Martin Gordon
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Martin Gordon,(b. 1954) is an English musician from Hitchin, Hertfordshire. He plays the bass guitar.
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[edit] Biography
Before getting into music professionally, Gordon was employed as a technical author in maritime engineering.
Gordon began his musical career in the 1970s with the Californian pop twins Ron Mael and brother Russell (Sparks) were looking for a bassist. Gordon played with Sparks on the album Kimono My House. ‘This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us’ and ‘Amateur Hour’ were UK hits from that album. "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" made number 2 (Listen ). After just the one album, Gordon and Sparks parted company.
He moved swiftly on and formed Jet (described by All Music Guide as "the first supergroup of glam[1]") and then Radio Stars, who were in fact Jet wearing different clothes. Radio Stars also achieved a modicum of success with ‘Nervous Wreck’, off the album Songs for Swinging Lovers.
Radio Stars split up after the flop of the second LP, the Holiday Album, and Gordon formed the Blue Meanies, who put out only one single. He played bass for the Rolling Stones on studio dates in place of Bill Wyman. After that, Gordon departed to Paris to work as house producer for Barclay Records.
He decided to return to the UK, and then began to work as a music producer and in other capacities with such musicians as George Michael, Boy George, Blur, Primal Scream, Kylie Minogue, Robert Palmer etc.
At the beginning of the 1990s, ‘world music' beckoned — kicking off in Bombay with the legendary Asha Bhosle and Boy George, Gordon recorded in orchards in Pakistan, in cemeteries in Morocco, in libraries in Egypt, in Ghana, the Gambia, Bali, Turkey, amongst other improbable places. It was while recording an album in Istanbul with Turkish diva Sezen Aksu, and then performing on her subsequent tour, that he decided to go back to his pop roots. He has three solo albums to his credit, collected in a box set titled the Mammal Trilogy (2006), including this excerpt from Here Comes The Family (Listen ). The All Music Guide noted that 'any release that reminds the world of the brilliance of Gordon’s first three 21st century solo albums can only be applauded.' The fourth part of the Trilogy is due in 2007.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Sparks
- 1974 Kimono My House
[edit] Jet
[edit] Radio Stars
- 1977 Songs for Swinging Lovers (re-released 2006 by Ace Records)
- 1978 Holiday Album (re-released 2006 by Ace Records)
[edit] Solo
- 2003 The Baboon in the Basement
- 2004 The Joy of More Hogwash
- 2005 God’s on His Lunchbreak
- 2006 The Mammal Trilogy (3-disc compilation of the above)
- 2006 How am I Doing So Far?
[edit] References
www.martingordon.de Official Website
