Noel Redding

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Noel Redding

Noel Redding (25 December 1945 — 11 May 2003) was an English rock and roll guitarist best known as the bassist for The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Biography

Born as David Noel Redding in Folkestone,[1] he was selected by Chas Chandler to join Hendrix's band at its inception in 1966, and left in 1969. Although he appeared in other bands before and after Hendrix's death, he never achieved a similar level of success, and retired to Clonakilty, Ireland in 1972.

At age nine, Redding played violin at school and then mandolin and guitar. His first public appearances were at the Hythe Youth Club then at Harvey Grammar School where he was a student.

His first local bands were:

  • The Strangers: with John "Andy" Andrews (bass)
  • The Lonely Ones: 1961 - John Andrews (bass) Bob Hiscocks (rhythm guitar); Mick Wibley (drums); Pete Kircher (vocals and in '62. drums). The Lonely Ones made (45 EP vinyl, private record) at the Hayton Manor Studio in Stanford, Kent, in 1963, with Derek Knight on vocals, Trevor Sutton on drums, Noel Redding on lead guitar and John Andrews on bass. First recordings: Some Other Guy; Money; Talking About You; Anna.
  • The Loving Kind: 1966 with Pete (Kircher) Carter (drums); Jim Leverton (bass); and Derek Knight (vocals).

At 17 Redding went professional and toured in Scotland and Germany, in the clubs with Neil Landon and the Burnettes formed in late 1962 and The Loving Kind formed in November 1965. Redding was the first person to join the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and the first to leave. His final concert with them was in June 1969.[2] With the band, he participated in recording the 3 landmark albums "Are You Experienced", "Axis: Bold as Love", and "Electric Ladyland", as well as performing in some of Hendrix's most celebrated concerts. His playing style was distinguished by the use of a pick, a mid-range "trebly" sound, and in later years the use of fuzz and distortion effects through overdriven Sunn amps. His role in the band was that of a time-keeper. He would typically lay down a bass groove which Hendrix and drummer Mitch Mitchell would loosely play on top of. He would however occasionally take a solo during concert, and also played rhythm guitar on two album tracks ("Little Miss Strange" and "She's So Fine", both composed by Redding).

In 1968, before leaving the Jimi Hendrix Experience Redding had formed the group Fat Mattress with another Kent musician Neil Landon (born as Patrick Cahill, 27 July 1941, Kindford, Sussex) on vocals, Jim Leverton (born 1946, Dover, Kent) and Eric Dillon, the drummer (born 1950, Swindon). Later, Martin Barre played for a short time before he joined Jethro Tull. The band produced two albums before breaking up shortly after the release of the second in 1970.[3]

One more effort by Hendrix manager, Michael Jeffery was attempted to reunite the Jimi Hendrix Experience months after the Woodstock event. This basically consisted of an interview with Hendrix, Redding and Mitchell by Rolling Stone magazine. No shows or recordings resulted. He soon left the Jimi Hendrix Experience for the last time and went on to other projects. While living in Los Angeles Redding joined Road,[4] a heavy metal three-piece, with Rod Richards (born as Rod Cox; ex Rare Earth) on guitar, and Les Sampson on drums. They released one album, Road (1972).

Noel Redding moved to Ireland in 1972. He formed The Noel Redding Band with Eric Bell from Thin Lizzy, Dave Clarke, Les Sampson, and Robbie Walsh. They did two albums for RCA, three tours of the Netherlands, two tours of England, one tour of Ireland and a 10-week tour in America. The band dissolved after a dispute with their management company. Tracks recorded for a third, unreleased album were later released as The Missing Album on Mouse Records.

In his book Are You Experienced? (co-authored with Carol Appleby) he spoke openly about his disappointment in his being cut off from the profits of the continued sale of the Hendrix recordings. He was forced to sign away his royalties in 1974, and later had to sell the bass guitar he used during that time. Redding had received £100,000 as a one-off payment after he had been told that there would be no more releases of Jimi Hendrix Experience material but this had been before the advent of CDs and DVDs which sold millions of copies. Right up until his death, Redding had been planning legal action against the Hendrix estate for payment estimated at £3.26 million for his part in Hendrix' recording and for ongoing royalties.[5]

Redding was married to a Danish school-teacher Susanne Redding, and has a son, Nicolas Noel Redding (who reportedly inherited a settlement of 800,000 euro, which equals a minor part of the fortune). [citation needed]

Noel Redding recorded and toured sporadically through the years, occasionally doing session work on other artists' albums including recording for Thin Lizzy and Traffic. He performed with the rock band Phish in 1993. He also formed Shut Up Frank with Dave Clarke, Mick Avory of The Kinks and Dave Rowberry of The Animals. They toured extensively and recorded several albums, which are still available on Mouse Records Mouse Records website

Death

Redding was found dead in his home in Clonakilty on 11 May 2003.[6] A post mortem was carried out on 13 May at Cork University Hospital in Wilton, Cork. The report concluded that Redding died from "Shock haemorrhage due to oesophageal varices in reaction to cirrhosis of the liver."[7] He was 57 years old. In the village of Ardfield, local people erected a plaque to his memory.

A compilation CD and record entitled The Experience Sessions was released by Experience Hendrix, LLC in 2004. Along with the released tracks ("She's So Fine" and "Little Miss Strange") the collection contains rare and unreleased Redding-penned songs recorded by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Most of the tracks are outtakes from Axis: Bold As Love and Electric Ladyland, and feature Redding predominantly on guitar (with Hendrix on bass). It also features a live version of Hendrix's "Red House" with Redding on rhythm guitar.

Discography

With The Loving Kind

  • "Accidental Love"/"Nothing Can Change This Love" (Piccadilly 7N 35299) 1966.
  • "I Love The Things You Do"/"Treat Me Nice" (Piccadilly 7N 35318) 1966.
  • "Ain't That Peculiar"/"With Rhyme And Reason" (Piccadilly 7N 35342) 1966.

With The Jimi Hendrix Experience

With Fat Mattress

  • Fat Mattress (1969) Polydor.
  • Fat Mattress II (1970) Polydor.
  • "Naturally"/"Iridescent Butterfly" (Polydor 56352) 1969.
  • "Magic Lanterns"/"Bright New Way" (Polydor 56367) 1970.
  • "Highway"/"Black Sheep Of The Family" (Polydor 2058 053) 1970.

With Road

  • Road (1972) Natural Resources (a division of Motown); not to be confused with another band named The Road that had 2 LPs on Kama Sutra

With Noel Redding Band (aka The Clonakilty Cowboys)

  • Clonakilty Cowboys (1975) RCA.
  • Blowin (1976) RCA.
  • "Roller Coaster Kids"/"Snowstorm" (RCA 2662).
  • "Take It Easy"/"Back On The Road Again" (RCA PB 9026).

With Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends

  • Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends (1970) Atlantic.

References

  1. ^ Noel Redding Bassist with Jimi Hendrix www.independent.co.uk
  2. ^ Noel Redding biodata
  3. ^ Unterberger, Richie. "Fat Mattress Biography at". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 2010-05-31.
  4. ^ "Allmusic.com". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 2010-05-31.
  5. ^ "Row over Hendrix royalties". BBC News. 2003-02-28. Retrieved 2010-05-31.
  6. ^ "Hendrix bassist dies". BBC News. 2003-05-13. Retrieved 2010-05-31.
  7. ^ UniVibes, Issue 46, December 2003

Sources


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