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Herbie Flowers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Herbie Flowers (born Brian Keith Flowers, 19 May 1938, in Isleworth, Middlesex) is an English studio musician specialising in bass guitar, double-bass and tuba, who came to prominence as the bass player with David Bowie and Elton John, and then later Lou Reed. It is his bass guitar 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 was a member of CCS, and later featured in a mid-1970s line-up of T. Rex.
In 1979 Flowers became a co-founder of the band Sky, which had considerable success in the United Kingdom. Since the band's demise in the early 1990s he has spent most of his time playing jazz.
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 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 rang a friend, who came round, rang the doorbell, and the ding-dong from the doorbell provided the hook he needed.
Herbie also performed bass guitar duties for Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds.
He also works as a bass guitar teacher, and leads many 'rockshops' at schools, which help children to create and perform their own songs, as well as covering many others.
| T. Rex |
| Marc Bolan • Mickey Finn • Steve Currie • Bill Legend |
| Steve Peregrin Took • Miller Anderson • Herbie Flowers • Jack Green • Gloria Jones • Davy Lutton • Tony Newman • Dino Dines |
| Discography |
| As Tyrannosaurus Rex: My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair... But Now They're Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows | Prophets, Seers & Sages – The Angels of the Ages | Unicorn | A Beard of Stars |
| As T. Rex: T. Rex | Electric Warrior | Bolan Boogie | The Slider | Tanx | Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow | Light of Love | Bolan's Zip Gun | Futuristic Dragon | Dandy in the Underworld |
| Related articles |
| John's Children • Born to Boogie • Blackhill Enterprises • Bolan's Rock Shrine • Marc (TV series) • Mickey Finn's T. Rex |