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Best known for his work with the iconic space rock band
Hawkwind,
Alan Davey is a bassist and keyboard player who has been an active presence in the British prog, hard rock, and experimental rock scenes since the late '70s. Known for his style of strumming the bass like a guitar, giving him a rich and heavy tone,
Davey's work runs the gamut from the hard rock band
Gunslinger (2008's
Earthquake in E Minor), the Middle Eastern-influenced metal of
Bedouin (2006's
Extremely Live 2003), the psych-influenced electronica of
Psychedelic Warriors (1995's
White Zone), and the heavy space rock of
Alan Davey's Psychedelic Warlords (2017's Disappear In Smoke).
Alan Davey was born in Ipswich, Suffolk on September 11, 1963. He got his first bass guitar when he was 15, a Rickenbacker copy, and unfamiliar with the traditional style of picking notes on the instrument, he strummed it like a guitar.
Davey discovered this style produced a sound much like that created by
Lemmy Kilmister on
Hawkwind's
Doremi Fasol Latido album, one of his favorites; having found a kindred spirit,
Davey began obsessively studying
Lemmy's unique bass style. (
Lemmy and
Davey would later become close friends.) In 1979,
Davey formed a hard rock band called
Gunslinger; the band developed a solid fan following, but their failure to land a record deal led to their breakup. In 1984,
Davey sent a demo tape to
Dave Brock, one of the founding members of
Hawkwind, and
Brock promptly invited
Davey to join the band.
Davey recorded and toured with
Hawkwind until 1996, leaving the band after a tour of Greece.
Davey then formed the group
Bedouin, who blended hard rock with Middle Eastern influences. (
Davey also used
Bedouin as the title of a 2003 solo effort.) In addition,
Davey put his knowledge of
Lemmy's music to good use in a
Motörhead tribute band, Ace of Spades.
In 1997,
Davey released his first solo effort,
Captured Rotation, with
Chaos Delight following in 2000. 2000 also saw
Davey participate in a
Hawkwind 30th anniversary concert, which led to him rejoining the group in 2001, and he continued to work with them until 2007. During this time, he also began collaborating with the black metal group
Meads of Asphodel, working with them until 2014. In 2008,
Davey assembled a new edition of
Gunslinger, and they released their belated debut album that year,
Earthquake in E Minor. In 2010,
Davey joined
the Hawklords, a group featuring several former members of
Hawkwind, and two years later, he would help found
the Psychedelic Warlords, another group in the
Hawkwind mold, which specialized in re-creating classic
Hawkwind albums in their entirety on-stage. In 2013,
Davey brought out the solo effort
Cybertooth, which would receive a belated American release in 2017; 2017 also brought a fresh solo effort,
Sputnik Stan, Vol. 1: A Fistful of Junk. 2019 saw the release of Hall of the Mountain Grill Live (London 2014), a concert souvenir of the
Psychedelic Warlords. In 2020,
Davey brought out
Four Track Mind, a four-disc collection of home-recorded demos spanning his career in music. ~ Mark Deming