![]() |
Gordon Bell (born 24 July 1969) is a Scottish singer-songwriter based in Basel, Switzerland.
He released fifteen albums. Nine of those albums were under the pseudonym Gustav Bertha. His breakthrough fifth album My Life as a Dog (distributed in Switzerland through RecRec ) was well received: Swiss newspaper Der Bund called it 'Wunderbar',. [1] The Swiss press has also dubbed him with the slightly more ambiguous title, "The World's least-known Scot". [2] He stopped working under the Gustav Bertha pseudonym in 2008 to write and play as Gordon Bell. Bell's music could be compared to a strange cross between fellow Glaswegians Ivor Cutler and Alex Harvey.[ citation needed ] He has a penchant for storytelling in his songs. He also spent 15 years as lead singer with a tribute to The Sensational Alex Harvey Band – Not The Sensational Alex Harvey Band and now fronts the rock band Giant Stone Eater who play a mix of covers (especially songs connected with Alex Harvey) and Bell's own songs.[ citation needed ]
Year | Artist | Title | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
1991 | One in Five | Five Flew Over the Hatchery | |
1993 | Psychoannie | Amoeba | |
1999 | plasticpsychobabble | StranGe enchantment | |
2000 | submerging meadows green boundaries | ||
blurred visions for fuzzy strangers | |||
The Secret Life of Andrew Aston | Caffeine Injunction | ||
2001 | Gustav Bertha | Songs for Gigi | |
2002 | The Hose Room | ||
Café Crème | |||
2003 | babble | ||
2004 | My Life as a Dog | ||
2005 | Defective | ||
2006 | z:06 (compilation) | ||
2007 | small adventures in the great domestic wilderness | ||
2008 | True North | ||
2009 | Gordon Bell | Songs for the Broken Hearted | |
2010 | The Lost Art of Penance | ||
2011 | The 12 Uses of a Dead Tape Cassette | ||
Gordon Bell and the Sinking Ships | Animal Kingdom | ||
2012 | Gordon Bell | A Day Trip to the Sea |
A pseudonym or alias is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's own. Many pseudonym holders use them because they wish to remain anonymous, but anonymity is difficult to achieve and often fraught with legal issues.
The celesta or celeste, also called a bell-piano, is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. It looks similar to an upright piano, albeit with smaller keys and a much smaller cabinet, or a large wooden music box (three-octave). The keys connect to hammers that strike a graduated set of metal plates or bars suspended over wooden resonators. Four- or five-octave models usually have a damper pedal that sustains or damps the sound. The three-octave instruments do not have a pedal because of their small "table-top" design. One of the best-known works that uses the celesta is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from The Nutcracker.
Big Star was an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee in 1971 by Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens (drums), and Andy Hummel (bass). They have been described as the "quintessential American power pop band", and "one of the most mythic and influential cult acts in all of rock & roll". In its first era, the band's musical style drew influence from 1960s pop acts such as the Beatles and the Byrds, producing a style that foreshadowed the alternative rock of the 1980s and 1990s. Before they broke up, Big Star created a "seminal body of work that never stopped inspiring succeeding generations" according to Rolling Stone. Three of Big Star's studio albums are included in the Rolling Stone list of the Top 500 Albums of All-Time.
Alexander James Harvey was a Scottish rock and blues musician. Although his career spanned almost three decades, he is best remembered as the frontman of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, with whom he built a reputation as an exciting live performer during the era of glam rock in the 1970s.
Peter Joseph Andrew Hammill is an English musician and recording artist. He was a founder member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Best known as a singer-songwriter, he also plays guitar and piano and produces his own recordings and occasionally those of other artists. In 2012, he was recognised with the Visionary award at the first Progressive Music Awards.
Phantom Planet is an American rock band from Los Angeles, formed in 1994. The band consists of Alex Greenwald, Darren Robinson, Sam Farrar and Jeff Conrad (drums). The band is best known for its track "California", which became the theme song for the TV series The O.C.. The band featured actor Jason Schwartzman on drums until 2003.
Damien George Rice is an Irish musician, singer and songwriter. He began his career as a member of the 1990s rock group Juniper, who were signed to Polygram Records in 1997. The band enjoyed moderate success in Ireland with two released singles, "The World is Dead" and "Weatherman". After leaving the band in 1998, Rice worked as a farmer in Tuscany and busked throughout Europe before returning to Ireland in 2001 and beginning a solo career. The rest of Juniper went on to perform under the name Bell X1.
Andrew Piran Bell is a Welsh singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and DJ. He is one of two vocalists and guitarists of the English rock band Ride, and was formerly the bassist of Oasis from 1999 until their breakup in 2009. Bell was also a member of Hurricane #1 as well as Liam Gallagher's post-Oasis project Beady Eye until their breakup in 2014.
Michael John Harvey is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter, composer, arranger and record producer. A multi-instrumentalist, he is best known for his long-term collaborations with Nick Cave, with whom he formed The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band were a Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow in 1972. Fronted by Alex Harvey accompanied by Zal Cleminson on guitar, bassist Chris Glen, keyboard player Hugh McKenna and drummer Ted McKenna, their music was a blend of blues rock and hard rock, with cabaret elements. Their stage performances incorporated theatrical elements. The band were popular in continental Europe, and influential in Australia, most notably on AC/DC and on the young Nick Cave and his first band The Boys Next Door.
Merkur Spiel-Arena, previously known as the Esprit Arena, the LTU Arena, and as the Düsseldorf Arena, is a retractable roof football stadium in Düsseldorf, Germany. The arena currently hosts association football team Fortuna Düsseldorf.
Leslie Cameron Harvey was a Scottish guitarist in several bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s, most notably Stone the Crows. He was the brother of Alex Harvey.
Alistair Macdonald "Zal" Cleminson is a Scottish guitarist, best known for his role in the Sensational Alex Harvey Band between 1972 and 1978. He was subsequently a member of Nazareth for three years. In 2017, Cleminson put together a new rock band - /sin'dogs/, which recorded and released a four-song EP and an album, featuring nine original songs. /sin'dogs/ toured Scotland, England and Sweden in the years following.
3.2.1. is the debut album by the rock band Zilch, released on July 23, 1998. It is their only work with original frontman hide, due to his death two months before its release. The album reached number 2 on the Oricon chart, was the 54 best-selling album of the year, and was certified Double Platinum by the RIAJ for sales over 800,000.
Framed is the 1972 debut album by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. The title track is a cover of a Leiber and Stoller song originally recorded by The Robins. Other tracks include a cover of the Willie Dixon song "I Just Want to Make Love to You", originally performed by Muddy Waters. Both of these songs had appeared on Alex Harvey recordings as far back as the 1963 live recording from Hamburg, released in 1964 as "Alex Harvey and His Soul Band". "Hammer Song" and "Midnight Moses" are two Harvey originals that first appeared on his solo LP Roman Wall Blues in 1969. "Hole In Her Stocking" had been recorded by Alex Harvey in 1970 on the Rock Workshop eponymous release of the same year.
Fourplay is the seventh studio album by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, and the first of the group's albums to be made without Alex Harvey: the band was identified as "SAHB " on the album cover. Harvey had quit the group and was recording another album called Alex Harvey Presents: The Loch Ness Monster at the time. Most of the group had recorded two albums under the name Tear Gas in the early 1970s, and John Neil Munro states in his 2002 book The Sensational Alex Harvey that they had been planning to record without Harvey for at least a year prior to the split. Harvey helped to select songs for the album and contributed some production assistance. Some songs, such as "Smouldering" and "Outer Boogie" had been road-tested by the group during portions of shows for their 1976 tour of Europe during which Harvey was required to rest. In 2004, Ted McKenna told John Clarkson:
The Mafia Stole My Guitar is the second album by Alex Harvey. The earlier Alex Harvey Presents: The Loch Ness Monster was made while the rest of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band were recording Fourplay. The Mafia Stole My Guitar was the last album Harvey released during his lifetime; he died in 1982.
Alexander John Ligertwood is a Scottish singer, guitarist and drummer.
Tommy Eyre was an English session keyboardist from Sheffield, England, who appeared on records by Joe Cocker, John Martyn, Gary Moore, Michael Schenker, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Greg Lake, B.B. King, John Mayall, Ian Gillan, Gerry Rafferty, Tracy Chapman and Wham! He played on Joe Cocker's UK chart-topper "With a Little Help from My Friends", on which he arranged the distinctive organ introduction, and Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" and "Right Down the Line".
Edward McKenna was a Scottish drummer who played with The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Rory Gallagher, The Greg Lake Band, and The Michael Schenker Group. He also toured with Ian Gillan for a short period of time in 1990, alongside fellow former SAHB member, bassist Chris Glen. He lectured in Applied Arts at North Glasgow College from 1996 to 2011.