Brad Lang

[Langy]

Hi everybody, my name is Brad Lang and I'm a bass player. Thank you for welcoming me to Bassaholics anonymous.

My attention has been drawn to a few contributors unaware of any work I've done apart from ABC's 'Lexicon of Love' album. Some suggesting that I only played the fretless parts on said album, and the fretted parts were either Mark Lickley or Trevor Horn. Let me set the record straight. I played both fretless and fretted parts on ALL of the album apart from 'Tears are not enough'  'Poison Arrow' and 'Look of Love'(synth bass)

 I must thank you for all the nice comments regarding my bass playing on that and further ABC albums.  It definitely was a game changer for my career, I was aged 22 at the time.

I had played on Philip Jap's single 'Save Us' (and other album tracks) which led me to work with Trevor Horn (with ABC, Dollar and Buggles notably) Natasha's 'Iko Iko' is another track I remember from around that time and of course Wham!'s 'Young Guns'. I also remember from the 80's recording with Jody Watley (Shalamar), Haddaway, Samantha Fox , Adrian Gurvitz, Alvin Stardust, Jermaine Jackson, Elkie Brooks, Gilbert O'Sullivan to name a few, some I can't recall... it was 40 years ago!   Chris Tsangarides, Martin Rushent, Gus Dudgeon and Nigel Gray were producers I often worked with. Nigel Gray at 'Surrey Sound Studios' in Leatherhead I remember particularly fondly.

 Later I recorded albums with Black, Toyah, John Parr, Judy Tzuke , Ray Charles, Wishbone Ash, Gilbert Montagne, Ute Lemper, Barbara Dickson, and tracks with Brian May, Bonnie Tyler, Kylie Minogue and Robbie Williams (my first double bass session) I also worked regularly with Simon Brint who wrote the music for many TV shows in the UK.

In case anybody is remotely interested...

Thanks for listening to my story.

[spongebob]

Hi Brad, what a fabulous addition to BC! 👍

 

With your lengthy and impressive CV, I’m 100% sure that all of us on here would have heard some of your work….what a list. 
 

Welcome aboard. 🤟

[MacDaddy]

1 hour ago, Langy said:

Wham!'s 'Young Guns'

 

Was that slap bit during the breakdown something George already wanted or were you given free rein to do your thing?

[Burns-bass]

I don’t think it would be possible to exist and not have heard some of these amazing tracks. Glad you’ve joined us here.

[police squad]

Hi Brad, welcome. I love the ABC stuff.

Chris T was a friend of mine, really great working with him.

You've played some great stuff, on some great stuff

[uk_lefty]

Absolutely love your work on one of my favourite albums, Lexicon of Love.

[Mykesbass]

Great CV, but Ray Charles - that's a bit special in my book.

 

Just read the original thread that got you on here, and it is astonishing that there is so little about you out there on the internet. Extra confusing with your US namesake!

 

Anyhow, welcome to BC. 

[Barking Spiders]

Hi Langy. Love the bass playing on Lexicon of Love, definitely one of my top 5 bass-centric albums. I used to have Save Us but never knew who played bass on it. Great bit 2.30-2.45. Is that you in the vid?

 

 

 

Edited November 1, 2024 by Barking Spiders

[Langy]

19 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

 

Was that slap bit during the breakdown something George already wanted or were you given free rein to do your thing?

As with 95% of sessions, I was given free rein to write and play the part you hear. No artist or producer ever supplied parts to adhere to (not even chord charts for the most part), you'd just get a couple of run throughs to work out the chord sequence and (very importantly) follow the guide vocal and where the drummer was feeling the beat, then they'd press the record button. I'd usually ask to keep the first pass then listen back to see if there was anything worth keeping and  build a part from there. Once I'd got the part I would prefer to play the whole song in one take rather than endless drop-ins just for continuity of tone and feel. That's how we did it back in the day. Live recording onto 24 track tape. It seems akin to recording onto wax cylinders compared to the digital recording of today!!

[Clarky]

Welcome Brad! Looks like you are playing a Kramer on this all time classic

 

 

[Langy]

6 hours ago, police squad said:

Hi Brad, welcome. I love the ABC stuff.

Chris T was a friend of mine, really great working with him.

You've played some great stuff, on some great stuff

Yes, Chris was really great to work with. His sessions were such a laugh. I don't think you could find a nicer more laid back guy. We'd spend at least 5 minutes between takes just chatting and reminiscing and generally having fun,  I always looked forward to working with him. Last time I saw him was at a rehearsal studio near Brighton when I was rehearsing with Gary Moore and he walked through the door. What a lovely surprise!

A great character sorely missed.

[Langy]

19 minutes ago, Clarky said:

Welcome Brad! Looks like you are playing a Kramer on this all time classic

 

 

Hi Clarky, I think that's Mark Lickley on bass in the video. Yeah, looks like a Kramer to me. I myself had a Kramer 450B at the time. A bit cold when straight out of the case and pretty heavy too if I remember.

Good bass though.. notes sustained forever! Slightly shorter scale than my Fenders but a great range of tones.

[EJWW]

I love your work on Lexicon @Langy. I've really tied myself up in knots attempting to master that line you play on 'Show me' when the drums come in at the end of the orchestral intro. Really inspiring stuff and glad to have you in the BC community 🍻

[police squad]

1 hour ago, Langy said:

Yes, Chris was really great to work with. His sessions were such a laugh. I don't think you could find a nicer more laid back guy. We'd spend at least 5 minutes between takes just chatting and reminiscing and generally having fun,  I always looked forward to working with him. Last time I saw him was at a rehearsal studio near Brighton when I was rehearsing with Gary Moore and he walked through the door. What a lovely surprise!

A great character sorely missed.

Agreed. Such a gentleman

[Beedster]

23 hours ago, Langy said:

Hi everybody, my name is Brad Lang and I'm a bass player. Thank you for welcoming me to Bassaholics anonymous.

My attention has been drawn to a few contributors unaware of any work I've done apart from ABC's 'Lexicon of Love' album. Some suggesting that I only played the fretless parts on said album, and the fretted parts were either Mark Lickley or Trevor Horn. Let me set the record straight. I played both fretless and fretted parts on ALL of the album apart from 'Tears are not enough'  'Poison Arrow' and 'Look of Love'(synth bass)

 I must thank you for all the nice comments regarding my bass playing on that and further ABC albums.  It definitely was a game changer for my career, I was aged 22 at the time.

I had played on Philip Jap's single 'Save Us' (and other album tracks) which led me to work with Trevor Horn (with ABC, Dollar and Buggles notably) Natasha's 'Iko Iko' is another track I remember from around that time and of course Wham!'s 'Young Guns'. I also remember from the 80's recording with Jody Watley (Shalamar), Haddaway, Samantha Fox , Adrian Gurvitz, Alvin Stardust, Jermaine Jackson, Elkie Brooks, Gilbert O'Sullivan to name a few, some I can't recall... it was 40 years ago!   Chris Tsangarides, Martin Rushent, Gus Dudgeon and Nigel Gray were producers I often worked with. Nigel Gray at 'Surrey Sound Studios' in Leatherhead I remember particularly fondly.

 Later I recorded albums with Black, Toyah, John Parr, Judy Tzuke , Ray Charles, Wishbone Ash, Gilbert Montagne, Ute Lemper, Barbara Dickson, and tracks with Brian May, Bonnie Tyler, Kylie Minogue and Robbie Williams (my first double bass session) I also worked regularly with Simon Brint who wrote the music for many TV shows in the UK.

In case anybody is remotely interested...

Thanks for listening to my story.

 

Welcome Langy, great to have you here, and as has been said, we've probably all listened to your playing many many times over. I took the Electronic Music Techology Programme at LCF in the early 80's and we used to pop over to Sarm East regularly - ABC were often in around then IIRC. As studios go, it really was the place to be, and some incredible recordings came out of it. It must have been incredible to be part of it and I expect you have some stories.......

[ezbass]

[Mykesbass]

3 hours ago, Langy said:

Yes, Chris was really great to work with. His sessions were such a laugh. I don't think you could find a nicer more laid back guy. We'd spend at least 5 minutes between takes just chatting and reminiscing and generally having fun,  I always looked forward to working with him. Last time I saw him was at a rehearsal studio near Brighton when I was rehearsing with Gary Moore and he walked through the door. What a lovely surprise!

A great character sorely missed.

You weren't on Gary's last UK tour were you?

[police squad]

22 hours ago, Mykesbass said:

You weren't on Gary's last UK tour were you?

I think that would have been Jonathan Noyce

[xgsjx]

Do you still play for work, or is it more just for enjoyment these days?

[markorbit]

Nice to see you here Brad. One album you played on gets a reissue this month - Toyah's 'Love Is The Law'. Phil Spalding plays on the other tracks. I think you did the prep at Toyah's house in Whetstone.

[Langy]

19 hours ago, markorbit said:

Nice to see you here Brad. One album you played on gets a reissue this month - Toyah's 'Love Is The Law'. Phil Spalding plays on the other tracks. I think you did the prep at Toyah's house in Whetstone.

Yes we did. Andy Duncan on drums Simon Darlow on keys and Joel Bogen on guitar. I remember driving up to Whetstone from Cranleigh in Surrey every morning during these rehearsals. Probably the hardest part of the gig!!   One thing I recall from the recording sessions is the producer Nick Tauber insisted that I put a new set of strings on my bass for every new track recorded. After two or three tracks of this I thought 'this was not only getting expensive but completely unnecessary'. So, next track I went into the studio, took off the strings , replaced them with the set I'd saved from the previous track. Went back into the control room and Nick said  "Aah! that's better... you can hear the difference it makes!"  I said " of course you're right Nick. I'll change them every track in future" which I did. The same two sets of strings for the whole album! Sorry Nick!

[markorbit]

10 hours ago, Langy said:

Yes we did. Andy Duncan on drums Simon Darlow on keys and Joel Bogen on guitar. I remember driving up to Whetstone from Cranleigh in Surrey every morning during these rehearsals. Probably the hardest part of the gig!!   One thing I recall from the recording sessions is the producer Nick Tauber insisted that I put a new set of strings on my bass for every new track recorded. After two or three tracks of this I thought 'this was not only getting expensive but completely unnecessary'. So, next track I went into the studio, took off the strings , replaced them with the set I'd saved from the previous track. Went back into the control room and Nick said  "Aah! that's better... you can hear the difference it makes!"  I said " of course you're right Nick. I'll change them every track in future" which I did. The same two sets of strings for the whole album! Sorry Nick!

Haha... fantastic. Great story! Yes completely unnecessary. Thanks for the insights Brad.