Simon Home, former keyboardist and violinist for Hawkwind and member of David Bowie’s reside band, has died, aged 76. The information was damaged by his daughter Holly on Sunday (25 Might).
Born in Nottingham on 29 August 1948, Home was a classically educated violinist who married easy approach with boundary-pushing sonic exploration, and can be one of many nice unsung keyboardists of the progressive ‘70s.
Shifting to London within the ‘60s, he shortly embedded himself within the countercultural scene of Notting Hill and Ladbroke Grove. The primary band of notice he joined was Excessive Tide, a post-psychedelic/proto-prog outfit shaped by ex-Misunderstood guitarist Tony Hill. Home was enjoying bass when he first drifted into the band’s circle, however Hill inspired him to modify to violin as an alternative. Electrified and pushed by a wide range of results, Home’s enjoying was imbued with a wailing energy, and have become a defining a part of Excessive Tide’s sound.
Excessive Tide had been a Clearwater band and often performed reveals round west London, one in all which, on the All Saints Church Corridor on 29 August 1969 (Home’s twenty first birthday), was famously gatecrashed by the band that may go on to develop into Hawkwind. Home recorded two albums with Excessive Tide, Sea Shanties and Excessive Tide, earlier than the band broke up. He then grew to become a member of the Third Ear Band, and performed on the soundtrack album the group recorded for Roman Polanski’s movie of Macbeth. Whereas violin was nonetheless his principal instrument, Home had additionally began enjoying keyboards as effectively, together with the VCS3 synth.
When Hawkwind’s synth participant Del Dettmar introduced his intention to depart the band on the finish of 1973, Home was recruited to take his place. With Dettmar not formally leaving till June 1974, Home spent his first few months within the background, making occasional contributions on stage and tagging alongside as a part of the band’s entourage throughout their ‘1999 Social gathering’ tour of America.
However by the point that Hawkwind went into Olympic studios in Might 1974 to document Corridor Of The Mountain Grill, Home was a fully-fledged member and instantly made his presence felt. Whereas Hawkwind had beforehand been famend for his or her crunching, deep house riffarama, Home introduced a brand new sophistication to their sound, from the faux-classical drama of Wind Of Change to the elegant pocket symphony of the album’s title observe, Home’s first writing credit score with the band.
But it surely was on 1975’s Warrior On The Edge Of Time that Home actually got here into his personal, his sweeping Mellotron, coiling synths and Banshee violin bringing the fantastical idea behind the album to life, creating the aural equal of studying one in all Michael Moorcock’s Everlasting Champion novels. It additionally featured one other Home-penned instrumental, Spiral Galaxy 28948, his birthday barely blended up.
As Hawkwind’s sound modified once more following the return of frontman Robert Calvert and the becoming a member of of Paul Rudolph, Home tailored with ease to the mellower vibe of Astounding Sounds, Superb Music, his woozy clavinet and vaporous synth work bringing a distinctly Floydian ambiance to tracks reminiscent of Metropolis Of Lagoons and his personal Chronoglide Skyway.
Quark, Strangeness And Attraction from 1977 was a steelier, extra futuristic sounding album, with Home as soon as once more bringing a brand new palette of digital colors to bear. This was notably in proof on his instrumental The Forge Of Vulcan, with the primary look of a sequencer loop on a Hawkwind album. Elsewhere, his organ and violin breakdown in Damnation Alley is simply elegant and his swirling arabesques create the proper backing for Hassan I Sahba.
At the beginning of 1978, Home dropped a bombshell within the Hawkwind camp when he introduced he was leaving to hitch David Bowie’s reside band. Home had recognized Bowie since his Excessive Tide days, and after some deliberation, accepted his invitation to develop into the violinist on Bowie’s Isolar II world tour, starting within the US in March 1978. Dressed all in white, Home was a stand-out but implacable presence on stage, enhancing Bowie’s extra autre materials reminiscent of Warszawa. He additionally contributed to Bowie’s subsequent Lodger album, together with the hit single Boys Maintain Swinging.
Home labored as a session musician all through the Nineteen Eighties, that includes on albums together with Japan’s Tin Drum and Thomas Dolby’s The Golden Age Of Wi-fi, earlier than rejoining Hawkwind in 1989 and showing on the Area Bandits and Palace Springs albums. Home left the band once more in 1991, however would return for 2 additional stints, 2000-2002 (showing on the Yuletide Ritual and Canterbury Fayre reside albums) and 2005-2007 (showing on Take Me To Your Chief).