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Contact details: P.O Box 785189, |
| Martin Simpson began his love affair with the bass at the tail end of 1972 with the acquisition of a Columbus J.bass copy and a Wilson Rapier bass. He formed the covers band Blue Dust (later to become Muffle Gruffle) with guitarist cousins Kenny and Gordon Martin, which lasted for around eighteen months.
Later on he got together with Eddie Lagan and joined up with his old schoolmate Ozzy Orzell and Ozzy’s neighbourhood buddy/music partner, Donny Burke to re-form Ozzy’s band Sounder. Martin and Eddie left the band along with drummer Ray McKnight, around nine months later and formed the glam rock band, Metropolis (later to become Night stalker) with Eddie Kulac (later of Aztec Camera) and Bob Alexander which gigged extensively in and around London. Martin, however, played only one gig with the band as Night stalker and joined a band in Kent called Contact. By this time Martin had acquired a Hagstrom H8 eight string bass, a Fender P.bass, and a Gibson Thunderbird bass. Contact didn’t really get off the ground and Martin left the band along with vocalist Toad and guitarist Ron Neary to form the band Mistreated. By this time, Martin had acquired a B.C. Rich Mocking bird bass and an Ibanez eight string bass. Mistreated recruited Swiss born Drummer Pete Leman and went into the recording studio in May 1979 - before they had even done a gig and put a four track demo together but broke up immediately after this, due to friction that had been building up between Toad and Ron. In July 1982 Martin left England’s shores to immigrate to South Africa with the master tape of this recording session, acquired an Ibanez Musician bass, a Peavy 300 combo and soon found himself backing Durban born, blues/jazz guitarist/singer Linda McGregor. In 1985 Martin acquired a fretless Ibanez Musician bass and was invited to join a band that was being put together by guitarist/singer Paul Otten. It was in this band that he met Scottish born axe man Iaan Hearfield and together they departed to form the band Humaniax. Due to the band being only a three-piece outfit, Martin started doubling on keyboards. Unfortunately, the band didn’t last very long and Martin teamed up with Iaan’s younger brother, Dave, to form the two piece band, Night Beat (later to become The Simfield Project). During this time, Martin had started to put together demos of his own material and after a short stint trying to put a band together with John Paul Destefani, decided that his future course should be as a solo artist and he put together a demo solo album called Take Me Back To The Balcony, an album called Skin Deep, with his Simfield Project partner Dave and an album called Take Two with his friend, multi-instrumentalist, Ray Mavundla. By this time, Martin had begun designing the sleeves of his solo and collaborative albums. In 1995 Martin started trading as Sympsonic Creations, converted the Mistreated master tape into digital format and released the disc with the title Crystaline Mayhem (a reference to the time of year and location of the recording which took place in Crystal Palace, London). In 1992, he traded in his Ibanez Musician bass for a Warwick Streamer bass and shortly after this, Phil Culham persuaded Martin to assist him in re-forming his band Wicked Willie but the band only played a handful of gigs and so Martin went into B# Studios in 1997 to start work on the album Bass To Bass with John Paul Destefani. Martin eventually finished the album and came out with four cd’s: - Space Rock, a four-track single. Lost In Space, a five track single, Bass To Bass, a twelve-track album and The Bass Remains The Same, an eight-track album. During this extensive recording period, Martin acquired a Cort five string Artisan bass which he tunes E through C. At Present, Martin is working on follow-ups to The Bass Remains The Same (with Colin Heaney) and Bass To Bass. Most of Martin’s spare time nowadays, is spent running the South African Bass Player Collective that he co-founded with Concord Nkabinde, Kai Horsthemke and Graeme Currie in 2002. |
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