Who are the top session bassists in London?

[Vanheusen77]

I heard this interview on “Basgasten” with Robin Mullarkey (the guy who plays with Jacob Collier) and he mentioned that he would like to do more sessions but that there were other guys who did most of those Abbey Road type gigs, movie scores etc. Who are these players?

[gjones]

I'm astounded that there are any session bass players left. Guy Pratt had to become a stand up comedian, when all the work dried up, 20 years ago.

[Vanheusen77]

6 minutes ago, gjones said:

I'm astounded that there are any session bass players left. Guy Pratt had to become a stand up comedian, when all the work dried up, 20 years ago.

Haha, the classic fall back plan! 

Edited Monday at 16:02 by Vanheusen77

[chris_b]

If you type in a search for top London session bass players, you won't recognise most of the names, but Ian King, Phil Mulford, Steve Pearce, Julian Crampton should be somewhere on the list. Also have a look for Overwater endorses.

[Terry M.]

2 hours ago, gjones said:

I'm astounded that there are any session bass players left. Guy Pratt had to become a stand up comedian, when all the work dried up, 20 years ago.

Seriously? 😧

[super al]

7 hours ago, Vanheusen77 said:

I heard this interview on “Basgasten” with Robin Mullarkey (the guy who plays with Jacob Collier) and he mentioned that he would like to do more sessions but that there were other guys who did most of those Abbey Road type gigs, movie scores etc. Who are these players?

One of my clients played bass on the holiday camp circuit and jazz gigs around the South years ago, his son, Sam is a bassist up London way.

 

He was/is in the Ronnie Scott's house band and I think he knows Gary Husband as he did some session work for John McLaughlin. He also went on tour with Strictly's Anton Du Beke.

 

He's done some other sessions that I can't remember but last time I asked his dad about him he said he was in Van Morrison's band...that all looks pretty good on the ol' CV. He's not a young 'un ...like his dad says "he's at an age where he gets to fill a dead man's shoes" (lovely turn of phrase 😄)

[Burns-bass]

I always wanted to be a professional musician but once I realised 95% of it was playing Oliver, Grease or backing up middling pop singers at holiday camps I sort of realised it wasn’t for me.

 

It sounds disparaging and I don’t mean it to be, but I’m not sure the life of a pro is easy in 2025.

[gjones]

15 hours ago, Terry M. said:

Seriously? 😧

 

Yes, I saw him at the Edinburgh Festival about 20 years ago.He wrote a book about his life as a session bassist called 'My bass and other animals' and he took to the road telling stories from the book (which is great by the way).

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 09:37 by gjones

[Terry M.]

21 minutes ago, gjones said:

 

Yes, I saw him at the Edinburgh Festival about 20 years ago.He wrote a book about his life as a session bassist called 'My bass and other animals' and he took to the road telling stories from the book (which is great by the way).

 

 

Wow I had no idea. I'll watch the clip later on today 👍

[lowdown]

18 hours ago, chris_b said:

If you type in a search for top London session bass players, you won't recognise most of the names, but Ian King, Phil Mulford, Steve Pearce, Julian Crampton should be somewhere on the list. Also have a look for Overwater endorses.

 

Andy Pask as well...

 

Andy Pask Bassist

[Grahambythesea]

Trevor Barry

[NJE]

Ben Epstein is a superb player and been in various TV house bands I believe, most notably The Voice band. I think he played bass on the latest Snow Patrol album and is their touring bass player now.

[Lozz196]

Ben is/was a member on here too.

[OliverBlackman]

I think there’s some confusion creeping in on the definition of a session musician. My understanding is it has always been someone who is hired to play on a recording at a studio. There are touring guys and TV players that do this too, but not many where it’s their main income.

[NJE]

Mary Scully has done a lot of film scores, have a Google. 
 

One of my very oldest and closest friends does a lot of tv, radio and film work and has contributed to a lot of huge Hollywood films over the past 10 years. He works remotely from his small home studio, there is no studio time on those kinds of projects unless it’s for big orchestration. He’s not well known, no endorsements etc, and I would imagine a lot of the bass work is done by similar types of people.

[SimonK]

Most of the guys I know do nothing more glamorous than sit in their home studios/front rooms recording a bass track (other instruments are available!!) for a fixed fee. Yes they also gig a fair amount, but the session stuff seems to be done mostly remotely now.

[SuperSeagull]

9 hours ago, SimonK said:

Most of the guys I know do nothing more glamorous than sit in their home studios/front rooms recording a bass track (other instruments are available!!) for a fixed fee. Yes they also gig a fair amount, but the session stuff seems to be done mostly remotely now.

That's certainly how a drummer mate of mine works. Occasionally out on a tour in front of a live audience but more often than not working home alone. Seems to be the way these days. 

[Beedster]

I met one of the top session players when he came to my house to buy a bass (yes, I sold one). Even my youngest daughter who was four at the time said afterwards ‘Dad, he was really good at bass wasn’t he?’. And yes, he really was good at bass, made me realise just how far I’d need to go to even think about a pro career. And playing bass is only one of many skillsets required 🙂

[ezbass]

27 minutes ago, Beedster said:

‘Dad, he was really good at bass wasn’t he?’.

Ooh, that stings. Back when I just played guitar, my nephew, who I had shown some stuff to, when he first started out, picked up one of my guitars for a noodle. Lady Ez said something similar to the above to me. I felt very deflated (I knew it to be true, but you don’t want it pointed out ).

[SimonK]

57 minutes ago, ezbass said:

Ooh, that stings. Back when I just played guitar, my nephew, who I had shown some stuff to, when he first started out, picked up one of my guitars for a noodle. Lady Ez said something similar to the above to me. I felt very deflated (I knew it to be true, but you don’t want it pointed out ).

 

...yes my son burned me the other day with "Dad why do you always play the same things - isn't it a bit boring?"

 

Mind you I don't think I'd want to be a session or even professional musician - the orchestra pit stuff looks fun but not every night of the week. There was an interesting article a year or so ago about the most satisfied musicians being those who combined their hobby with other professions: https://theconversation.com/why-putting-your-artistic-calling-on-hold-might-not-always-be-such-a-bad-idea-192203

 

[LukeFRC]

I had a guy come to my house once to buy a fretless bass, played in theatre shows, sessions and overwater endorser. 

Heard him play the bass and he was so good I knocked my sale price down by £100 without him asking - absolutely no reason for me to own a fretless when other people can make it sound that good

[Terry M.]

7 minutes ago, SimonK said:

 

...yes my son burned me the other day with "Dad why do you always play the same things - isn't it a bit boring?"

 

Mind you I don't think I'd want to be a session or even professional musician - the orchestra pit stuff looks fun but not every night of the week. There was an interesting article a year or so ago about the most satisfied musicians being those who combined their hobby with other professions: https://theconversation.com/why-putting-your-artistic-calling-on-hold-might-not-always-be-such-a-bad-idea-192203

 

My daughter did that to me once in a busy music store and it cut like a knife. In my defence it was my standard warm up pentatonic scale routine that I tend to do when I first pick up any bass but still 😅