drummer
A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums.
Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...
and member of the English band
Suede
Suede (pronounced ) is a type of leather with a fuzzy, napped finish, commonly used for jackets, shoes, Textile, fabrics, Handbag, purses, furniture, and other items.
Suede is made from the underside of the animal skin, which is softer and m ...
, one of the 'Big Four'
Britpop
Britpop was a mid-1990s United Kingdom, British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. Musically, Britpop produced bright, catchy alternative rock, with significant influences from British guitar pop of the 1960s and 1970s. B ...
bands of the 1990s, along with
Oasis
In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environmentBlur and Pulp. Gilbert is the third-longest serving member of Suede, and along with founders
Brett Anderson
Brett Lewis Anderson (born 29 September 1967) is an English singer best known as the lead singer and primary lyricist of the band Suede. After Suede disbanded in 2003, he fronted the Tears with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler in 2004â ...
and
Mat Osman
Mathew David Osman (born 9 October 1967) is an English musician and author, best known as the bassist in the rock band Suede. Osman and singer Brett Anderson are the only two remaining founding members left in Suede, and perform along with dru ...
appears on every Suede album.
Biography
Gilbert was initially drummer for English
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
band Dead to the World. By June 1990 he was working at the
University of London Union
The University of London Union (ULU), known as Student Central after 2014, was the students' union of the federal University of London. Since the closure of its student governance, each student is instead primarily affiliated to a students' unio ...
(ULU) alongside
Ricky Gervais
Ricky Dene Gervais ( ; born 25 June 1961) is an English comedian, actor, writer, television producer and filmmaker. He co-created, co-wrote, and acted in the British television sitcoms ''The Office (British TV series), The Office'' (2001–2003) ...
, who was also managing the then unknown and unsigned Suede. After Gervais played him a demo, Gilbert asked to audition as the band were relying on a drum machine at the time. After seeing the group perform at an ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...
'' show in January 1992, Saul Galpern approached the group with a view to signing to his independent record label
Nude Records
Nude Records is an independent record label, established in August 1991 in London. The label was set up and operated by Saul Galpern, who had previously worked with artists such as Simply Red, The Fall, Julian Cope, The Triffids, The Slits ...
. In 1994, following the departure of Suede's guitarist
Bernard Butler
Bernard Joseph Butler (born 1 May 1970) is an English musician, songwriter and record producer. He has been hailed by some critics as the greatest guitarist of his generation; BBC journalist Mark Savage called him "one of Britain's most origina ...
, Gilbert heard singer
Brett Anderson
Brett Lewis Anderson (born 29 September 1967) is an English singer best known as the lead singer and primary lyricist of the band Suede. After Suede disbanded in 2003, he fronted the Tears with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler in 2004â ...
playing through audition tapes and mistakenly believed one to be an early Suede demo. It turned out to be the work of 17-year-old Richard Oakes who was subsequently hired as Butler's replacement. In January 1996, the band was joined by new member
Neil Codling
Neil John Codling (born 5 December 1973) is an English musician and songwriter, best known as the keyboardist, rhythm guitarist, backing vocalist and co-songwriter for the alternative rock band Suede.
Early life
Neil Codling was raised in St ...
, a cousin of Gilbert who played keyboards and second guitar until early 2001.
Suede's last concert before their hiatus took place at the
London Astoria
The London Astoria was a music venue at 157 Charing Cross Road, in London, England, that operated from 1976 to 2009.
Originally a warehouse during the 1920s, the building became a cinema and ballroom. It was converted for use as a theatre in t ...
on 13 December 2003 and was a two-and-a-half-hour marathon show, split into two parts plus encore, after which Gilbert became the drummer for a Bangkok band named Futon, with Into a Circle's Paul Hampshire.
Following persistent rumours, Saul Galpern officially announced on 15 January 2010 Suede would be playing together again at the
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272.
Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...
in London as part of the
Teenage Cancer Trust
Teenage Cancer Trust is a cancer care and support charity in the UK that exists to improve the cancer experience of young people aged 13–24. Founded in 1990, the charity's key service is providing specialist teenage units in NHS hospitals. It ...
shows on 24 March of that year. Planned as a 'one off', the reception to the band's reformation prompted several tours in Europe and Asia as well as three more albums.
Gilbert had collected a considerable amount of Suede footage spanning the band's career, much of which featured in a major definitive feature-documentary ''Suede: The Insatiable Ones''. The film was directed by the acclaimed Mike Christie, whose film-making career began while working with Suede during the band's 1993 collaboration with
Derek Jarman
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, poet, gardener, and gay rights activist.
Biography
Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing ...
.
Aside from founders
Brett Anderson
Brett Lewis Anderson (born 29 September 1967) is an English singer best known as the lead singer and primary lyricist of the band Suede. After Suede disbanded in 2003, he fronted the Tears with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler in 2004â ...
and
Mat Osman
Mathew David Osman (born 9 October 1967) is an English musician and author, best known as the bassist in the rock band Suede. Osman and singer Brett Anderson are the only two remaining founding members left in Suede, and perform along with dru ...
, Gilbert is the longest tenured member of Suede and has appeared on all the band's studio albums.
Attitude
Attitude or Attitude may refer to:
Philosophy and psychology
* Attitude (psychology), a disposition or state of mind
** Attitude change
* Propositional attitude, a mental state held towards a proposition
Science and technology
* Orientation ...
'' where
Brett Anderson
Brett Lewis Anderson (born 29 September 1967) is an English singer best known as the lead singer and primary lyricist of the band Suede. After Suede disbanded in 2003, he fronted the Tears with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler in 2004â ...
described himself as "a
bisexual
Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...
man who's never had a homosexual experience", Gilbert replied with "I've called myself a bisexual person who's never had a heterosexual experience".
Discography
With Suede
* ''
Suede
Suede (pronounced ) is a type of leather with a fuzzy, napped finish, commonly used for jackets, shoes, Textile, fabrics, Handbag, purses, furniture, and other items.
Suede is made from the underside of the animal skin, which is softer and m ...
Autofiction
Autofiction is, in literary criticism, a form of fictionalized autobiography. Definition
In autofiction, an author may decide to recount their life in the Third-person narrative, third person, to modify significant details and characters, use in ...