Greg Ridley
Greg Ridley ( born October 23, 1947 in Carlisle, Cumbria, † 19 November 2003 in Alicante, Spain ) was a British rock musician, best known as the bass guitarist of the group Spooky Tooth and Humble Pie.
Life
Ridley gained his first experience in school bands ( Dino & The Danubes, The Dakotas ) and played with sixteen in the band The VIPs. As a good singer, he was the frontman of the band, in the London club scene came to performances by regional successes and occasionally also played the Star Club in Hamburg. During this period first recordings, including the singles Winter Time, I Wanna Be Free and Straight Down To The Bottom. Keith Emerson got in for a short time at The VIPs, the band released in 1967 the album Supernatural Fairy Tales under the name of Art With the change of Gary Wright for Emerson and renamed Spooky Tooth Ridley was one of the most famous bassists in the London music scene. In the time of the late sixties, the publication of two albums fall, it's all about (1968) and Spooky Two ( 1969). A large crowd, he became known after he got together with Steve Marriott in Humble Pie; he stayed with the group until its dissolution in 1975 and coined with his bass to blues rock band.
After the disintegration of the group Ridley did with Clem Clempson and Cozy Powell together the band Strange Brew, but still played the way with Marriott, with whom he recorded an album until now unpublished at this time. Also at the Marriott 's All Stars was his friend Ridley bass player and singer - an album and two small tours are the result of this commitment. After that Ridley withdrew from the music business, in this time falls the death of his friend Steve Marriott ( 1991). For the tenth anniversary of the death Marriotts Ridley met with former Humble Pie members Jerry Shirley, Peter Frampton and Dave Clempson on the Marriott Memorial Concert at London's Astoria. For this performance, the idea of letting Humble Pie revive and Ridley teamed up with Jerry Shirley, Bobby Tench, Dave Colwell and Zoot Money together to Humble Pie MkIII developed. A tour and studio recordings were planned, but zunichtegemacht by the death of Ridley of complications from pneumonia in 2003. The remaining members of the failed project by Ridley's death played in 2004 at a concert in memory of Greg Ridley.
Ridley left his wife with two sons and two daughters.
Stations and discography
- Solo release ( posthumously ) 2005 - Anthology: All I ever needed