Martin Gordon
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| Martin Gordon | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1954, Hitchin, Hertfordshire |
| Years active | 1970s - present |
| Associated acts | Radio Stars, Jet, Sparks |
| Website | martingordon.de |
Martin Gordon (born 1954, Hitchin, Hertfordshire) is an English musician, who plays bass guitar and piano.
Contents |
[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 brothers Ron Mael and Russell from Sparks, who were looking for a bassist after their relocation to the UK. 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 #2 in the UK Singles Chart.(Listen ) After just the one album, Gordon and Sparks parted company. Gordon's views on the involvement of the Mael brothers in his subsequent removal from the Kimono My House royalties flow are responsible for his persona non grata status in the Sparks community.
He moved 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", from their album Songs for Swinging Lovers.
Radio Stars split up after the flop of the second LP, Holiday Album, and Gordon formed The Blue Meanies, who put out only one single. He played bass for The Rolling Stones on recording studio dates in place of Bill Wyman. After that, Gordon departed to Paris to work as the in-house record producer for Barclay Records.
He decided to return to the UK, and then began to work as a producer and in other capacities with such musicians as George Michael, Boy George, Blur, Primal Scream, Kylie Minogue and Robert Palmer.
At the beginning of the 1990s, world music beckoned — kicking off in Bombay with Asha Bhosle and Boy George, Gordon recorded in orchards in Pakistan, in cemeteries in Morocco, in libraries in Egypt, in Ghana, The Gambia, Bali, and Turkey, amongst other 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 music roots. He has four [[solo (music)|solo[[ albums to his credit. These are The Baboon in the Basement (which actually featured a mandrill on the cover, not a baboon), The Joy of More Hogwash, God's on His Lunchbreak (Please Call Back) and The World is Your Lobster, all recorded in collaboration with vocalist Pelle Almgren. The first three were 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 World is Your Lobster, which Gordon describes as the fourth album in the Mammal Trilogy, was released in 2007 and, in the same year, he made his live debut as a solo performer in Boston, United States.
With illustrations from drummer Chris Townson, Gordon's album God is on His Lunchbreak was accompanied by a book detailing the origins of the material, lyrics and assorted musing [1] entitled The Illustrated and Annotated 'God's On His Lunchbreak, Please Call Back' Companion Volume.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Sparks
[edit] Jet
- 1975 Jet - CBS Records
- 2003 Jet - Radiant Future Records (reissue, withdrawn 2004)
- 2003 More Light than Shade - Radiant Future Records
[edit] Radio Stars
- 1977 Songs for Swinging Lovers - Chiswick Records (re-released 2006 by Ace Records)
- 1978 Holiday Album - Chriswick Records (re-released 2006 by Ace Records)
- 1992 Somewhere There's A Place For Us - Ace Records (compilation of the above releases)
- 2008 Something for the Weekend - Radiant Future Records (live in 1977/78)
[edit] Mira
- 1995 New Hope for the Dead - JVC Records
[edit] Blue Meanies
- 2006 Pop Sensibility - Radiant Future Records (download only)
[edit] Solo
- 2003 The Baboon in the Basement - Radiant Future Records
- 2004 The Joy of More Hogwash - Radiant Future Records
- 2005 God’s on His Lunchbreak - Radiant Future Records
- 2006 The Mammal Trilogy - (3-disc compilation of the above releases) Radiant Future Records
- 2006 How am I Doing So Far? - (single disc compilation of the above compilation of the first three of the above releases) Radiant Future Records
- 2007 The World is Your Lobster - Radiant Future Records
- 2008 Hello Boston! - Radiant Future Records (promo only, free with first 1000 copies of Radio Stars' Something For The Weekend Radiant Future 2008)
[edit] References
- ^ "All Music Guide > Jet biography", All Music Guide. Retrieved on 2006-08-03.
- www.martingordon.de Official Site
- www.radio-stars.com Radio Stars Official Site
- graphikdesigns.free.fr Sparks - The "Kimono My House" album files
- graphikdesigns.free.fr Martin Gordon's bio
- graphikdesigns.free.fr Martin Gordon's bio (French)
