- Herbie Flowers
Herbie Flowers (born Brian Keith Flowers,
19 May 1938 , inIsleworth ,Middlesex ) is an Englishstudio musician specialising inbass guitar ,double-bass andtuba , who came to prominence performing withDavid Bowie andElton John , and then laterLou Reed . It is his bass that opens Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" and underpins Bowie's "Space Oddity " as well as theHarry Nilsson song "Jump into the Fire" . He also played bass on theSerge Gainsbourg album "Histoire de Melody Nelson " and "Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds ".In 1969 Flowers co-founded the group
Blue Mink and played on their song "Melting Pot", which reached #3 in theUK Singles Chart . He was a member of CCS, and later featured in a mid-1970s line-up of T. Rex. In 1979, shortly after taking part in the annualA Song For Europe contest, performing "Mr. Moonlight" with his group, "The Daisies", he became a co-founder of the band Sky, which had considerable success in theUnited Kingdom . Since the band's demise in the early 1990s Flowers has spent most of his time playingjazz . He also works as a bass guitar teacher atArdingly College , and leads many 'rockshops' at schools, helping children to create and perform their own songs, as well as covering many others.Flowers is also known for having composed the novelty hit "Grandad" for
Clive Dunn , a fact that has tended to overshadow his many other achievements. According to Flowers on theBBC Radio 2 show "Jammin' ", he came up with it after following an easy primer book on composing. All he needed was a hook, and he was struggling to come up with anything. He phoned a friend (Ken Pickett) who came round, ringing the doorbell, and the ding-dong from the doorbell provided the hook he needed. He is a long time user of a 1959 Fender Jazz Bass that he purchased from Manny's in New York City during a 1959 visit.
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