herbie flowers still going strong

[jhk]

[size=4][size=5][i][b]just spent a delightful afternoon,watching herbie flowers,chris spedding plus band playing for free in open air on beach front ,in our village in rottingdean,east sussex.........[/b][/i][/size][/size]
[size=4][size=5][i][b]he`s now 74 years old!!!!!..............and just as enthusiastic as ever ........ a joy to listen to, on both double and electric bass....................blimey!! ...I hope I last as long as him......[/b][/i][/size][/size]

[EssentialTension]

Excellent, what was the event?

[jhk]

[size=5][b][i]it was a gig ,celebrating the recent opening of a beachfront performance area.There`s been a series of gigs this summer at this venue................... herbie lives just up the road in ditchling,but is often seen gigging around brighton area..........................it was quite surreal listening to space oddity and walk on the wild side(both herbie`s sessions)and looking out to a shimmering sea....[/i][/b][/size]

[Kiwi]

He's a fantastic chap to talk to over a pint.

[KiOgon]

Wish I knew about that would have been there for sure.

[casapete]

Me too - especially with Chris Spedding as well, one of the unsung guitar greats.

Edited August 27, 2012 by casapete

[RhysP]

Herbie & Chris have been playing in the band on the annual " Jeff Waynes War of the Worlds" tours for a quite few years now too - a very entertaining night out.

[miles'tone]

Saw him at the Cardiff show for war of the worlds a coupla years ago. Brilliant show and he had a killer tone. Only knew he was playing when we sat down and read the program before it started. Made my night!

[51m0n]

Herb is a lovely bloke, great raconteur, and a superbly generous educationalist. I've seen him play with Chris several times, and Plux has literally spent weeks with him over the years at his Brighton Rockshop events: he even lent Plux his infamous Jazz bass for just about the entire week and the final performance, just because Plux was so into it (and because he plays db and so can actually get one of those telegraph cables to touch the neck at all).

An absolute gent.

[uglycustard]

Never heard anybody have a bad word to say about Herbie a lovely down to earth bloke with no ego!" whatsoever and always ready to let anyone have a go on his old stacker-jazz(as if it was just a cheap squier!). Long may he carry on.

[chris_b]

....out of interest, what rig was he using?

[Dingus]

A truly magnificent bass player. His electric bass playing on some of those old Serge Gainsbourg records is absolutely sublime- well worth checking out.

[chris_b]

I think the bass on the Serge Gainsborough records was Russ Stableford, certainly on Je T'aime.

[Dingus]

Apparently Gainsbourg used a few bass players during his classic era, including Russ Stableford and also Brian Odgers, ( basically, along with Herbie , the top session players in London during this era) but a lot of tracks were Herbie Flowers . As might be expected, there is by now some disagreement as to who played on the final version of which track ( similar to the whole Jamerson-Carol Kaye controversy/debate). The upside is that they were all great.

Edited September 16, 2012 by Dingus

[uglycustard]

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1347801989' post='1805134']
....out of interest, what rig was he using?
[/quote] I'm not sure what he uses these days,but I always loved the sound he got from his old Wallace amp in the 70's At one point he used Trace Elliot and also had a Roland cube.None as good as the Wallace...

[Kiwi]

He was still using the Roland Cube last time I saw him (2006)

[molan]

Was he playing the LPB bass?

[jhk]

[i]at this gig it was his trusty blue jazz , plus also his double bass. Not sure about amp, but it was a tiny combo........ roland cube size or smaller......[/i]

[silverfoxnik]

Hear one of his talks a few years ago at the Portland Pub in Brighton & Hove and he was fabulously entertaining.. Told me off for chewing gum when I walked in the room IIRC!

By the end of his talk he had everyone singing and playing along to 'Walk on the Wild Side'..

He started off as a tuba player in the army he said and has just gone on from there.

Sort of bloke that should be Basschat's Patron or something..

[lowdown]

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1347809506' post='1805268']
I think the bass on the Serge Gainsborough records was Russ Stableford, certainly on Je T'aime.
[/quote]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Some posts from his son [size=3][[color=#000000]Glyn Stableford][/color][/size][/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Herbie joins in i think.[/font]

[url="http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2006/07/the-love-affair-everlasting-love/"]http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2006/07/the-love-affair-everlasting-love/[/url]


Garry

[51m0n]

[quote name='silverfoxnik' timestamp='1347879053' post='1805959']
Hear one of his talks a few years ago at the Portland Pub in Brighton & Hove and he was fabulously entertaining.. Told me off for chewing gum when I walked in the room IIRC!

By the end of his talk he had everyone singing and playing along to 'Walk on the Wild Side'..

He started off as a tuba player in the army he said and has just gone on from there.

Sort of bloke that should be Basschat's Patron or something..
[/quote]

Was that the Brighton Bass day thing?

Was a great day that, and Herb really ought to be the Patron Saint of Bass

[silverfoxnik]

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1347892699' post='1806225']
Was that the Brighton Bass day thing?

Was a great day that, and Herb really ought to be the Patron Saint of Bass
[/quote]

Yep! The one Dave Barnard used to run...

[51m0n]

Wonder why it stopped happening?

Had a great time (including a jam with Plux and Terry Popple on the drums which was hilarious!), and it was properly busy all day - the pub must have made a mint....