Clive James Gregson (born 4 January 1955,

Ashton-under-Lyne Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 45,198 at the 2011 census. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, in the foothills of the Pennines, east of Manche ...

Tameside The Metropolitan Borough of Tameside is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in England. It is named after the River Tame, Greater Manchester, River Tame, which flows through the borough, and includes the towns of Ashton-under-Lyne, Aud ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

) is an English singer/songwriter, musician and record producer. He has toured in bands, provided backup for well-known musicians, and written songs that have been covered by Kim Carnes, Norma Waterson and Nanci Griffith. He is featured in Hugh Gregory's 2002 book ''1,000 Great Guitarists''.

Background

Clive Gregson was born and raised in

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

, England. His earliest musical influence was

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

in the early 1960s. It was around this time that he received his first guitar as a present from his parents, using the proceeds from the sale of his older brother's unwanted drum kit. Gregson played in a band at school but played his first professional gig with Any Trouble, the band he formed in Crewe, England with college friends around 1975. Going professional after Any Trouble signed a recording contract, Gregson has continued as a working musician. Gregson and Manx singer,

Christine Collister Christine Collister (born 28 December 1961) is a Manx folk, blues and jazz singer-songwriter. She was born and grew up on the Isle of Man and first came to public attention in 1986 as the singer of the theme song for the BBC's television adaptat ...

, together formed folk-rock duo Gregson & Collister, and produced a number of CD albums. After the band's demise, Gregson went on to perform solo. In 1993, Gregson relocated from the UK to Nashville, United States. In 2003, his career suffered a hiatus of several months after he broke his arm and shoulder in a fall from a ladder. He made a full recovery and continues to record and tour extensively in countries including the UK and Japan from his new base in Houston, Texas.. Gregson cites a wide range of musical influences and tastes and has stated that his all-time favourite record is

Nick Drake Nicholas Rodney Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter known for his acoustic guitar-based songs. He did not find a wide audience during his lifetime, but his work gradually achieved wider notice and recognit ...

's ''

Pink Moon ''Pink Moon'' is the third and final studio album by the English musician Nick Drake, released in the UK by Island Records on 25 February 1972. It was the only one of Drake's studio albums to be released in North America during his lifetime. ...

''.

Career

Any Trouble

Clive Gregson's professional music career started as he took the role of lead-singer of Any Trouble, the band he had co-founded in the mid 1970s, as well the role of songwriter and rhythm guitarist after co-founder Tom Jackson left. Having recorded and released Gregson's composition ''Yesterday's Love'' as an indie single in 1979 Any Trouble began to receive

airplay Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...

courtesy of

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

DJs

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

Andy Peebles Robert Andrew Peebles (born 1948) is a British radio DJ, television presenter, and cricket commentator. Born in London, Peebles attended Bishop's Stortford College. He began as a nightclub DJ in the late 1960s. Peebles was resident DJ at the C ...

and others in the UK. This led to interest from major record labels including

WEA The Wea were a Miami-Illinois-speaking Native American tribe originally located in western Indiana. Historically, they were described as either being closely related to the Miami Tribe or a sub-tribe of Miami. Today, the descendants of the ...

Chrysalis A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their ...

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

and Stiff. They selected Stiff "because they were our kind of people". Any Trouble released three albums on Stiff, including a live album, initially for promotion only, and a further two on EMI America; all were well-received critically, and were accompanied by singles and extensive touring. Despite featuring regularly on radio

playlists A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs, but sometimes a loop. The term has sever ...

Any Trouble's popularity wasn't reflected in record sales, and they disbanded in 1984. They re-formed briefly in 2007 to record a new album ''Life in Reverse'', released again through the re-constituted Stiff Records in the UK, playing a headline gig to support it at the

Jazz Cafe The Jazz Cafe is a music venue in Camden Town, London. It opened in 1990 on the former premises of a branch of Barclays Bank and has had several owners throughout its history as a music venue. In 2020 the Jazz Cafe celebrates its 30th year, ...

, London, England. In November 2013, the band re-formed for a one-off gig at the 229 Club, London, England, in support of the release of the three-CD set ''The Complete Stiff Recordings 1980–1981'' In 2014, they recorded ''Present Tense'', playing a short tour in December 2014, which included

Band on the Wall Band on the Wall is a live music venue in the Northern Quarter of Manchester, England. History Early history The building dates back to around 1862 when a local brewery, the McKenna Brothers, built it as the flagship pub of their operation. I ...

, Manchester, England on 2 December 2014. plus dates in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, Birmingham, England, the 229 Club, London, England, and the Purple Weekend Festival, in León, Spain.

Richard Thompson Band

While working with Any Trouble, Gregson was introduced to Richard Thompson at the wedding of John Wood, who had produced Any Trouble's debut album and worked on a number of records with Thompson. The meeting led to Gregson's singing backing vocals on the

Richard and Linda Thompson Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

album ''

Shoot Out the Lights ''Shoot Out the Lights'' is the sixth and final album by British husband-and-wife rock duo Richard and Linda Thompson. It was produced by Joe Boyd and released in 1982 on his Hannibal label. A critically acclaimed work, AllMusic's Mark Deming n ...

''. This was to be the start of a long association with Richard Thompson during which they recorded and toured together extensively. Gregson introduced

to Thompson, resulting in her also joining the Richard Thompson Band.

Gregson & Collister

In 1984, shortly after the release of Any Trouble's fifth album ''Wrong End of the Race'', Gregson saw vocalist

perform at

Poynton Poynton is a town in Cheshire, England, on the easternmost fringe of the Cheshire Plain, south-east of Manchester, north of Macclesfield and south of Stockport. Poynton has formed part of the Cheshire East unitary authority since the ab ...

Folk Club,

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England. After the demise of Any Trouble, Gregson recorded a solo album (''Strange Persuasions'') and invited Collister to sing on it. Shortly after this, Richard Thompson asked Gregson to sing on his album ''

Across a Crowded Room __NOTOC__ ''Across a Crowded Room'' is the fourth solo album by Richard Thompson released in 1985, on both vinyl and CD. As of 2019, it remains his final collaboration with long-time producer Joe Boyd (who had produced Thompson's previous four a ...

''; at Gregson's suggestion, Collister was enlisted for vocal duties, leading to her joining the Richard Thompson Band. The Gregson and Collister musical partnership proved popular and productive, producing five albums and earning them the attribution "the state of the art in British folk-rock" by ''Rolling Stone''. Their albums, whose songs were all written by Gregson, included the low-fi live duo record ''Home and Away'' (recorded on a four-track

Portastudio The TASCAM Portastudio was the first four-track recorder based on a standard compact audio cassette tape. The term ''portastudio'' is exclusive to TASCAM, though it is generally used to describe all self-contained cassette-based multitrack rec ...

cassette recorder), ''Mischief'', featuring a band including Martin Hughes from Any Trouble, ''A Change in the Weather'', and covers album ''Love Is a Strange Hotel''. By 1992, Gregson and Collister went separate ways after recording a fifth and final album ''The Last Word''; the supporting tour proved to be their most successful. A CD compilation celebrating Gregson's and Collister's career, ''The Best of Clive Gregson & Christine Collister'', was released by Gregson & Collister Recordings through Gott Discs in 2006.

Solo again

Demand for Gregson's services as a record producer and session musician grew throughout the 1990s. He released ''Welcome to the Workhouse'', his second solo project, in 1990, and by October 1992, was performing as a solo artist. As of January 2015, Gregson had released on CD 10 solo albums and one solo ''Best of'' collection plus two digital-only releases: the original recordings for his ''I Love This Town'' album and a stand-alone collection of songs recorded by Gregson for Any Trouble's ''Life in Reverse'' but not included thereupon. In addition to Richard Thompson, he has collaborated with many other artists, including

Nanci Griffith Nanci Caroline Griffith (July 6, 1953 – August 13, 2021) was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. She appeared many times on the PBS music program ''Austin City Limits'' starting in 1985 (season 10). In 1994 she won a Grammy Award fo ...

(1996–2007),

Eddi Reader Sadenia "Eddi" Reader MBE (born 29 August 1959) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, known for her work as frontwoman of Fairground Attraction and for an enduring solo career. She is the recipient of three BRIT Awards. In 2003, she showcased the wo ...

and

Boo Hewerdine Mark "Boo" Hewerdine (born 14 February 1961) is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. His work includes lead singer and creative force behind The Bible, formed in the 1980s, and reformed in 1994, as well as solo recordings and work f ...

, founder member of

The Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

(1993 & 1999) and Plainsong (1997). The Gregson, Hewerdine & Reader trio made recordings for an album, although only three songs were released, as a CD EP, including Gregson's ''Who's Your Jailer Now?'' In 2007, Gregson was musical director for the

Dennis Locorriere Dennis Michael Locorriere (born June 13, 1949; Union City, New Jersey, United States) is the American lead vocalist and guitarist of the country rock group Dr. Hook (formerly Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show).Bonitto, Brian (2014)Hooking up with ...

Hits and History Tour, which features on the ''Hits and History Tour Live'' DVD. Since 2010, Gregson has become a regular opening act for

Jools Holland Julian Miles Holland, (born 24 January 1958) is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer and television presenter. He was an original member of the band Squeeze and has worked with many artists including Jayne County, Sting, Eric C ...

. Gregson's reputation as a songwriter has led to his songs being recorded by artists, including Nanci Griffith (''I Love This Town''),

Kim Carnes Kim Carnes (; born July 20, 1945) is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, she began her career as a songwriter in the 1960s, writing for other artists while performing in local clubs and working as a sess ...

(''Touch and Go''),

Fairport Convention Fairport Convention are an English folk rock band, formed in 1967 by guitarists Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Shaun Frater (with Frater replaced by Martin Lamble after their first gig.) They started o ...

(''Home Is Where the Heart Is''), Claire Martin (''Could This Be the One?''),

Norma Waterson Norma Christine Waterson (15 August 1939 – 30 January 2022) was an English singer and songwriter, best known as one of the original members of The Watersons, a celebrated English traditional folk group. Other members of the group included h ...

(''Fred Astaire'') and Smokie (''Northern Soul''). Gregson's ''I Love This Town'' was recorded as a duet by Nanci Griffith and Jimmy Buffett in 2006, becoming a radio hit in the UK and U.S. Gregson has shared his guitar expertise at the adult music camps California Coast Music Camp and Puget Sound Guitar Workshop in Washington State over several summers.

3 Boxes

In 2011, Gregson joined forces with guitarist Mark Griffiths and Andy Roberts to form 3 Boxes, an instrumental guitar trio, to play a series of gigs and record an album of original material. The three had worked together in the group

Plainsong Plainsong or plainchant (calque from the French ''plain-chant''; la, cantus planus) is a body of chants used in the liturgy, liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in La ...

in 1999. In 2013, 3 Boxes released their only album to date ''Strings Attached'', including only material written by the three members, all instrumentals for three acoustic guitars recorded live in the studio by producer John Wood.

Discography

Any Trouble

Albums

* ''Where Are All the Nice Girls?'' (1980, produced by John Wood, Any Trouble, Bob Sargeant) * ''Wheels in Motion'' (1981, produced by Mike Howlett) * ''Live at the Venue'' (1981, produced by Barry 'Bazza' Farmer, initially promotional only) * ''Any Trouble'' (1983, produced by David Kershenbaum) * ''Wrong End of the Race'' (1984, produced by John Wood & Will Birch) * ''Girls Are Always Right - The Stiff Years'' (2002, produced by Any Trouble, John Wood, Bazza, Bob Sargeant, Mike Howlett, Martin Levan) * ''Life in Reverse'' (2007, produced by John Wood) * ''The Complete Stiff Recordings 1980–81'' (2013) * ''Present Tense'' (2015, Cherry Red)

Singles

* "Yesterday’s Love" (1980, Stiff Records) * "Second Choice" (1980, Stiff Records) * "Girls Are Always Right" (1980, Stiff Records) * "Dimming of the Day" (1981, Stiff Records, only released in France) * "Trouble with Love" (1981, Stiff Records) * "Touch and Go" (1983, EMI America) * "I’ll Be Your Man" (1983, EMI America) * "Baby, Now That I’ve Found You" (1984, EMI America) * "Open Fire" (1984, EMI America) * "That Sound" (2007, Stiff Records)

Clive Gregson

Albums

* ''Strange Persuasions'' (1985, produced by Clive Gregson) * ''Welcome to the Workhouse'' (1990, produced by Clive Gregson & John Wood) * ''Carousel of Noise'' (1994, produced by Clive Gregson) * '' People & Places'' (1995, produced by Clive Gregson) * ''I Love This Town'' (1996, produced by Garry West with Clive Gregson) * ''Anorak'' (1998 (12 track fan club release, produced by Clive Gregson) * ''Happy Hour'' (1999, produced by Clive Gregson) * ''Comfort & Joy'' (2001, produced by Clive Gregson) * ''Long Story Short'' (2004, produced by Clive Gregson) * ''The Best of Clive Gregson'' (2009, compilation, produced by Clive Gregson) * ''I Love This Town, Take One'' (2010, download-only release, produced by Clive Gregson) * ''Forward into Reverse'' (2010, produced by Clive Gregson) * ''Bittersweet'' (2011, produced by Clive Gregson) * ''This Is Now'' (2013, produced by Clive Gregson) * ''Underwater Dancing'' (2017, Clive Gregson & Liz Simcock) * ''One Year'' (2020-01) * ''Raggedy Ass'' (2020-02) * ''Eighteen Strings'' (2020-03) * ''Every Face Is Turned My Way'' (2020-04) * ''Poorville'' (2020-05) * ''Bus Stop Conversations'' (2020-06) * ''People & Places Revisited'' (2020-07) * ''It's Only Love'' (2020-08)

Singles

* "Home Is Where the Heart Is" (1985,

Demon Records Demon Music Group (DMG) is a record company owned by BBC Studios that is mainly concerned with back-catalogue rights and re-issuing recordings as compilations on physical media (CDs and vinyl) via supermarkets and specialist stores. History DM ...

)

Gregson & Collister

Albums

* ''Home and Away'' (1987, produced by Clive Gregson) * ''Mischief'' (1987, produced by Clive Gregson) * ''A Change in the Weather'' (1989, produced by Clive Gregson) * ''Love Is a Strange Hotel'' (1990, produced by Clive Gregson & Christine Collister) * ''The Last Word'' (1992, produced Clive Gregson) * ''The Best of Gregson & Collister'' (2007, produced by Clive Gregson & Christine Collister)

Singles

* "I Wouldn't Treat a Dog" (1987, Special Delivery Records, 3 track 12") * "Home Is Where the Heart Is" (2007, Special Delivery Records, produced by Clive Gregson)

Gregson, Hewerdine, Reader

Singles

* "Wonderful Lie" (1993, produced by Jon Kelly)

Plainsong

Albums

* ''New Place Now'' (1999, produced by John Wood)

Singles

* "Live in Austria" (1997, produced by Oliver Skrube)

3 Boxes

Albums

* ''Strings Attached'' (2014, produced by John Wood)

References

External links

Official web-site
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gregson, Clive 1955 births English male singer-songwriters People from Ashton-under-Lyne Living people Flying Fish Records artists Cherry Red Records artists Stiff Records artists Topic Records artists The Blue Moon Orchestra members