Guy Pratt Talks About Working With Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music - Tue 24th Jan
Guy Pratt Talks About Working With Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music
24 January 2006
WHAT IS THIS I HEAR, I RECOGNISE THAT SONG (Bryan Ferry Nightingale 1975)
I had the opportunity to interview the current Roxy Music bass player
Guy Pratt back in September. Guy has played bass with many artists and
appeared on stage with Bryan/Roxy for this first time on the Roxy Music
summer tour in 2005. Guy is currently touring his stand up comedy act
called ‘My Bass And Other Animals’ I managed to see this at The
Edinburgh Festival last year and can only describe it as ‘a hoot’.
There are anecdotes in his show regarding working with Roxy as well as
the many artists he has worked with in his career so far. Guy has been
good enough to take the time to answer what he can about his time
working with Bryan and Roxy for VivaRoxyMusic.com
Check out his website for dates and venues for ‘My Bass And Other Animals’ www.guypratt.com
VRM
How did you get the initial job with BF in the '80s?
GP
I was playing with the Australian band Icehouse whose singer and writer
had a singing and writing style not a million miles from Bryan. They
were doing an album and got Rhett Davies to produce it. I had thought
that they got him for one of two reason: if you are going to copy Bryan
you might as well do it proper and get his producer too or if you had
his producer Iva may not be so keen to copy Bryan in front of Rhett and
therefore find a new direction.
This was just after Boys And Girls came out and Rhett was trying to get
together a little core group for Bryan in London. He needed this London
based core group for his demos as many of the musicians he had used on
Boys And Girls were in New York. Rhett had found Chester Kamen and he
suggested me for the job so I left Icehouse to work for Bryan as I felt
I had been with them long enough. My audition for Bryan was to go and
play on “Is Your Love Strong Enough?” The first time I met Dave Gilmour
was at the recording of the video for that song.
VRM
So that was how you ended up with the Bass chair in Pink Floyd, I had
always thought that you got the job with Bryan through Dave Gilmour.
GP
No it was the other way around and I also came to David’s attention when I played with Dream Academy
VRM
What was your main involvement in the Bete Noire album and what tracks
did you play on, as the sleeve is just a list of over 40 names with no
particular credit attached to them.
GP
Yes I know I was really annoyed when it came out (he laughs). I was on
tour with Pink Floyd and I came up to David’s (Gilmour) room and said
“I have spent a year and a half on that album and you swan in for a
couple of afternoons and your name is higher up the credits than me”
just because his name begins with G (He jokes)
Making that album was some of the happiest days of my life. Basically
it was a whole load of ideas and tracks that Bryan had and Chester and
I were left to just muck around with them for ages in E’G studios. We
then started working proper with Bryan at Air Studios and ending up in
Los Angeles to do the Pat Leonard stuff. It was great, it felt just
like a band with this core of me Bryan and Chester then Johnny Marr
became involved later on, this is when I first met Johnny. Chester and
I ended co-writing a song on the album (The Seven Deadly Sins). We were
very heavily involved, they were very happy days.
VRM
How did you write that song?
GP
I was mucking around with a chord pattern that was a sort of version of
the Human League track ‘Seconds’. Bryan came in the studio and said,
“what’s that? It sounds really good we could use that’. So Chester and
myself worked on it for a while and then Bryan came in on it and worked
on the top line and vocals. We used the working title of
Bryan/Chester/Guy. This was because we knew Bryan takes ages to release
anything and by then it may be forgotten who wrote it. (laughs)
VRM
How did Bryan put across to you and the other musicians on what he
wanted you to play? It always amazes me not as a fan but as a musician
too how Bryan puts the tracks together. You see on a sleeve ‘Words
& Music By Bryan Ferry’ and I listen to the first 8 bars of a song
and I think ’there is no way Bryan wrote that music down or hummed a
tune for these guys’
GP
Bryan’s real talent is just recognising stuff. Some times he comes in
with very fixed ideas down on tape and some times there are some things
when Bryan just noodles and we sort of jam around them. He is really
good at spotting stuff “Oh that sounds good, keep that bit, leave that
bit out, move that bit to there” He is very good at collage and putting
things together, the art student in him. (Laughs)
VRM
Would Bryan sometimes play something on a keyboard and say “play a bass
line like this or play something like that and funk it out a bit”
GP
No he wouldn’t suggest notes as such, bass is very important to Bryan
which is really good for me (laughs) He is very good at suggesting
grooves and where something should sit. He basically deals with feel
and that is the over riding thing with most of his records. They are
essentially fantastic ‘feeling’ groove based soundscapes. What I like
about Bryan is that he seems to like the first thing I play. (he laughs)
VRM
Well he likes it but just doesn’t know he likes it until he has done another 45 versions (we both laugh)
GP
Yes that’s true I have done some stuff in the studio and Bryan says
“great, fantastic” on a first take and I say “you sure”, “oh yes that’s
it” says Bryan then the next day the phone goes “oh erm eh Guy could
you come back in….”
VRM
Where you a fan of Roxy before you worked with Bryan?
GP
Huge!!!! (before I could finish the question) Enormous fan of Roxy Music all my life.
VRM
So how did that feel when working for him?
GP
I always remember the first time I met Bryan I was terrified. I
remember walking into the studio and he stood up. By that time I had
met a lot of my heroes and they were never like I had expected or even
read about. They would be quite boring or shorter than I thought or
have some really dull hobby and Bryan just wasn’t any of those things.
He stood up and I thought to myself “wow you really are that tall” and
he is built like an Antony Price suit. (laughs).
VRM
You went on to work on Mamouna, were those sessions different from Bete Noire?
GP
Yes they where, I wasn’t part of a team as such like on Bete Noire, I
was mainly a session player with many others. It was still great fun
but I was more of an outsider just adding to the record. A lot of the
stuff I did was not even bass, I did a thing we call T-Wah bass. It was
sort of like playing guitar lines through a Wah peddle. It’s called a
Boss T-Wah peddle which is like an envelope filter (for the benefit of
non musicians that is not something that sorts out Bryan’s fan mail)
and as soon as you hit a note it sort of goes “whop”
Again that is a classic bit of Bryan recognising something. It suits
the way I play, it is not bass playing it’s a particular skill I have
that and Bryan is the only person ever to recognise that and got me to
do it.
VRM
What else then does Bryan bring out in you as a musician and what do
you find yourself doing as a musician that has come from working with
Bryan?
GP
Working on Bete Noire has kind of shaped me as a musician generally
because he allows a lot of freedom and expression which is really good
for making you limit yourself as a player as apposed to just showing
off. He certainly gets the best out of me and it’s always a joy to play
for him. I think “Kiss And Tell” is one of the top three bass lines I
have ever written for any of the artists I have worked with. (The list
is huge including Michael Jackson, Pink Floyd)
VRM
Yes a favourite if mine too, so what else on Bete Noire would you lay claim to, Limbo?
GP
All the Pat Leonard songs (Limbo, Day For Night, Zamba, The Name Of The
Game & Bete Noire) were well down the line when Chester and I got
involved and we put down just a few parts on those in L.A. The ones
that where kind of part of ‘our’ sessions (Guy, Chester & Bryan)
were Kiss And Tell, New Town, The Right Stuff, The Seven Deadly Sins
The Right Stuff of course is a re-written Smiths instrumental and it
was fantastic when Johnny came in and played on that. So much came out
of this album for me. I became lifelong friends with Chester, Johnny
Marr and I ended up being in The Smiths for a week (laughs). Meeting
Pat Leonard through this album led to me working with Madonna, Michael
Jackson and many others. It had a very profound affect on my life doing
Bete Noire.
I remember during the sessions for New Town we had two machines synced
up with one part of the song and another on the other machine. We had
one running and the second one cued up. We had the finger on stop on
one machine and play on the other and Bryan counted one, two three
four, NOW!!! To get the tracks joined in sync. Of course nowadays you
just do that on computer quite easily.
VRM
Leading on from the album, you didn’t play on the tour. Was there a reason for that?
GP
Yes that’s right I only just missed it as I was touring with Pink Floyd
and that ended just as the tour had started and I would have missed all
the rehearsals etc. I saw him at the Wembley shows and I remember just
sitting there thinking how fantastic the show was and how I wished I
was part of it.
VRM
Did you work on the Horoscope sessions which became the Mamouna album?
GP
No I had gone a couple of years where I didn’t work with Bryan as I was
working with Pink Floyd then and when that finished Bryan was working
abroad. I didn’t get involved again until the Mamouna sessions as we
mentioned before.
VRM
So how did the Roxy gig come around for this tour and album because on paper you haven’t worked with Bryan since 1994
GP
Oh I have, I get a call every so often and did odds and sods with Bryan though non of it has come out since Mamouna though.
VRM
Was that the ‘Alphaville” sessions?
GP
Yes I remember playing on that song I really liked that track and some of that stuff.
VRM
So you haven’t really been away then?
GP
No, there was talk of me being involved in the 2001 tour apparently but
I never heard about it! This time though I was just thrilled. I was
asked to come down and play on a couple of tracks then the next thing I
was asked to come on the road and that was fantastic. I am also working
with Phil who is producing David Gilmour’s album and that could have
been part of it too as I know Phil and Bryan well.
VRM
What’s it like working with The Great Paul Thompson?
GP
FANTASTIC!!!!!! Working with Paul, he’s BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!! I love playing with him.
VRM
What has he got that no other drummer has, what would you single him out with?
GP
He is just really solid and yet sensitive and utterly reliant he hasn’t
got any of the prissy show off sort of stuff a lot of younger drummers
have. He plays exactly what’s needed in the right places, I feel
absolutely safe playing with Paul.
VRM
How is the new Roxy album coming along?
GP
It is coming along fine, I have been involved here and there and it is
a pleasure to work with these guys, a band whom I have admired since I
was a kid. I shouldn’t comment too much on the album at this stage as
things change all the time but I am sure it will be a great album.
VRM
Guy thanks for your time and I am sure many of the Roxy fans will
appreciate the insight to working with Bryan Ferry that you have given
us, and good luck with the stand up show.
GP
My pleasure and thanks.
Previous Article | Next Article