British "Wrecking Crew"?

[Dlew919]

Big Jim Sullivan. If you couldn’t get big Jim you got little Jim page. Bert Weedon, who’s book ‘play in a day’ makes him one of the most influential guitarists of all time. Rick Waksman played a lot of sessions. That’s him on Bowie’s life on Mars, as an example off the top of my head.

They probably haven’t coalesced in the way the wrecking crew, or the funk brothers, the a-team, all of whom had floating membership. But yes, there was an English scene.

 

[JimmyM]

Clem Cattini on drums did a lot of sessions. He’s probably closest to England’s Hal Blaine.

 

[Eli_Kyiv]

There definitely would be Alan Tarney, and probably Terry Britten.
Still, there's another way. Let's compare lists of "War of the Worlds" musicians of 1978 and 2008 shows and select those who participated in both. I know Herbie Flowers and Chris Spedding were there.

 

[Biggbass]

Reggie played piano on many of those old Brit recordings.

 

[Mike Anderson]

Georgie Fame!

 

[MultiScaleMale]

I think they were called "The Beatles". Heh.

 

[RayWithFlats]

Probably won’t mean much to US members but Chas Hodges and Dave Peacock of Chas & Dave were pretty prolific session players from the early ‘60s to the the late ‘70s when their own career took off.

The 2008 Joe Meek movie Telstar portrays a lot of future stars getting their first breaks on sessions…

Telstar: The Joe Meek Story - Wikipedia

There are quite a few of the real people with cameos in the movie so I imagine it’s pretty true to the real events or they wouldn’t have given their blessings to the project.

 

[Hummergeist]

Probably won’t mean much to US members but Chas Hodges and Dave Peacock of Chas & Dave were pretty prolific session players from the early ‘60s to the the late ‘70s when their own career took off.

The 2008 Joe Meek movie Telstar portrays a lot of future stars getting their first breaks on sessions…

Telstar: The Joe Meek Story - Wikipedia

There are quite a few of the real people with cameos in the movie so I imagine it’s pretty true to the real events or they wouldn’t have given their blessings to the project.

I gained new respect for Chas and Dave when I saw a live show on TV and Dave's bass playing was soooo good...

 

[Waltsdog]

I would say the for the closest comparison you might have to fast forward to the 80s and look at Stock Aitken and Waterman Stock Aitken Waterman - Wikipedia
Not session musicians as such, but definitely the same small group of people doing all the studio work behind a string of hit songs. Mike Stock and Matt Aitken are all over 80s music in the UK.

 

[mattj1stc]

It's part of the Led Zeppelin origin story that Page and Jones were studio pros?

 

[Gluvhand]

Ritchie Blackmore did a ton of session work before Purple.

 

[ThudThudThud]

It is, but the wrecking crew was not "the states," they were all based in Los Angeles.

Where most of the recordings were taking place? Similar to London....but much larger.

 

[ThudThudThud]

Ritchie Blackmore did a ton of session work before Purple.

Andy Summers of the police was a session player. A story goes that he took the tube (London Underground railway) into London so often, and stood in the same place every time, that he always rested his guitar against a certain bulkhead on the train carriage. Behind the bulkhead was some sort of motor/magnet that over the years slowly drained the pickups of his guitar of their magnetic strength. His guitar (Telecaster) sounded different to everyone else's for that reason. Is this true? I don't know. Is this why he got so many sessions? I don't know.

 

[LBS-bass]

Where most of the recordings were taking place?

Not really - in a later post I list many cities that had vibrant music scenes in the 60's and 70's. LA was one of several major music hubs here in the US. Motown was Detroit. Stax and Sun were Memphis. Virtually all of the country was coming out of Nashville. Philadelphia International Records was releasing records with Patti Labelle and many others. RCA was in New York. And there were many more. All of these labels had associated studios and first-call players that came in and did the sessions.

Many of these labels are now defunct, but they were major forces in their day. LA is probably the biggest city for music nowadays, but back then regional labels still played a huge role and things were not as consolidated as they are now, where a small handful of producers is getting the lion's share of attention.

 

[IMMusicRulz]

Andy Bown, the keyboard player for Status Quo, was also a member of The Herd, a psychedelic teenybopper act that also included Peter Frampton and Renaissance bassist Louis Cennamo. He also played guitar and bass for Pink Floyd around the time that they were touring behind The Wall.

 

[WG Plum]

This might worth a view. I loved it.

The Library Music Film (2018) 7.0 | Documentary

 

[Wood and Wire]

Probably won’t mean much to US members but Chas Hodges and Dave Peacock of Chas & Dave were pretty prolific session players from the early ‘60s to the the late ‘70s when their own career took off.

I gained new respect for Chas and Dave when I saw a live show on TV and Dave's bass playing was soooo good...

 

[markjazzbassist]

This might worth a view. I loved it.

The Library Music Film (2018) 7.0 | Documentary

thank you for this. go figure it's shawn lee.

 

[Dlew919]

Ritchie Blackmore did a ton of session work before Purple.

I’ve seen that claimed questioned. (I’m not doubting you at all) but apparently Ritchie did some work, but was not part of the inner circle. Maybe someone here knows more about it?

 

[Gluvhand]

I’ve seen that claimed questioned. (I’m not doubting you at all) but apparently Ritchie did some work, but was not part of the inner circle. Maybe someone here knows more about it?

I didn't say he was part of any "inner circle" but ok.