Alan Davey

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, Rovi