Biography
-
Born
19 May 1938
-
Born In
Isleworth, Hounslow, London, England, United Kingdom
-
Died
5 September 2024 (aged 86)
Herbie Flowers (born Brian Keith Flowers in Isleworth, Middlesex, on 19 May 1938; died 5 September 2024) was an English musician specialising in bass guitar, double-bass and tuba, who came to prominence performing with David Bowie and Elton John, and later with Lou Reed; it is his bass that opens Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" and underpins Bowie's "Space Oddity" as well as the Harry Nilsson song "Jump into the Fire". He also played bass on the Serge Gainsbourg album Histoire de Melody Nelson, Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, and several George Harrison solo albums.
In 1969 Flowers co-founded the group Blue Mink and played on their song "Melting Pot", which reached #3 in the UK 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 annual A 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 the United Kingdom and Australia. Since the band's demise in the early 1990s, Flowers has spent most of his time playing jazz. He also worked as a bass guitar teacher at Ardingly College, and led many 'rockshops' at schools, helping children to create and perform their own songs, as well as covering many others.
Flowers is also remembered 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 the BBC 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 was a long-time user of a 1959 Fender Jazz Bass that he purchased from Manny's in New York City for only $79.
Flowers reprised his performance on bass guitar for the 2006-7 live tour of the stage performance of Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds, also appearing in the 2006 DVD release of the production. He continued this role for the 2009 and 2010 live tours.
In September 2009, Flowers founded a community choir "Shoreham Singers by the Sea" which, by March 2010, had in excess of 200 members and performed publicly to some acclaim.
Over the course of his career Flowers contributed to recordings by Elton John (Tumbleweed Connection, Madman Across the Water), Camel (tuba on Nude), David Bowie (Space Oddity, Diamond Dogs), Lou Reed (Transformer, including the two prominent basslines of "Walk on the Wild Side"), Melanie (Candles in the Rain), Roy Harper (Bullinamingvase), David Essex (Rock On), Al Kooper (New York City (You're a Woman)), Bryan Ferry (The Bride Stripped Bare), Harry Nilsson (Nilsson Schmilsson, Son of Schmilsson), Cat Stevens (New Masters, Foreigner), Paul McCartney (Give My Regards to Broad Street), George Harrison (Somewhere in England, Gone Troppo, Brainwashed) and Ringo Starr (Stop and Smell the Roses). He also played bass on Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds. By the end of the 1970s, Flowers had played bass on an estimated 500 hit recordings.
Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
