March 27, 2012: Spiders Mick Woody Woodmansey and Trevor Bolder being interviewed at the unveiling of the plaque to Ziggy Stardust in Heddon Street, London. Photo © Shapersofthe80s
➢ Trevor Bolder dead at 62 – “ Long-time Uriah Heep bassist and Spiders From Mars icon Trevor Bolder has died of cancer at the age of 62, it’s been confirmed. Bolder joined David Bowie’s backing band in 1971, alongside guitarist Mick Ronson – with whom he’d played in The Rats – and drummer Woody Woodmansey… ” / Continued at Classic Rock
David Bowie tonight paid his own tribute:
“Trevor was a wonderful musician and a major inspiration for whichever band he was working with. But he was foremostly a tremendous guy, a great man.”
➢ A very frank Trevor Bolder interview at Let It Rock, 2003
Q: How did you, hailing not from London, arrive at that John Peel session?
A: Mick Ronson and Woody [Woodmansey] had played on The Man Who Sold The World album with David Bowie. They did that album with him and then left – they didn’t want to play with Bowie any more – so they came up to Hull, where I joined them, and we played for about six months as a band. And Bowie rang up one day and asked if we’d go down and do this John Peel show with him, cause he needed a band. So we said, “OK, we’ll come down and do that”. That’s basically how it all started.
Playing bass with Bowie, 1973: Bolder sporting his fantastical mutton-chop whiskers
➢ Trevor Bolder’s life at NNDB
Gender: Male
Religion: Scientology
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Bassist
Nationality: England
Executive summary: Uriah Heap bassist
“ Yet another native of Hull, Yorkhire, to become important to the London music scene during the 1970s, Trevor Bolder was born to a strongly music-oriented family, taking up both cornet and trumpet at the age of nine and performing with local brass bands during his adolescence. In his teens he took the direction followed by many other young males of his generation and switched to the guitar, at which time he formed The Chicago Star Blues Band with his brother. Stints in other Hull-based bands like Jelly Roll and Flesh came later, with Bolder eventually trading in his guitar for an electric bass; meanwhile, food was kept on the table through a series of day jobs that ranged from hairdresser to piano tuner.
“ In 1970 he received an invitation from fellow Hull native Mick Ronson to come to London and join Ronno – an outfit that had been active earlier in the year as The Hype, and which had served as a backing band for vocalist David Bowie. Ronno only managed one single (1971, Fourth Hour of My Sleep) before poor response prompted Vertigo, the band’s label, to abandon them; not long afterwards, however, Bowie enlisted most of the line-up (Ronson, Bolder and drummer Woody Woodmansey) for his fourth album Hunky Dory (1971). Thus the way was paved for the creation of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars in 1972, a highly theatrical concept band that would launch Bowie and his bandmates into international stardom… ” / Continued at NNDB
Costumed by Kansai Yamamoto,1973: Bassist Bolder looking deeply uncomfortable in Japanese garb as his master Bowie goes into his Marcel Marceau mime routine
➢ “It is with great sadness that Uriah Heep announce the passing of our friend the amazing Trevor Bolder”
Trevor Bolder onstage with Uriah Heep, 2011: He was due to play the Donington Park Download festival with Heep in June
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