http://www.wishboneash.com/ Wishbone Ash's official site]
* [http://www.nndb.com/people/774/000091501/ NNDB website]
* [http://www.dalegria.com/en/products_signature_defendertb.html D'Alegria website - TB signature bass]