Langy Posted Thursday at 15:44 Share Posted Thursday at 15:44 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. 38 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spongebob Posted Thursday at 17:21 Share Posted Thursday at 17:21 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. 🤟 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDaddy Posted Thursday at 17:24 Share Posted Thursday at 17:24 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burns-bass Posted Thursday at 18:31 Share Posted Thursday at 18:31 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
police squad Posted Friday at 06:39 Share Posted Friday at 06:39 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uk_lefty Posted Friday at 06:45 Share Posted Friday at 06:45 Absolutely love your work on one of my favourite albums, Lexicon of Love. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mykesbass Posted Friday at 06:56 Share Posted Friday at 06:56 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barking Spiders Posted Friday at 09:27 Share Posted Friday at 09:27 (edited) 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 Friday at 09:28 by Barking Spiders Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Langy Posted Friday at 13:19 Author Share Posted Friday at 13:19 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!! 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarky Posted Friday at 13:28 Share Posted Friday at 13:28 Welcome Brad! Looks like you are playing a Kramer on this all time classic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Langy Posted Friday at 13:36 Author Share Posted Friday at 13:36 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Langy Posted Friday at 13:56 Author Share Posted Friday at 13:56 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. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJWW Posted Friday at 14:33 Share Posted Friday at 14:33 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 🍻 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
police squad Posted Friday at 14:55 Share Posted Friday at 14:55 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beedster Posted Friday at 15:05 Share Posted Friday at 15:05 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....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezbass Posted Friday at 16:32 Share Posted Friday at 16:32 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mykesbass Posted Friday at 17:36 Share Posted Friday at 17:36 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
police squad Posted Saturday at 16:03 Share Posted Saturday at 16:03 22 hours ago, Mykesbass said: You weren't on Gary's last UK tour were you? I think that would have been Jonathan Noyce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xgsjx Posted Saturday at 22:39 Share Posted Saturday at 22:39 Do you still play for work, or is it more just for enjoyment these days? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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