Chris Spedding ranks among Britain’s most adaptable session guitarists, maintaining an extended professional path across two continents that encompassed virtually every rock & roll style to surface over the decades, while simultaneously developing a solo catalog. Born in Sheffield, England, in 1944, Spedding saw his family relocate to Birmingham during the mid-1950s, at which point he had already begun studying music by performing violin within his school orchestra. Exposure to rock & roll first through Bill Haley & His Comets and subsequently Elvis Presley prompted a decisive shift, and as Chris Welch noted in a 2004 article, Spedding started treating his violin like a guitar, crossing an irreversible threshold. Music lessons had already equipped him with proficiency on multiple instruments, among them piano, along with the ability to sight-read, advantages that distinguished him from most aspiring rock musicians of the era who often knew only a handful of chords.
While still enrolled in school, Spedding formed his initial group, the Hot Spurs. Not long afterward, still in his mid-teens, he traveled to London to join the beat group the Vulcans, then moved on to accompany cabaret performers aboard a cruise ship and several touring country ensembles. Throughout the latter half of the 1960s he supported both Alan Price and Paul Jones during the period when each ranked among England’s leading solo artists, and he also secured lucrative employment with the Nat Temple Orchestra for weddings, bar mitzvahs, and similar occasions. Tenor saxophonist George Khan (also known as Nisar Ahmed Khan), recently recruited into a nascent band forming around poet and lyricist Pete Brown (widely recognized for his songwriting contributions to Cream), opened the door to Spedding’s first significant break. Brown was assembling musicians and, following Khan’s recommendation, contacted Spedding to join what became the Battered Ornaments.
The ensemble secured a contract with EMI’s progressive, art-rock, and psychedelic Harvest Records label, resulting in the album A Meal You Can Shake Hands with in the Dark. Brown supplied vocals and remained the most visible member of the unit still formally billed as Pete Brown & His Battered Ornaments, though Spedding received prominent exposure through lead guitar, slide guitar, and a Portuguese chittara on one track. The record earned positive notices and became a favorite within London’s expanding underground scene, leading to prominent engagements that included the July 1969 Hyde Park concert alongside the Rolling Stones.
Abruptly, Brown departed after the majority of the band staged a takeover that installed Spedding as leader and lead vocalist of the now simply titled Battered Ornaments. The group had to erase Brown’s vocals from the already completed second album, Mantle-Piece. Although Spedding’s smoother and more polished singing replaced the original parts, the finished record proved considerably less dynamic. Spedding remained with the ensemble briefly after its release, yet by 1970 he severed ties, after which the Battered Ornaments dissolved.
Despite the upheaval that marked the group’s short run, Spedding’s involvement solidified his standing in British music circles. He received an invitation to contribute to ex-Cream bassist and singer Jack Bruce’s debut solo album, Songs for a Tailor (1969). Additional sessions with Bruce followed, as well as work alongside ex-Manfred Mann vocalist Mike d’Abo, and around the same period Spedding recorded the instrumental set Songs Without Words (1970), issued solely in Europe and Japan. His official solo career commenced the next year with Backwoods Progression, which showcased both his vocals and guitar in a light progressive-rock setting and featured Royston Mitchell and Paul Abrahams on keyboards plus Laurie Allan and Roy Babbington on drums and bass. Although the album achieved modest success, it performed sufficiently well to allow a follow-up, the 1972 release The Only Lick I Know, which placed greater emphasis on Spedding’s playing. These early solo efforts attracted only a devoted circle of guitar aficionados and fellow musicians, so the bulk of his income throughout the 1970s continued to derive from session appearances. His growing reputation nevertheless placed him on recordings by a wide array of artists including Elton John, Nilsson, Memphis Slim, Family Dogg, Julie Driscoll, Brian Eno, John Cale, and Mickey Jupp, gradually broadening his public profile.
In 1972, former Free bassist Andy Fraser recruited Spedding as lead guitarist for the Sharks, a project that disbanded after one year and two albums, returning Spedding to session duties that included Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds, which became the highest-selling soundtrack or cast album ever issued in England. He also performed in full costume with the bubblegum act the Wombles. In 1975 Spedding signed with Mickie Most’s RAK label and issued the single “Motor Bikin’,” which reached number 14 on the U.K. charts and prompted the album Chris Spedding. Although not literally his first solo outing, the single’s impact rendered the record the effective debut in the eyes of most listeners. The album represented a marked departure from his earlier work, adopting a retro sensibility oscillating between Buddy Holly and Gene Vincent while featuring guitar lines modeled on Holly, Tommy Alsup, and Vincent’s lead guitarist Cliff Gallup, and it exerted considerable influence at the time. The resulting credibility enabled Spedding, despite prior involvement in the British Invasion and psychedelic eras, to contribute to the Vibrators’ debut single “Pogo Dancing.” Further punk associations arose from demo productions for the Sex Pistols and the Cramps, accompanied by persistent though unfounded rumors that he had performed the guitar parts on the former band’s recordings. When rockabilly revivalist Robert Gordon ended his partnership with gritty guitar legend Link Wray, Spedding was selected to replace Wray both onstage and in the studio.
An attempt to build upon this fresh credibility arrived with the 1978 album Guitar Graffiti, an exuberant, full-length guitar showcase that returned Spedding to his early-1970s approach yet employed a lighter touch and freer-flowing energy, though it failed to reach beyond his existing cult following. He subsequently relocated to New York and joined the Necessaries as guitarist and songwriter, but the arrangement proved unsatisfactory, prompting a return to England and the 1980 solo album I’m Not Like Everybody Else. The live recording Friday the 13th appeared the following year, highlighting extended solos drawn from his late-1970s repertoire. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Spedding, often likened to Mark Knopfler in both guitar work and recording output, maintained an active session schedule that included Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs while issuing occasional solo projects such as the 1985 album Mean and Moody, the 1986 roots-rock effort Enemy Within, and 1990’s Cafe Days. Later collaborations encompassed Paul McCartney and Bono from U2, among numerous other internationally renowned performers. He also fronted his own band, primarily in Europe, exploring vintage styles including 1950s rock & roll on Gesundheit (2000) and blues-rock on Click Clack (2005). In 2009 Spedding partnered with Mike McClintock for Tightropewalker, and in 2014 a roster of guest contributors that included Johnny Marr, Bryan Ferry, Glen Matlock, and actor Ian McShane appeared on the album Joyland.
