Trevor Bolder

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Trevor Bolder (born 9 June 1950, Kingston upon Hull, England^[1]) is an English rock bass guitarist.

Trevor Bolder playing a D'Alegria Defender TB signature bass

Biography

Bolder was active in his native R&B scene in the mid 1960s. He first came to prominence in The Rats, which also featured Mick Ronson on lead guitar. His big break arrived in 1971, when he replaced Tony Visconti in David Bowie's backing band, which would soon be known as the Spiders from Mars. Bolder's bass (and occasional trumpet) work appeared on the studio albums Hunky Dory (1971), The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972), Aladdin Sane (1973), and Pin Ups (1973), the Spiders' swan song with their leader.^[1]

In 1976 Bolder was recruited to join Uriah Heep, replacing John Wetton. Bolder's tenure with Uriah Heep was, initially, relatively short-lived. Although he did contribute to the albums Firefly, Innocent Victim, Fallen Angel and Conquest, when the line-up that had recorded the latter disbanded Bolder alone was left with Mick Box, guitarist, founder-member and legal owner of the band's name. The attempt to put a new line-up together temporarily stalled and Bolder, needing to be earning a living, accepted an offer in 1981 to join Wishbone Ash, a band who much earlier had tenuous links with Hull. Bolder had, coincidentally, again swapped places with John Wetton, becoming The Ash's bass player for their 1982 album Twin Barrels Burning. It was another short-lived connection, as by 1983 he returned to the rhythm section with Uriah Heep, playing on the Head First tour (although Bob Daisley played on the album) and all albums since.

As well as his usual bass-playing and backing vocal duties, Bolder also produced Heep's 1991 abum Different World. He sang lead on "Fear Of Falling", one of the tracks he had written for Sea Of Light in 1995. (NB although credited on the album cover with lead vocals on "It Ain't Easy", last track on Conquest, it is not Bolder singing. It was simply too late to amend the sleeve.)

While on tour with the Cybernauts he painted his face blue but then found out the paint was semi permanent and would not come off. Bolder had to sell his car to raise the money needed for a specialist skin peeling process at a Swiss clinic. To this day he still has traces of blue paint behind his left ear.^[2]

During his spare time in his hometown of Hull, Bolder has become an avid collector of whippets and is highly regarded in the North of England for his knowledge and expertise of the breed.^[3]

He remains a member of Uriah Heep, and has also played with Cybernauts.

Discography

With David Bowie

• Hunky Dory (1971)
• The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)
• Aladdin Sane (1973)
• Pin Ups (1973)
• Ziggy Stardust - The Motion Picture (recorded live 1973, officially released 1983)
• Santa Monica '72 (recorded live 1972, officially released 1994)

With Cybernauts

• Cybernauts Live

With Dana Gillespie

• Weren't Born a Man

With Ken Hensley

• Free Spirit
• From Time to Time

With Mick Ronson

• Slaughter On 10th Avenue (1974)
• Play Don't Worry (1975)
• Main Man
• Memorial Concert

With The Spiders From Mars

• Spiders From Mars (1976)

With Uriah Heep

• Firefly (1977)
• Innocent Victim (1977)
• Fallen Angel (1978)
• Conquest (1980)
• Equator (1985)
• Live in Europe 1979 (1986) – recorded 1979
• Live in Moscow (live, 1988)
• Raging Silence (1989)
• Different World (1991)
• Sea of Light (1995)
• Spellbinder (live, 1996)
• Sonic Origami (1998)
• Future Echoes Of The Past (live, 2000)
• Acoustically Driven (live, 2001)
• Electrically Driven (live, 2001)
• The Magician's Birthday Party (live, 2002)
• Live in the USA (2003)
• Magic Night (live, 2004)
• Wake the Sleeper (2008)

With Wishbone Ash

• Twin Barrels Burning (1982)

Equipment

Throughout his career Bolder has used many different basses including:

• Fender Mustang Bass
• Gibson EB-3
• Rickenbacker 4001
• Fender Precision Bass (1971 version - maple fretboard; with jazz bass pick-up added later)
• D'Alegria Defender TB (signature bass - as seen in the picture above)

References

Hull Daily Mail. Interview with Trevor Bolder entitled The Quiet Rock of Hull. 17 February 2001 (No Web Archive available)

External links

• Uriah Heep official website
• Trevor Bolder's official MySpace page
• Exhaustive interview with Trevor Bolder
• Wishbone Ash's official site
• NNDB website
• D'Alegria website - TB signature bass