Colin Hodgkinson

Colin Hodgkinson ( Neckarsulm 2006)

Colin Hodgkinson (born October 14, 1945 in Peterborough , Cambridgeshire , England ) is a British bassist of international renown who, because of his unusual style of playing difficult chord playing and his proven virtuosity, has performed in many great productions of jazz , blues and rock music . Hodgkinson is left-handed .

Live and act

Hodgkinson, 1980

Hodgkinson, also known as Colin "Bomber" Hodgkinson, began his career as a professional musician in 1966. In 1969 he played in Alexis Korner's band , which opened the legendary Rolling Stones concert in London's Hyde Park . In 1970 the album Both Sides was released under the band name "New Church".

In 1971 Hodgkinson founded the jazz rock formation Back Door with Ron Aspery (keyboards, flute, saxophone) and Tony Hicks (drums) . Her debut album in 1972 was a surprise success. In 1974 they went on a world tour with Emerson, Lake & Palmer . After reshuffling, the band broke up in 1977.

1979 Hodgkinson played again with Alexis Korner. The two also appeared as a duo "Alexis & Colin". A performance in Paris in 1980 was recorded live and later appeared on various albums. At the same time, Hodgkinson played in Jan Hammer's band and can be heard on the 1979 album Hammer . 1981-82 came out two albums under the name "Schon & Hammer" - the band consisted of Colin Hodgkinson (bass), Jan Hammer (keyboards) and Neal Schon (guitar).

In the early 1980s, Hodgkinson played intermittently in Rocket 88 , a supergroup put together by Charlie Watts , and in Pete York's Olympic Rock & Blues Circus . In 1982 he was on tour with Jan Hammer and started playing with Whitesnake .

Since 1986 Hodgkinson has performed with Frank Diez (guitar) as an electric blues duo . As such, they have so far produced seven albums and have given well over 1,300 concerts in Germany and abroad. During this time there were also several brief revivals of the Spencer Davis Group with Hodgkinson, a trio with Hodgkinson, Pete York and Brian Auger and a new edition of Back Door. In 1986 Hodgkinson was on tour with Chris Farlowe , in 1987 with Konstantin Wecker and again in 1988 with Pete York.

In the 1990s Hodgkinson played several times in Peter Maffay's band , had a project in honor of Peter Green , "Green & Blues", formed a trio with Miller Anderson and Tony Hicks, played in Jon Lord's "Gemini Band" and in the "Hell Blues Band" with Bernie Marsden. From 2006 to 2013 Hodgkinson was a member of The British Blues Quintet (with Maggie Bell , Zoot Money , Frank Diez and Colin Allen), with whom he recorded the album Live in Glasgow (Recorded at the Ferry) in November 2007 . In February 2008, Colin Hodgkinson toured with Chris Rea and his band earbook project, The Return of the Fabulous Hofner Bluenotes . From 2011 he was a member of the Jon Lord Blues Project .

In December 2013 he took over from Leo Lyons at Ten Years After and has been a permanent member of the band since then.

Equipment

Since the age of 17, Hodgkinson has mainly played a Fender Precision Bass from 1962, which has been revised several times over the years. He also owns a 1963 Sunburst Fender Precision Bass as a replacement instrument, as well as a 1988 Warwick Thumb 5-String fretless bass. Basically he uses strings made by Rotosound .

As an amplifier, Hodgkinson uses an Ampeg SVT with 8 × 10 CAB, as well as MARK and AER combos.