NEIL MURRAY (other works)



ALLAN HOLDSWORTH / BILL BRUFORD 
(scan courtesy of Alex Gitlin)

While in Whitesnake, Neil did some rehearsals with Allan Holdsworth (guitar) and Gary Husband (drums) to help out. It was not planned to be a band. This followed doing some rehearsals with Bill Bruford, Dave Stewart and Allan Holdsworth in 1977 in preparation for the 1st Bruford album Feels Good To Me, as the bassist for the album, Jeff Berlin, was busy in the USA. Neil also played 2 songs with them in early 1978 on BBC-TV show 'The Old Grey Whistle Test', and they used a bass-line Neil wrote on a track on the 2nd Bruford album One Of A Kind.


THE SECRET POLICE  

In 1981, several musicians and actors (from Monty Python) arranged to play 4 concerts in benefit of Amnesty International. There were great performers there, like Jeff Beck & Eric Clapton (playing together!!), Phil Collins, Sting (his first solo appearance, he still was in The Police), Donovan, Bob Geldof, etc. Neil was substituting for Mo Foster for 2 out of 4 shows, as he had already rehearsed with Jeff Beck and Simon Phillips (they appear together on Jon Lord and Bernie Marsden's solo albums) as they were searching for a bass-player to make a 3-piece group with. They tried many players but never put a band together.

On the album, Neil only plays on 'Crossroads'. He played for two nights with Beck and Clapton: first night 'Crossroads' and ''Cause We've Ended As Lovers', 2nd night 'Further On Up The Road' and ''Cause...'. On the 1st night he played with Sting on 'Roxanne' (he played guitar) and on both nights on 'I Shall Be Released' with everyone. Beck and Clapton did not play the 3rd night, but because of the filming, they mostly used performances from the last night on the album and video, so there is not much evidence of Neil's performances. Pete Townshend, although appearing in the video, was not on that year (1981)'s show, but the previous one 'The Secret Policeman's Ball'.

The grand finale of these shows consisted of a massive jam playing Dylan's "I shall be released". The unusual lineup of this band was (be ready!):

As I've said, there is also a video from that concert, but the tracks are slightly different. At least in my copy, the Beck/Clapton appearance is reduced to 2 songs, and Pete Townshend appears here, with a performance from 1980.

The setlist for the live album is: Sting (2 tracks), Jeff Beck & Eric Clapton (3 tracks), Bob Geldof (1 track), Phil Collins with Daryl Stuermer (2 tracks), Donovan with Danny Thompson (2 tracks), the all-star band (1 track).


GUITAR LEGENDS  

A great event, and it happened in Spain! I can't believe it!!!

Around 1991, there was a 5-day festival dedicated to the guitar. Every day was devoted to a certain class of music (blues, jazz, etc.). The 5th day (October 19, 1991, I think it was the date), it was called 'The night of the mad guitars', hosted by Brian May. Brian himself chose the participants, and I think this was the seed for the later Brian May band. The list of performers was just awesome: Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Nuno Bettencourt, Joe Walsh, etc., as well as Paul Rodgers singing some song and leading the final jam with Hendrix's anthem, 'Hey Joe'. The backing band was equally superb. I'll put the complete list as soon as I find my videotape copy of that concert. For now, these are the names I remember now:

There is even a bootleg (2CD) from that fantastic concert.

These are some photos from that concert. Sorry, as some of them are of bad quality.

(from left to right: Joe Walsh, Rick Wakeman, Nuno Bettencourt, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Nathan East, Neil Murray)
 
(from left to right: Rick Wakeman, Neil Murray, Paul Rodgers, another guy, Steve Vai)
 
(from left to right: Joe Satriani, Neil Murray's arm, Steve Vai, Brian May)


FENDER HOUSEBAND  

This was a very special concert, as a part of Fender's 50th birthday celebrations. It was on 30th November 1996. The concert was dedicated to the much-missed Rory Gallagher. Peter Green played there with his Splinter Group, but I mention that here, because most of his band was 'used' as houseband for the artists to play.

They accompanied the participants: Yngwie Malmsteen, and Jack Bruce, as well as Peter Green Splinter Group (of course!). Other bands present there: The Hellecasters (with Hank Marvin from The Shadows in some songs), and Martyn Joseph.


THE S.A.S. BAND  
(scan courtesy of Alex Gitlin)

The name stands for Spike's All Stars. They started in the summer of 1994 at the Gosport festival actually only planned as a "one-off" but it went so well they have played numerous concerts by now. I don't know the line-up from then, the only persons I know who performed definitely the first time were Spike Edney and Chris Thompson. I think I've heard that most of the first gigs they played in the line-up of Spike, Neil Murray, Cozy Powell and Jamie Moses with Chris Thompson on vocals and some other singers as well. Later the musician line-up changed to Spike and Jamie together with John Marter and Steve Stroud. Most of the time they have Chris Thompson on vocals. Other vocalist who feature rather frequently are Roger Chapman, Tony Hadley and Mark Shaw. Other vocalists and musicians who have featured (one or more times): Madeline Bell, Catherine Porter, Kiki Dee, Jess Roden, Stevie Vann (aka for Stevie Lange), Graham Gouldman, Haddaway, Fish, both Paul Young (the one from Sad Cafe and Mike + The Mechanics, but also and the famous soloist), Steve Lukather, Chaka Khan, Mica Paris, Tom Robinson, Paul Rodgers, Judy Tzuke, Mike Rutherford, Phil Manzanera, Dean Friedman, the three remaining Queen members and some more. They play mainly covers of rock and soul songs, always depending on the singers they have for the night. The line-up is never stable and often Neil joins the SAS-Band.
 

(scan courtesy of Alex Gitlin)

They released an album, SAS Band, with help from: Chris Thompson (vocals), Roger Chapman (vocals), Madeline Bell (vocals), Tony Hadley (vocals), Kiki Dee (vocals), Jess Roden (vocals), Roger Taylor (vocals & drums), Alan Darby (guitar), Jamie Moses (guitar), Peter Green (guitar on 1 track), Pete Stroud (bass), Neil Murray (bass on 1 track), John Deacon (bass), Richard Cottle (keyboards), John Lingwood (keyboards), Ian Anderson (flute), Charlie Morgan (drums), Cozy Powell (drums on 2 tracks), and John Marter (drums), plus some others.



Musicians mentioned in this page that I have projected to cover in my site someday: And short tributes to:

If you can contribute (with additions, corrections, opinions, etc.), please, send me an e-mail message at mterol@myrealbox.com

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Page created by Miguel Terol on: 23/November/1998. Last modified on: 26/July/2000.