Dick Taylor | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Richard Clifford Taylor |
Born | Dartford, Kent, England | 28 January 1943
Genres | Rock, R&B |
Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, record producer |
Instrument(s) | Guitar, bass guitar, piano, banjo |
Years active | 1962–present |
Labels | St. George Records |
Richard Clifford Taylor (born 28 January 1943) is an English musician, best known as the guitarist and founding member of The Pretty Things.
Taylor was an early member of the Rolling Stones, [1] playing guitar and bass guitar, but left the band to resume his studies at Sidcup Art College. While there he formed the Pretty Things in September 1963. As of 2017 he lived on the Isle of Wight, England. [2] Currently, as of 2024, he plays lead guitar with a band called The Hillmans (The lead singer of the Hilllmans is Tony Minx, and the 'Hillmans' is a reference to the Hillman Minx).
Taylor was born in Livingstone Hospital, Dartford, and attended Dartford Grammar School. [3] In July 1962, while he was at Sidcup Art College, the Rolling Stones was formed when Taylor, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards' three-piece group Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys joined Brian Jones and Ian Stewart's Rollin' Stones. [1] Initially, Taylor played lead guitar in the band, but switched to bass to accommodate Jones. That November, Taylor left to return to art college. Taylor never recorded with the Rolling Stones, whose debut single was issued in June 1963.
In 1963, Taylor formed The Pretty Things [1] with vocalist Phil May, and once again played his preferred guitar position. He left the Pretty Things in 1969, after the release of their concept album S.F. Sorrow . The band released a few more albums without Taylor and disbanded in 1976, but regrouped with Taylor in 1979 to release Cross Talk . Taylor remained with the Pretty Things until they broke up in 2018.
In addition to his work with The Pretty Things, Taylor co-produced Hawkwind's debut album, on which he also played guitar, as well as Cochise's first album and Skin Alley's first album. His contribution to punk rock was a recording by Auntie Pus. During the second half of the 1980s, Taylor played guitar with the English post-punk band the Mekons. He recorded with Andre Williams in Chicago for George Paulus' St. George Records.
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers are an English blues rock band led by multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter John Mayall. The band has been influential as an incubator for British rock and blues musicians. Many of the best known bands to come out of Britain in the 1960s and 1970s had members that came through the Bluesbreakers at one time, forming the foundation of British blues music that is still played heavily on classic rock radio. Among those with a tenure in the Bluesbreakers are guitarists Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor, bassists John McVie, Jack Bruce and Tony Reeves, drummers Hughie Flint, Aynsley Dunbar, Mick Fleetwood and Jon Hiseman, and numerous others.
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who is an original member, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-principal songwriter of the Rolling Stones. His songwriting partnership with the band's lead vocalist Mick Jagger is one of the most successful in history. His career spans over six decades, and his guitar playing style has been a trademark of the Rolling Stones throughout the band's career. Richards gained press notoriety for his romantic involvements and illicit drug use, and he was often portrayed as a countercultural figure. First professionally known as Keith Richard, by the early 1970s he had fully asserted his family name.
John Mayall is an English blues and rock musician, songwriter and producer. In the 1960s, he formed John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, a band that has counted among its members some of the most famous blues and blues rock musicians.
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Pretty Things were an English rock band formed in September 1963 in Sidcup, Kent, taking their name from Bo Diddley's 1955 song "Pretty Thing", and active in their first incarnation until 1971. They released five studio albums, including the debut The Pretty Things and S. F. Sorrow, four EPs and 15 UK singles, including the Top 20 UK Singles Chart "Don't Bring Me Down" and "Honey I Need". They reformed later in 1971 and continued through to 1976 issuing three more studio albums, and reformed once again from 1979 to 2020 releasing another five studio albums finalising with Bare as Bone, Bright as Blood.
Ian Andrew Robert Stewart was a British keyboardist and co-founder of the Rolling Stones. He was removed from the lineup in May 1963 at the request of manager Andrew Loog Oldham who felt he did not fit the band's image. He remained as road manager and pianist for over two decades until his death, and was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the rest of the band in 1989.
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Michael Kevin Taylor is an English guitarist, best known as a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (1967–1969) and the Rolling Stones (1969–1974). As a member of the Stones, he appeared on Let It Bleed (1969), Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert (1970), Sticky Fingers (1971), Exile on Main St. (1972), Goats Head Soup (1973) and It's Only Rock 'n Roll (1974).
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Christopher Hillman is an American musician. He was the original bassist of the Byrds.
Sidcup Art College, also known as Sidcup School of Art, was an art college in Grassington Road, Sidcup, Greater London, England. Founded in 1898, it amalgamated in 1962 with Bromley College of Art and Beckenham School of Art to form Ravensbourne College of Art and Design, now Ravensbourne University London.
Philip Dennis Arthur May was an English vocalist. He gained fame in the 1960s as the lead singer of Pretty Things, of which he was a founding member. May remained a member throughout the band's changing line-up over the years, and was one of the band's main lyricists. He was the primary lyricist for the album S.F. Sorrow.
John Richard Deacon is an English retired musician best known for being the bass guitarist for the rock band Queen. He wrote several songs for the group, including Top 10 hits "You're My Best Friend", "Another One Bites the Dust" and "I Want to Break Free"; co-wrote "Under Pressure", "Friends Will Be Friends" and "One Vision"; and he was involved in the band's financial management.
Get the Picture? is the second album by the English rock band Pretty Things, released in 1965.
The Pretty Things is the self-titled debut album by the English rock band Pretty Things. Released in 1965 in alternate track listings in the United Kingdom and United States, the album demonstrated the band's raw, loud sound, influenced by American rock and roll musician Bo Diddley.
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The Yardbirds are an English rock band, formed in London in 1963. The band started the careers of three of rock's most famous guitarists: Eric Clapton (1963–1965), Jeff Beck (1965–1966) and Jimmy Page (1966–1968), all of whom ranked in the top five of Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 greatest guitarists. The band's other members during 1963–1968 were vocalist/harmonica player Keith Relf, drummer Jim McCarty, rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja, and bassist Paul Samwell-Smith, with Dreja switching to bass when Samwell-Smith departed in 1966. The band had a string of hits throughout the mid-1960s, including "For Your Love", "Heart Full of Soul", "Shapes of Things", and "Over Under Sideways Down".