leeeroy57

Unfortunately it was a very difficult room sound-wise, all marble and stone with a massive ceiling, so the noise was echoing around everywhere. The sound engineer asked us to keep the volume on stage as low as possible so there wasn't much coming from the amp. I was off to the side when George was playing so I didn't really get a chance to hear him. The videos I've seen have the bass pretty low in the mix, so it's not easy to make out much of his playing unfortunately. What I will say is that he's not been playing music professionally for over 40 years, the stage sound was not ideal, and he'd only ran through the two songs with Carlos and our band once earlier in the day. I think with all that in mind he did a great job, particularly with Secret Life of Arabia which he's presumably not played since it was originally recorded for Heroes. Bowie never played it live. https://youtu.be/zRjvJgQCWAg?si=kP89G2CJnZjuB4G7

I agree it was probably right for Bowie to change things around at that point, and obviously nothing lasts for ever, but I think the issue was that George was never told that was happening. It was like "OK George, see you next time", and the next he knew Bowie was doing Let's Dance with a new band. He literally never spoke to Bowie ever again. That had to hurt...

He told me it was basically because he couldn't continue on the money he was making, but I also think the way he was treated by Bowie had an effect. The last time he played with him was for a live TV show, SNL I think, and then he never heard from or saw him ever again. I know that's just how Bowie operated, but it can't be easy to spend 5-6 years working with someone like that just to be dumped without even a thank you. I know George spoke about it in a recent interview and said it took him a long time to get over it.

Here are the songs with Carlos and George. The event was held in a massive marble hall, and so unfortunately the sound on stage was... difficult 😂 https://youtu.be/zRjvJgQCWAg?si=GxB3oE7tMe_2sJJa

He did mention the BC Rich Eagle to me, and I believe he did use it on Ashes. To be honest he didn't seem to be particular about instruments or gear, he talked about trading away his original P bass for example, the black one he'd used through the Bowie tours with the jazz pickup added near the bridge. If it was me I'd never have traded something like that away! But I think he had no particular attachments to instruments and liked to experiment. Joining the Bowie band I'm in has really upped my respect levels for him. We try to base our versions on live tracks and trying to get the bass parts from Stage down for example was a big challenge for me. The bass is a lead instrument on that album, in my opinion. And on the day after our show he specifically asking around for me by name, and wanted to sit and chat with me, which was incredible really! Such a kind and humble man.

He does! He told me it was Carlos's idea to wear his jacket inside out on stage with us 😂 He also talked a bit about the top hat and stetson he used to wear at Bowie shows, which unfortunately both went missing or were stolen during a tour in Japan.

Hello Just thought I'd share my experience from this weekend when I was lucky enough to perform at the World David Bowie Fan Convention in Liverpool and meet two of my musical heroes, George Murray and Carlos Alomar. They also guested on two songs with our band, The Bowie Contingent, with George playing my 71 P bass which was an incredible honour. George is a lovely man and was kind enough to sit with me for an hour and let me ask him anything I wanted about his time with Bowie, and about bass playing in general. A wonderful, gracious human being! Lee