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Biography
Herbie Flowers (born Brian Keith Flowers, 19 May 1938, in Isleworth, Middlesex) is an English studio musician specialising in bass guitar, double-bass and tuba, who came to prominence performing with David Bowie and Elton John, and then later Lou Reed.[1] It is his bass that opens Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" and underpins Bowie's "Space Oddity" as well as the Harry Nilsson song "Jump into the Fire". He also played bass on the Serge Gainsbourg album Histoire de Melody Nelson, Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, and several George Harrison solo albums.
In 1969 Flowers co-founded the group Blue Mink and played on their song "Melting Pot", which reached #3 in the UK Singles Chart. He was a member of CCS, and later featured in a mid-1970s line-up of T. Rex. In 1979, shortly after taking part in the annual A Song For Europe contest, performing "Mr. Moonlight" with his group, "The Daisies", he became a co-founder of the band Sky, which had considerable success in the United Kingdom and Australia. Since the band's demise in the early 1990s Flowers has spent most of his time playing jazz. He also works as a bass guitar teacher at Ardingly College, and leads many 'rockshops' at schools, helping children to create and perform their own songs, as well as covering many others.
