Alan Henry Spenner (7 May 1948 – 11 August 1991) was an English bass player who performed with
Wynder K. Frog,
the Grease Band,
Spooky Tooth
Spooky Tooth was a rock band originally formed in Carlisle, England, in 1967. The band was principally active between 1967 and 1974, and re-formed several times in later years.
History
Prior to Spooky Tooth, four of the band's five founding ...
,
ABC,
David Coverdale
David Coverdale (born 22 September 1951) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the founder and lead singer of the hard rock band Whitesnake. Coverdale was also the lead singer of Deep Purple from 1973 to 1976; he has had a solo car ...
,
David Soul
David Soul (born David Richard Solberg; August 28, 1943 – January 4, 2024) was an American-British actor and singer. With a career spanning five decades, he rose to prominence for portraying Detective Kenneth "Hutch" Hutchinson in the Americ ...
,
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker (20 May 1944 – 22 December 2014) was an English singer known for his gritty, bluesy voice and dynamic stage performances featuring expressive body movements. Most of his best-known singles, such as
"Feelin' Alright ...
,
Kenny Loggins
Kenneth Clark "Kenny" Loggins (born January 7, 1948) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His early songs were recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1970, which led to seven albums recorded with Jim Messina (musician), Jim Mess ...
,
Lynda Carter
Lynda Jean Carter (born July 24, 1951) is an American actress, singer, and beauty pageant contestant, best known for her portrayal of Wonder Woman in the television series ''Wonder Woman'', aired on ABC and later on CBS from 1975 to 1979. Befo ...
,
Peter Frampton
Peter Kenneth Frampton (born 22 April 1950) is an English-American guitarist, singer, and songwriter who rose to prominence as a member of the rock bands the Herd and Humble Pie. Later in his career, Frampton found significant success as a s ...
,
Ted Nugent
Theodore Anthony Nugent (; born December 13, 1948) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and political activist. He goes by several nicknames, including Uncle Ted, the Nuge, and Motor City Madman. Nugent initially gained fame as the le ...
,
Mick Taylor
Michael Kevin Taylor (born 17 January 1949) is an English guitarist, best known as a former member of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (1967–1969) and the Rolling Stones (1969–1974). As a member of the Stones, h ...
,
China Crisis,
Murray Head
Murray Seafield St George Head (born 5 March 1946) is an English actor and singer. Head has appeared in a number of films, including a starring role as the character Bob Elkin in the BAFTA award winning and Oscar-nominated 1971 film ''Sunday B ...
,
Kokomo,
Roxy Music
Roxy Music are an English rock music, rock band formed in 1970 by Bryan Ferry (lead vocals/keyboards/principal songwriter) and Graham Simpson (musician), Graham Simpson (bass). By the time the band recorded their Roxy Music (album), first albu ...
, and played on the original 1970 concept album ''
Jesus Christ Superstar
''Jesus Christ Superstar'' is a sung-through rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. Loosely based on the Life of Jesus in the New Testament, Gospels' accounts of Passion of Jesus, the Passion, the work interprets ...
''.
Spenner played bass live at
Woodstock
The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. Billed as "a ...
in 1969 with Joe Cocker and the Grease Band and can be seen on ''The Woodstock Directors Cut''
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
. In 1975, he played on
Bryn Haworth's second studio album ''
Sunny Side of the Street''. In August 1982, he played on Roxy Music's VHS/DVD ''
The High Road'', filmed live in
Fréjus
Fréjus (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Var (department), Var Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region in Southeastern France.
It neighbours Saint-Raphaël, Var, Saint-Raphaël ...
, France.
Spenner died on 11 August 1991 of a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...
at the age of 43. He was married to
Dyan Birch, former lead vocalist with
Arrival and then
Kokomo. His son Henry is the former
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 ...
for the band
Fields
Fields may refer to:
Music
*Fields (band), an indie rock band formed in 2006
* Fields (progressive rock band), a progressive rock band formed in 1971
* ''Fields'' (album), an LP by Swedish-based indie rock band Junip (2010)
* "Fields", a song by ...
.
Equipment
Spenner typically played
Fender Precision, Fender Precision Fretless and
Wal
WAL or Wal may refer to:
Places
* Wał, Lublin Voivodeship, village in eastern Poland
* Wał, Masovian Voivodeship, village in east-central Poland
Codes
* Sierra Leone, country in West Africa, license plate code
* Wales, constituent nation of ...
electric basses through an
Ampeg
Ampeg ("amplified peg") is a manufacturer best known for its bass amplifiers.
Originally established in 1946 in Linden, New Jersey by Everett Hull and Stanley Michaels as "Michael-Hull Electronic Labs," today Ampeg is part of the Yamaha Guit ...
amplification system. His Wal bass was a 78 JG Series that, coupled with his playing style, provided a signature sound heard on many Roxy Music songs, such as "
Same Old Scene" and "
Avalon
Avalon () is an island featured in the Arthurian legend. It first appeared in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 1136 ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' as a place of magic where King Arthur's sword Excalibur was made and later where Arthur was taken to recove ...
".
References
External links
*
*
*
1948 births
1991 deaths
English male guitarists
British male bass guitarists
Musicians from the London Borough of Hackney
ABC (band) members
20th-century English musicians
Spooky Tooth members
20th-century English bass guitarists
People from Dalston
20th-century British male musicians
The Grease Band members
{{UK-bass-guitarist-stub