Who are the top session bassists in London?

[ezbass]

  On 10/01/2025 at 10:15, 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?"

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The good Lady Ez, once again, got me with something similar. I was trying out a guitar in the basement of Chandlers in Kew, she wasn’t interested and went for a walk. She came back and met up with me in the shop. She said, “I knew it was you playing,” she could plainly hear me in the basement and I was obviously playing Eric Johnson’s SRV as a test piece, unfortunately for her, she’d had to put up with me learning it for weeks. Oh well, at least it wasn’t Stairway .

[Mrbigstuff]

  On 10/01/2025 at 12:36, Burns-bass said:

And most of them seem like thoroughly nice people. That’s the one I’d fail at as I’m horrid.

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Some of the guys I know who tour are so relaxed they could be punched in the face and it not phase them 😂 I lost a few gigs for the opposite approach!

[Rich]

  On 07/01/2025 at 09:35, 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).

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The wonderful late Mo Foster did something similar, following the publication of his semi-memoir "Seventeen Watts?" (published in the US as "Play Like Elvis!"), which incidentally is a great read and I encourage everyone to grab a copy if you see it for sale. Mo was a lovely chap, and his talks were more in the form of raconteur & anecdotist than stand-up. I had a lovely chat with him following his Hungerford show and he couldn't have been more friendly. One of the absolute diamond geezers of our instrument, and much missed.

[Lozz196]

  On 10/01/2025 at 12:36, Burns-bass said:

And most of them seem like thoroughly nice people. That’s the one I’d fail at as I’m horrid.

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  On 10/01/2025 at 13:15, OliverBlackman said:

Some of the guys I know who tour are so relaxed they could be punched in the face and it not phase them 😂 I lost a few gigs for the opposite approach!

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I think that this is a very overlooked skill indeed. 

[Beedster]

  On 10/01/2025 at 10:21, LukeFRC said:

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

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Shit you’d have needed to charge me £250 extra 🤔

[Beedster]

  On 10/01/2025 at 12:33, chris_b said:

 

. . . and timing.

 

The best players have perfect timing, 100% of the time.

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And taste. The only compliment I’ve ever received re my bass playing that I felt I earned was from a BL who said ‘You instinctively know when not to play’. Still makes me smile 🙂

[LukeFRC]

  On 10/01/2025 at 16:18, Beedster said:

Shit you’d have needed to charge me £250 extra 🤔

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still waiting for it mate!

 

[Buddster]

  On 10/01/2025 at 13:23, Rich said:

The wonderful late Mo Foster did something similar, following the publication of his semi-memoir "Seventeen Watts?" (published in the US as "Play Like Elvis!"), which incidentally is a great read and I encourage everyone to grab a copy if you see it for sale. Mo was a lovely chap, and his talks were more in the form of raconteur & anecdotist than stand-up. I had a lovely chat with him following his Hungerford show and he couldn't have been more friendly. One of the absolute diamond geezers of our instrument, and much missed.

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Back in 1986, I had the privilege of being the assistant engineer on a couple of sessions when he was the bass player (along with Ray Russell on guitar), full sessions with drummer, bass, guitar, strings, brass, recording for a well known singer. 

But this was before the Internet (and I was young!) and had no idea who these guys were. But I did know they were phenomenal players and marvelled at how they could read the dots. 

I recently went to The bass Gallery where they are selling his basses. Odd to think he probably played one of those at the time. 

[Beedster]

  On 10/01/2025 at 16:36, LukeFRC said:

still waiting for it mate!

 

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I’ll be needing that bass first 😆

[ead]

My minor brush with fame was with the bass player from a pretty well known NW band.  He bought an MIJ P bass I was selling and came round to pick it up.  Thoroughly nice man, had a good chat but he didn't play it much other than to make sure it was all working.

[peteb]

  On 10/01/2025 at 12:33, chris_b said:

 

. . . and timing.

 

The best players have perfect timing, 100% of the time.

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Yep, that's the big difference between a lot of bassists who can play a bit and the real top guys. 

 

[itu]

Who knows the bassist behind this song:

 

I found his name, Tony Campo, but is not the metal player you find from the net.

[sshorepunk]

Ian king has a YouTube channel where he talks you through the various jobs he gets

A recent one was for ITV’s New Years Big Bash at Wembley Arena. It’s a good insight into what’s involved when you are doing that sort of thing 

 

 

[diskwave]

I would imagine Ian King is easily a "Top London Session player". He can read anything, play anything, has all the gear and appears to be a nice bloke which is doubly important. You want to look at a TLSP...There he is right there.

[Terry M.]

  On 13/01/2025 at 12:58, sshorepunk said:

Ian king has a YouTube channel where he talks you through the various jobs he gets

A recent one was for ITV’s New Years Big Bash at Wembley Arena. It’s a good insight into what’s involved when you are doing that sort of thing 

 

 

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I've never heard of him before but really enjoyed that YouTube link. Thanks for sharing. 

[Lozz196]

I’ve watched a couple of his vids, they give a good insight to the role he performs.

[Belka]

I saw an interesting video from Rob Harris - the Jamiroquai guitarist - about making it as a pro. He said that for guitarists and bassists, the session world is pretty much gone now. Apparently there are 2-4 guitarists who make a living doing nothing but sessions in places like Abbey Road, but it's a very closed-off world and almost impossible to enter - I'd imagine for bassists it's the same. Most of the people namechecked in this thread are not session bassists per se, but pros who do some sessions. I'd guess the bulk of their income comes from West End shows/touring/gigging. 

 

Interestingly, he also mentioned music colleges are selling students a dream which is nigh-on impossible to achieve. Yes, you can get a degree, learn to sight-read and buy an Overwater, but you have to be really good to actually make it to the top  - as well as have the right personality, look, etc. Most of my gigs are doing wedding/corporates, and it's interesting meeting some of the pros that still dep on those gigs for £250 on a Saturday night, as well as actually meeting some 'pros', who got their degree, do make a living from music (mostly through gigging and teaching), but actually aren't that great as players.  

 

 

 

 

[Terry M.]

  On 13/01/2025 at 14:22, Belka said:

I saw an interesting video from Rob Harris - the Jamiroquai guitarist - about making it as a pro. He said that for guitarists and bassists, the session world is pretty much gone now. Apparently there are 2-4 guitarists who make a living doing nothing but sessions in places like Abbey Road, but it's a very closed-off world and almost impossible to enter - I'd imagine for bassists it's the same. Most of the people namechecked in this thread are not session bassists per se, but pros who do some sessions. I'd guess the bulk of their income comes from West End shows/touring/gigging. 

 

Interestingly, he also mentioned music colleges are selling students a dream which is nigh-on impossible to achieve. Yes, you can get a degree, learn to sight-read and buy an Overwater, but you have to be really good to actually make it to the top  - as well as have the right personality, look, etc. Most of my gigs are doing wedding/corporates, and it's interesting meeting some of the pros that still dep on those gigs for £250 on a Saturday night, as well as actually meeting some 'pros', who got their degree, do make a living from music (mostly through gigging and teaching), but actually aren't that great as players.  

 

 

 

 

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This is an interesting post. Apologies for going off topic in advance but this is off the back of your reference to the Overwater brand. I've noticed from forums that they seem to be favoured by working pros and can be seen being used by theatre pit musicians etc. What are their general attributes that may contribute to this?

[Mrbigstuff]

  On 13/01/2025 at 13:14, diskwave said:

I would imagine Ian King is easily a "Top London Session player". He can read anything, play anything, has all the gear and appears to be a nice bloke which is doubly important. You want to look at a TLSP...There he is right there.

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Yet he mostly plays in west end pits… He could be, but I wouldn’t say he’s widely known for it - although I’m not someone who would know that sort of thing anymore.

 

  On 13/01/2025 at 14:22, Belka said:

Yes, you can get a degree, learn to sight-read and buy an Overwater, but you have to be really good to actually make it to the top  - as well as have the right personality, look, etc.

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Jeez that hits a bit close to home 😅

 

  On 13/01/2025 at 18:00, Terry M. said:

This is an interesting post. Apologies for going off topic in advance but this is off the back of your reference to the Overwater brand. I've noticed from forums that they seem to be favoured by working pros and can be seen being used by theatre pit musicians etc. What are their general attributes that may contribute to this?

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They are very well built and the electronics have a flat response which make them very useful for sound engineers to get the cleanest sound possible. Just very reliable in all scenarios.

[SimonK]

  On 13/01/2025 at 18:00, Terry M. said:

This is an interesting post. Apologies for going off topic in advance but this is off the back of your reference to the Overwater brand. I've noticed from forums that they seem to be favoured by working pros and can be seen being used by theatre pit musicians etc. What are their general attributes that may contribute to this?

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Surely it was always thus - there are plenty of great players out there, but it takes luck to get the gigs that will make a living?

 

Probably the most succesful musicians I know are the ones who studied acoustics rather than music at University, and make their living with a combination of playing music and designing theatres, PAs etc... Indeed I'm told designing spring dampers for buildings to stop the noise of the underground in London is one of the most interesting acoustic jobs...