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Dick Taylor | |
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![]() Dick Taylor on stage with the Pretty Things in 2013. | |
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.
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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.
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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.
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