Entertainment For Lively Minds
RIP David Bedford
Posted by Stephen Merrick on 4 October 2011 - 6:10pm.
Just heard David Bedford died of cancer a couple of days ago.
Sad news. He was a real talent and seemed a genuinely nice guy.
If you've heard of him, it's probably been through his collaborations with Mike Oldfield. "The Rio Grande" from "The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner" album (and also included on Mike Oldfield's "Boxed" anthology) is what originally sent me searching for more when I first heard it at the age of 17...
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One of his great arrangements
is on Roy Harper's Old Cricketer where the Grimethorpe Colliery Band create one of the most sublime sounds ever committed to vinyl.
So very sad.
Great shame
Top musician. Let's not forget his sterling contributions to magnif albums such as "Songs from the wood" by the mighty Tull.
And, never forget he held the world 10,000m record for some time
in the early 1970s...
Collaborations
This, off that fourth bit of vinyl in the Boxed package, is one of the best uses to which Oldfield's talents were put. Grievously overlooked, possibly as it just didn't fit into the narrative of either career. (It didn't appear on the original issue of Ommadawn.) Not a light-hearted listen, but worth the perseverance.
Star's End....
I remember picking up a vinyl copy of Star's End from Chas' Record and Tape Exchange for about 50p when I was a teenager, probably because Chris Cutler was drumming on it - the start of an interest in David Bedford which still lingers. No co-incidence that Kevin Ayers' best material was with The Whole World (DB on keyboards and occasional music-hall vocal).
Very sad to learn of his death.
Great bloke
and he sang lead on Don Alfonso, a little-known Mike Oldfield single.
It's possibly my favourite Oldfield track.
Completism rejected
I am so happy to have been an Oldfield fan for 35 years, blissfully unaware of this track.
I now have to live, knowing it exists, for a likely further 35 years.
I'd just about blotted out the new age pap of the Ibiza years, and now this.
Context
is everything. Dating from 1975, Don Alfonso was Oldfield’s second single and the first in a series of typically quirky 7” releases.
IMHO David Bedford turns in a fine, deliberately eccentric vocal performance and of course Oldfield’s trademark guitar is in clearly evidence in all its heavily layered vari-speed glory.
The film clip is terrible admittedly, but I love this track. Once it gets inside your head, it never leaves.
Madness
He did the arangement on One Better Day (my particular favourite) and I think Our House and It Must Be Love.
Bless him for that,
Another One
(The Rio Grande - Mike Oldfield, David Bedford)
A great man. I remember seeing him perform with Kevin Ayers & The Whole World on a couple of occasions in the misty past.
I have a few David Bedford albums. I'll be playing "Instructions For Angels" later tonight in his honour.