Herbie Flowers obituary

The bassist Herbie Flowers, who has died aged 86, was one of the most prolific session musicians of the 1970s. He played on an estimated 500 hit songs over the course of his career, laying down the foundations to tunes by three former Beatles (John Lennon was the exception), plus David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Lou Reed, Elton John, Bryan Ferry, Cat Stevens and scores more.
His most recognisable bassline was the two-note motif he provided on Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side (1972). He achieved its sinuous effect by recording first on a double bass, then overdubbing the part 10 notes higher with an electric Fender Jazz bass. Flowers pointed out that the arrangement meant he could double his usual session fee. Typically, Reed was ambivalent about the success the record brought, telling Flowers that he took 20 years to “shake it out of his mind” because it had altered the nature of his audience.
The psychedelic bass part on Bowie’s Space Oddity (1969) was also provided by Flowers. His relationship with the singer was longstanding but not always smooth. During the Diamond Dogs tour of the US in 1974, the bass player spotted that equipment had been set up to record the dates. He challenged Bowie on this, pointing out that if a live album was planned, the band would be due a recording as well as a performance fee. Bowie’s management were not best pleased to hear this, but Flowers got his way and the musicians got the money they were owed. David Live got mixed reviews on release and Bowie regarded it as the death throes of his Ziggy Stardust persona.
Flowers again used his double-track bass idea to achieve an uncanny effect on Rock On, a hit for David Essex in 1973. The producer Jeff Wayne later said that Flowers instinctively understood how the stripped-back arrangement could work, putting down an initial riff and overdubbing the part an octave higher. The delay effect added to the polyrhythms that gave the song its distinctive atmosphere. He worked with Wayne and Essex again in 1978 on the musical version of The War of the Worlds with Richard Burton, Justin Hayward and Phil Lynott among the cast.
But there was more to Flowers than the role of sideman to superstars. In 1969 he was a founding member of Blue Mink, garnering hits with Melting Pot and The Banner Man. A two-note riff provided Flowers with a hit novelty song, Grandad, in 1970, recorded by Clive Dunn. Flowers claimed that inspiration for the infuriatingly catchy chorus came when his songwriting partner Ken Pickett rang his doorbell.
In 1978, Flowers formed a prog-rock outfit, Sky, with the classical guitarist John Williams, electric guitarist Kevin Peek, drummer Tristan Fry and keyboard player Francis Monkman. Flowers was a permanent member of the band, which went through a number of personnel changes and recorded seven albums before finally disbanding in 1995.
A musical partnership with the drummer Peter Boita created the album Poetry in Motion (1990), featuring the work of John Betjeman. It was produced by George Martin and included a lineup comprising Essex, Hayward, Steve Harley, Donovan, Alvin Stardust and Captain Sensible. In 1992 Boita and Flowers performed the album live for a charity show at Richmond theatre. A second album, featuring Betjeman and the disc jockey Mike Read, was released in 1998.
Born Brian Flowers in Isleworth, Middlesex, to Elsie (nee Clarke) and John Flowers, he was evacuated during the second world war to Halesowen, in the West Midlands, for two years. After Tiffin grammar school, aged 18, he was conscripted into the Royal Air Force, where he gained the nickname Herbie (short for “Herbaceous Borders”, a play on his surname). He served as a bandsman playing the tuba in the RAF Central Band, taking up the double bass as his second instrument to earn his corporal stripes.
In the early 60s, after his national service, he did various stints in Dixieland jazz bands, before taking up a booking playing on the Queen Elizabeth ocean liner. During a stopover in New York, he bought his first electric guitar, a blue Fender Jazz bass for $79 – the same instrument he played on Walk on the Wild Side. It became his mainstay for the rest of his career. Jazz was his first musical love and it never left him. Later in life, settled in Ditchling, East Sussex, he would play jazz breakfast events at the Brighton fringe festival, with the drummer Malcolm Mortimore.
From the 90s he began giving “rock shop” tutorials at colleges across the country, and did freelance teaching at Ardingly college in West Sussex. He also gave regular workshops to aspiring musicians from his home, founded a community choir, Shoreham Singers-by-Sea, in 2009, and the Ditchling Singers the following year. He participated in gigs arranged by people in recovery from addiction, including the Brighton-based Cascade Creative Recovery Choir and New Note Strummers.
Flowers married Ann Sanderson in 1959 and they had two children. The marriage ended in divorce in 1992. Ann died last year, and in July Herbie married Claire Lacey, a cellist with the Finnish Chamber Orchestra.
She survives him, as do his son, Nick, his daughter, Jan, and his granddaughter, Lily.