Music database

Musician

Tommy Eyre

born on 5/7/1949 in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

died on 23/5/2001 in Los Angeles, CA, United States

Tommy Eyre

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Tommy Eyre (5 July 1949 23 May 2001) was a session keyboardist from Sheffield, England, who appeared on records by Joe Cocker, John Martyn, Alex Harvey, Greg Lake, Michael Schenker, Gary Moore, B.B. King, John Mayall, Tracy Chapman and Wham!. He is perhaps most famous for playing 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".

Career

Eyre began piano lessons at the age of four and started playing guitar when he was in his teens[1] . In 1968 he joined Joe Cocker's Grease Band where he played the organ on With A Little Help From My Friends[2]. In the same year Eyre moved to London to work with The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation and later with a progressive rock band called Blue Whale, founded by drummer Aynsley Dunbar [3] . After a short period with the band Juicy Lucy, Eyre joined the duo Mark-Almond and played on two of their albums. After that, in 1972, Eyre and bassist Roger Sutton resumed their own project Strabismus which they had started in 1969, and which was now called Riff Raff [4] . With Riff Raff Eyre recorded three albums, one of them not being released until 2001.

Together with singer Alan Marshall from Riff Raff, Eyre joined the band ZZebra in 1974 for their first album, replacing keyboarder and singer Gus Yeadon [5] . Eyre played on some of the tracks but is not credited on the album. With Zzebra he recorded a second album in 1975. In August 1977, Eyre became a member of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, with whom he stayed until 1979 [6] . After that, Eyre recorded an album with John Martyn and did a promotion tour with him in 1980 [7] . In June 1981, he joined Greg Lake for his solo project, and in 1982 became a member of Gary Moore's band.

Wham!

One of Eyre's longest and most successful associations has been with the duo Wham!, for whom he became musical director[8]. His works with Wham! include the successful album "Make it Big" in 1984 with the singles "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", "Freedom", "Everything She Wants", and Michael's solo record "Careless Whisper". A massive world tour included China in April 1985, which generated massive media coverage as it was the first visit to China by a Western popular music act.

Session work

Eyre, who had done studio work for many artists before, started working predominantly as a session musician from the late 1980s. His studio work included recordings with Ian Gillan, BBM, and several recordings with Gary Moore in 1982 and throughout the nineties. Another act for whom Eyre has contributed session work was Gerry Rafferty. His 1978 album City to City included Rafferty's hit Baker Street on which Eyre played synthesizer and keyboards. The track "Whatever's written in your heart", was recorded with Tommy playing piano and Gerry singing beside him.

During the 1990s, Eyre recorded several albums together with his wife the American violinist Scarlet Rivera, many of them influenced by traditional Irish or Scottish music. Later in the nineties he also produced some solo albums with instrumental piano music.

Private life

Eyre lived most of his life in England up until the mid-1980s with his first wife Lorraine Eyre. They divorced in 1988 but remained close until his death. Since the late 80s he lived in the USA with his American wife, the violinist Scarlet Rivera. He died of cancer on 23 May 2001, aged 51.

His younger brother is session guitarist Simon Eyre, who has worked with artists such as Paul Weller, the Lighthouse Family, Robert Palmer, Sister Sledge, and Randy Crawford.

Discography

  • Joe Cocker & The Grease Band - With A Little Help From My Friends (1969)
  • Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation - To Mum From Aynsley And The Boys (1969)
  • Blue Whale - Blue Whale (1970)
  • Jaklin - Jaklin (1969)
  • Mark-Almond - Mark-Almond (1971)
  • Mark-Almond II - Mark-Almond II (1972)
  • Riff Raff - Riff Raff (1973)
  • Riff Raff - Original Man (1974)
  • ZZebra - Zzebra (1974)
  • ZZebra - Panic (1975)
  • Alex Harvey - Rock Drill (1978)
  • Alex Harvey - The Mafia Stole My Guitar (1979)
  • John Martyn - Grace and Danger (1980)
  • Greg Lake - Greg Lake (1981)
  • Greg Lake - Manoeuvres (1983)
  • Gary Moore - Corridors of Power (1982)
  • Wham! - Fantastic (1983)
  • Wham! - Music From The Edge of Heaven (1985)
  • Wham! - Make It Big (1984)
  • Ray Russell - A Table Nearer the Band (1990)
  • Gary Moore - After Hours (1992)
  • Gary Moore - Blues for Greeny (1995)
  • Gary Moore - Blues Alive (1993)
  • BBM - Around The Next Dream" (1994)
  • Keb' Mo' - Keb' Mo' (1994)
  • Ritual (Uruguay) - A New Map Of The World (2000)

Albums with Scarlet Rivera

  • Scarlet Rivera - Magical Christmas (1997)
  • Scarlet Rivera - Behind the crimson veil (1998)
  • Scarlet Rivera - Celtic Myst (1998)
  • Scarlet Rivera - Celtic Dreams (1998)
  • Scarlet Rivera - Celtic Spirit (1997)
  • Scarlet Rivera - Voice of the Animals (2001)
  • Scarlet Rivera - Contemporary piano & cello Christmas classics (1999)
  • Scarlet Rivera - Baroque at Christmas (2001)

Solo albums

  • Tommy Eyre - Moonlight piano, vol. 1 (1998)
  • Tommy Eyre - Moonlight piano, vol. 2 (1998)
  • Tommy Eyre - Moonlight piano, vol. 3 (1998)
  • Tommy Eyre - Ivory Christmas - piano classics (1995)
  • Tommy Eyre - A highland Christmas (1997)
  • Tommy Eyre - Have yourself a jazzy little Christmas (1999)

References

  1. Eyre, Simon. Simon Eyre Website: Tommy. simoneyre.com. Retrieved on 9 December 2009.
  2. Tommy Eyre Obituary, The Independent, 13 June 2001. URL accessed on 9 December 2009.
  3. A Phil Brodie Band Tribute Page: Tommy Eyre. philbrodieband.com. Retrieved on 9 December 2009.
  4. Riff Raff. alexgitlin.com. Retrieved on 9 December 2009.
  5. ZZebra. alexgitlin.com. Retrieved on 9 December 2009.
  6. Sensational Alex Harvey Band. musicmight.com. Retrieved on 9 December 2009.
  7. John Martyn.com. johnmartyn.com. Retrieved on 9 December 2009.
  8. Site dedicated to Tommy Eyre by his brother Simon Eyre

External links

This page was last modified 08.08.2011 22:36:43

This article uses material from the article Tommy Eyre from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.