John Beck is an English musician and songwriter, best known for his role as a member of progressive rock/pop fusion band

It Bites It Bites are an English progressive rock and pop fusion band, formed in Egremont, Cumbria, Egremont, Cumbria, in 1982 and best known for their 1986 single "Calling All the Heroes", which gained them a Top 40, Top 10 UK Singles Chart hit. Initi ...

(who scored a number 6 hit in the UK singles chart in 1986 with ' Calling All the Heroes'). Beck is a multi-instrumentalist, playing keyboards, accordion, guitar, bass guitar and drums: he is also a singer (mainly of harmony vocals). Onstage and on record he almost entirely restricts himself to keyboards and vocals (although he has been known to play live rhythm guitar on performances of It Bites' 'Still Too Young to Remember'). Born and brought up in

Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and civil parish in the Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. It is a port on the north-west coast, and lies outside the Lake District National parks of England and Wales, National Park. ...

, Cumbria, Beck spent his early teen years as a country-and-western accordionist on the Cumbrian club circuit before becoming a founder member of It Bites alongside guitarist and lead vocalist

Francis Dunnery Francis Dunnery (born 25 December 1962) is an English musician, singer-songwriter, record producer and record label owner. Dunnery was the lead singer and guitarist for British prog- pop band It Bites between 1982 and 1990. Since 1990 he has ...

, bass guitarist Dick Nolan and drummer Bob Dalton. Beck was also a member of Navajo Kiss and Sister Sarah, the two short-lived groups formed by the remaining It Bites members following the 1990 departure of Dunnery (and for which Beck switched entirely from keyboards to guitar). Beck rejoined It Bites for the band's reformation in 2006. Along with Dalton, Beck is one of the two remaining original members of the group as well as being one of its main composers. Beck has also been a member of Unicorn Jones (a post-It Bites trio of himself, Dick Nolan and singer David Banks which released the album ''A Hundred Thousand Million Stars'' in 1996) and of British prog-rock supergroup Kino (featuring

Marillion Marillion are a British neo-prog band, formed in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 1979. They emerged from the post-punk music scene in Britain and existed as a bridge between the styles of punk rock and classic progressive rock, becoming the mo ...

bassist

Pete Trewavas Peter Trewavas (born 15 January 1959) is an English musician, best known as the bassist of the progressive rock band Marillion. He joined in 1982, replacing Diz Minnitt, while acting as a backing vocalist and occasional guitarist. Biography ...

, former

Porcupine Tree Porcupine Tree are an English rock band formed by musician Steven Wilson in 1987. During an initial career spanning more than twenty years, they earned critical acclaim from critics and fellow musicians, developed a cult following, and became ...

drummer

Chris Maitland Chris Maitland (born 13 May 1964) is an English drummer. Maitland was born in Cambridge, England. After being the drummer for No-Man on their Autumn 1993 tour (and playing on two tracks on their ''Flowermouth'' album), Maitland was asked b ...

(later replaced by Bob Dalton) and guitarist/singer John Mitchell (from Arena, and subsequently Francis Dunnery's replacement in It Bites), who released the ''Picture'' album in 2005. As a session or touring musician, Beck has played with

John Wetton John Kenneth Wetton (12 June 1949 – 31 January 2017) was an English musician, singer, and songwriter. Although he was left-handed, he was known for his skilled right-handed bass playing as well as his booming baritone voice. He was a member ...

and

Fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

and is a longstanding contributor to the live line-up of the

Alan Parsons Project Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Kurdish surname *Alan (given name), an English given name ** List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' * ...

References

Living people English rock keyboardists It Bites members Kino (British band) members 1961 births {{UK-keyboardist-stub