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Roxy Avalon video
- Thread starter Kimmie11
- Start date
Welcome to TalkBass!!!!
The two shots of him I could get were these. Sorry, the full shot was grainy in the YouTube video so it's grainy here.
Both times, his fingers were nowhere close to playing the actual bass line of the song. So, I'm thinking he's just an actor.
Bummer, who is that guy, strangely mesmerising. I think you're right, this is a heavy mystery I need to solve.
Yes, as an early 80’s video(and it was Roxy Music, after all)that was a mini movie; everyone except for the band(which was essentially the core of Ferry, Manzanera, and MacKay)was cast for looks. Even the use of an old hollowbody bass was to convey a vibe of late 50’s/very early 60’s, in a cinematic James Bond kind of way. That guy would have made for a good Bond villain-in-training, after he got his henchman degree.
Speaking of fake band members Rupert Hine's Thinkman project actually used a group of actors pretending to be musicians for promo appearances. This worked as a further play on the original idea behind Thinkman, which was a critique of mass media.
I had come across these threads about the mystery bassist (and bass) a couple of months ago - and I just found out this is Michael Dempsey, The Cure's original bassist! 
I wanted to find out what happened to him after leaving The Cure already after the release of their debut album so went to his Wikipedia page; Apparently he went on to be the bassist for a band called Associates, and it also says, "One of Dempsey's most notable but often overlooked appearances was for British band Roxy Music: He appeared playing bass in the video for their hit single 'Avalon'."
I wanted to find out what happened to him after leaving The Cure already after the release of their debut album so went to his Wikipedia page; Apparently he went on to be the bassist for a band called Associates, and it also says, "One of Dempsey's most notable but often overlooked appearances was for British band Roxy Music: He appeared playing bass in the video for their hit single 'Avalon'."
So... the bass player in the clip was a hired actor, who was actually a bass player behind that.I had come across these threads about the mystery bassist (and bass) a couple of months ago - and I just found out this is Michael Dempsey, The Cure's original bassist!
I wanted to find out what happened to him after leaving The Cure already after the release of their debut album so went to his Wikipedia page; Apparently he went on to be the bassist for a band called Associates, and it also says, "One of Dempsey's most notable but often overlooked appearances was for British band Roxy Music: He appeared playing bass in the video for their hit single 'Avalon'."
Whoa, dude - this is getting deep!
Yeah! And I would've never recognised him either, and I still find it hard to believe it's the same guy like the one in this here clip:
Roxy Music always had really great bass players (Graham Simpson, Nik Kenton, John Gustafson, some other guy....John W. something.....?).
Funny that even the guy miming in one of their videos was one of the unsung heroes of post-punk bass.
Funny that even the guy miming in one of their videos was one of the unsung heroes of post-punk bass.
I'm sure that's Julian Clary AKA The Joan Collins Fan Club, on keyboards.
Then again, I'm fairly convinced Paul Rudd had an early "Slappa da Bass" appearance, with Quantum Jump :
"John W. something", LOL!
I had heard (of) Roxy Music for the very first time when their song 'Oh Yeah' was a hit, and their bassist at that time was Gary Tibbs; He'd move on to replace Kevin Mooney in Adam & the Ants soon after, who also were among my favourites
Tibbs was great, nice fretless work too."John W. something", LOL!
I had heard (of) Roxy Music for the very first time when their song 'Oh Yeah' was a hit, and their bassist at that time was Gary Tibbs; He'd move on to replace Kevin Mooney in Adam & the Ants soon after, who also were among my favourites
Avalon is one of my all-time favourite basslines. Loved it since the 1980s. I’m quite sure it was Alan Spenner who played on it. Neil Jason also played on the album but not the title track
John Gustafson’s work on Country Life, especially “Out Of The Blue”, impacted me greatly. I’m a huge Wetton fan, and he certainly filled those shoes live, but JG’s riffing on that song was killer(then there was Siren, and “Love Is The Drug”). I saw them live in early ‘75, Rick Wills(Frampton, Gilmour, etc)was on board. Opening act was Paul Kossoff’s Back Street Crawler; he was a bit of a mess during their set, and came out after to apologize. A week later he was dead.
Gustafson was from Liverpool, and had been in a band called the Big Three(friendly rivals of The Beatles). Their guitarist, Adrian Barber, was a bit of a techie, and built an early bass amp rig for McCartney as well as a PA for the Star Club in Hamburg, and recorded the Beatles’ live tape there. He went on to become a producer, working with the Allman Brothers, Velvet Underground, Rascals, Bee Gees, Aretha, and much more.
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I've always thought the bassline and groove of Love Is A Drug is the template for the Talking Heads sound.
Hmm, never thought about that, my impression of at least Byrne’s guitar style was that he was doing a frantic version of Jimmy Nolen’s classic chicken scratch with James Brown. Or…if Phil Manzanera was any kind of influence, I hear more of it from his playing on Eno’s Taking Tiger Mountain album, plus Brian Turrington’s bass work. Then, of course, Eno eventually caught up with Byrne and the band.I've always thought the bassline and groove of Love Is A Drug is the template for the Talking Heads sound.
One more quirky thing about the Heads(as if there weren’t enough already)…I saw them in a small club on the MSABAF tour; for an encore they did an earnest cover of the 1910 Fruitgum Co.’s “1,2,3, Red Light”. Somehow, it made perfect sense.
