Alan Davey (musician)

Alan Davey
Genres Space rock, hard rock, heavy metal, proto-punk, acid rock, progressive rock, psychedelic rock, black metal
Instruments Bass, vocals, synth, guitar

Alan Davey (born 11 September 1963) is an English musician, best known as the former bassist with Hawkwind. He is now the bass player and vocalist for Gunslinger as well as Meads of Asphodel, Thunor, briefly with the newly re-imagined Hawklords and since 2012 with The Psychedelic Warlords. He was born in Ipswich, Suffolk.

Early musical career

Davey formed his first band, Gunslinger, in 1979 with his cousin Nigel Potter. Influenced by Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Motörhead and Hawkwind, amongst others, they quickly gained a reputation for playing loud and built a solid following. They recorded a demo tape and a recording contract was promised, but the deal was never signed.

With Hawkwind

A long-time fan of Hawkwind, Davey had sent a tape of his playing to Dave Brock, and in 1984 Brock invited him to join the band after his debut at the Stonehenge Free Festival that year, moving Harvey Bainbridge from bass to keyboards in order to accommodate him, with Brock sacking keyboardist Dead Fred in the process.[1] During this first tenure with Hawkwind they released seven studio albums and four live offerings. However, by 1996 Davey was unhappy with the musical direction of the band, and, following a tour of Greece, left to form his own Middle-Eastern flavoured hard-rock group, Bedouin, and a Motörhead tribute act named Ace of Spades.[1] Bedouin had been the name of an Alan Davey solo album, and had a distinctive Arabic flavour to it; Davey built upon this, assembling his own band which toured the UK and Europe for several years, releasing one studio album and a live album. The group disbanded in 2003.

In October 2000, Davey was reunited with Hawkwind for the Hawkestra 30th anniversary event at the Brixton Academy,[1] and in 2001, in another major lineup shift, rejoined the group, which led to the departure of Ron Tree and Jerry Richards. Davey's second tenure in Hawkwind saw the release of three live and two studio albums before he left the band again in June 2007, frustrated with the group (seemingly both musically and personally), to perform and record with the re-formed Gunslinger and Meads of Asphodel.

Other projects

Davey has now released an album of Arabic-flavoured material with former Hawkwind vocalist Bridget Wishart.[2] available from his site, www.alandaveymusic.com.

March 2008 saw the release of the début album by Gunslinger entitled Earthquake in E Minor. The album featured some of the material that had been written between 1979 and 1982 during the band's first inception. Gunslinger are currently touring on an increasingly busy schedule, through the UK and mainland Europe. The band have in particular built a following in Belgium, Holland, Germany and France. In September 2011, Gunslinger embarked upon their first US tour. In March 2012, the band headlined the British Steel Festival VI at the Camden Underworld.

On 18 May 2009, Davey released the solo album entitled Eclectic Devils, on his own record label Earthquake Records. It featured contributions from former Hawkwind violinist/keyboardist Simon House, Josh Dreamspirit, Nigel Potter, James Hodkinson, Louis Davey and Isobel from Bruise.

Since his departure from Hawkwind, Davey has been active in the reformed Hawklords band, consisting of several former members of Hawkwind. He joined the group for a one-off Barney Bubbles benefit show in 2009, a mini tour in 2010, and was part of the touring lineup for a major 2012 UK tour, sharing bass duties with Adrian Shaw. However, Davey will not be appearing on the forthcoming Hawklords album "We Are One", and isn't due to be touring the album in September/October 2012 either,due to the album being recorded and mixed without his or Nik Turner's knowledge. The funds used to finance the project, Alan's and Nik's, were used without their permission.

In 2012, the band The Psychedelic Warlords were formed - featuring Alan Davey, Vince Cory, Meurig Griffiths, Radio Ray, Rich Om and Nigel Ward, with a plan to tour into 2013 as an anniversary celebration of Hawkwind's classic Space Ritual album - playing the album in its entirety. The 2013 tour, which eventually saw several line-up changes, included dates in the UK, and a headline act at the Roadburn Festival in The Netherlands. In 2014, Davey took The Psychedelic Warlords on tour once more, again with nearly a completely new line up, this time fronted by vocalist and saxophonist Craig High, who had fronted the band during the latter part of the 2013 tour. The 2014 tour saw the band playing two classic albums in their near entirety, Robert Calvert's album Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters, and Hawkwind's Hall of the Mountain Grill.

Davey uses the 4000-series Rickenbacker basses, his current main stage bass being a red 4004, with factory fitted HB-1 Rickenbacker humbuckers. He was previously nearly always seen with a beaten up black 4001s, customised with built-in pre amp, and a Seymour Duncan (Ric specific) neck pickup. Very occasionally uses 5 string basses. He has always used Fender Bassman valve amps, and currently uses Ashdown 1 x 15" and 2 x 10" cabs He uses, as well as other things, Korg Wavestation keyboard synthesizers.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Ian, Abrahams. Hawkwind: Sonic Assassins. SAF Publishing, c2004. p. 155,214,237. ISBN 0-306-80897-8.
  2. ↑ "Alan Davey Interview - September 2008". Live Music Scene. Retrieved 21 November 2010.

External links

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