Biography
English keyboardist Pete Wingfield lent his talents to sessions for a broad range of rock, blues, and R&B performers that included Freddie King, Jimmy Witherspoon, the Hollies, and Van Morrison, while also joining the Olympic Runners. Especially prominent in the British music scene throughout the early and middle 1970s, he reached a wider audience chiefly through the 1975 Island single "Eighteen with a Bullet." The track climbed only to number 15 on both the pop and R&B charts the week of November 11, 1975, yet it occupied the number-18 position with a bullet on the pop listing and stood out as an engaging, skillfully delivered showcase of falsetto soul.
Wingfield entered the world in 1948 in Liphook, Hampshire, England, and cultivated an early devotion to American R&B and soul while studying piano as a child. That passion steered him toward music journalism during his teenage years, when he launched a soul-oriented fanzine and placed articles in established magazines. He simultaneously led the group Pete's Disciples and enrolled at Sussex University, where he joined fellow students Paul Butler on guitar and John Best on bass; together with local teacher Chris Waters on drums they formed the blues band Jellybread. Wingfield supplied every keyboard part and handled most vocals, and the band issued an album on their own Liphook label that functioned as a demo, earning them a contract with Blue Horizon in 1970. Favorable notices failed to generate lasting momentum, so Wingfield exited in 1971, by which point he had already recorded with ex-Yardbirds guitarist Top Topham and former blues bandleader Graham Bond and had appeared on B.B. King's In London as well as releases by Lightnin' Slim, Memphis Slim, and Nazareth.
A brief stint with Keef Hartley's band followed, along with membership in Colin Blunstone's group and continued work with Van Morrison. Connections forged through Blue Horizon and its founder Mike Vernon placed Wingfield on dozens of albums in the early and mid-1970s, among them recordings by the Hollies, and he joined the Olympic Runners, a Blue Horizon offshoot whose lineup included bassist DeLisle Harper and drummer Glen LeFleur; both musicians also performed on Wingfield's debut solo album Breakfast Special (1975), which featured "Eighteen with a Bullet." That single remained his only chart entry, yet the absence of further hits mattered little amid a schedule packed with sessions and live dates alongside artists ranging from Freddie King to Al Stewart to Maggie Bell. Among his notable mid-1970s contributions was the Hollies concert album Hollies Live (also issued as Live Hits), which became a significant underground success, while additional sessions at the same time involved Edwin Starr, Lindisfarne, Richard & Linda Thompson, Bonnie Tyler, Billy Fury, and Lonnie Donegan. As a songwriter he supplied the title track for Olivia Newton-John's Making a Good Thing Better (1977), and as a producer he guided Dexy's Midnight Runners' 1980 debut album. Earlier work with Phil Everly led to Wingfield's role in the Everly Brothers' backing band beginning with their early-1980s reunion and extending through later tours and recordings. In 1999 he appeared with Paul McCartney on Run Devil Run. Cherry Red Records gathered his Island solo output into an anthology in 2008. For a session musician as active as Wingfield, the numerous overlapping credits frequently merge and intersect across reissues and new projects.
Wingfield entered the world in 1948 in Liphook, Hampshire, England, and cultivated an early devotion to American R&B and soul while studying piano as a child. That passion steered him toward music journalism during his teenage years, when he launched a soul-oriented fanzine and placed articles in established magazines. He simultaneously led the group Pete's Disciples and enrolled at Sussex University, where he joined fellow students Paul Butler on guitar and John Best on bass; together with local teacher Chris Waters on drums they formed the blues band Jellybread. Wingfield supplied every keyboard part and handled most vocals, and the band issued an album on their own Liphook label that functioned as a demo, earning them a contract with Blue Horizon in 1970. Favorable notices failed to generate lasting momentum, so Wingfield exited in 1971, by which point he had already recorded with ex-Yardbirds guitarist Top Topham and former blues bandleader Graham Bond and had appeared on B.B. King's In London as well as releases by Lightnin' Slim, Memphis Slim, and Nazareth.
A brief stint with Keef Hartley's band followed, along with membership in Colin Blunstone's group and continued work with Van Morrison. Connections forged through Blue Horizon and its founder Mike Vernon placed Wingfield on dozens of albums in the early and mid-1970s, among them recordings by the Hollies, and he joined the Olympic Runners, a Blue Horizon offshoot whose lineup included bassist DeLisle Harper and drummer Glen LeFleur; both musicians also performed on Wingfield's debut solo album Breakfast Special (1975), which featured "Eighteen with a Bullet." That single remained his only chart entry, yet the absence of further hits mattered little amid a schedule packed with sessions and live dates alongside artists ranging from Freddie King to Al Stewart to Maggie Bell. Among his notable mid-1970s contributions was the Hollies concert album Hollies Live (also issued as Live Hits), which became a significant underground success, while additional sessions at the same time involved Edwin Starr, Lindisfarne, Richard & Linda Thompson, Bonnie Tyler, Billy Fury, and Lonnie Donegan. As a songwriter he supplied the title track for Olivia Newton-John's Making a Good Thing Better (1977), and as a producer he guided Dexy's Midnight Runners' 1980 debut album. Earlier work with Phil Everly led to Wingfield's role in the Everly Brothers' backing band beginning with their early-1980s reunion and extending through later tours and recordings. In 1999 he appeared with Paul McCartney on Run Devil Run. Cherry Red Records gathered his Island solo output into an anthology in 2008. For a session musician as active as Wingfield, the numerous overlapping credits frequently merge and intersect across reissues and new projects.
Albums