Laurence O'Keefe (born 2 January 1965) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

, best known as a member of Dark Star and

Levitation Levitation, Levitate, or Levitating may refer to: Concepts *Levitation (illusion), an illusion where a magician appears to levitate a person or object *Levitation (paranormal), the claimed paranormal phenomenon of levitation, occurring without an ...

. Prior to joining

in 1990, O'Keefe had played with several artists including

The Jazz Butcher The Jazz Butcher was the alias of British singer/songwriter Pat Fish (20 December 1957 – 5 October 2021). It also served as the name of the band, though adjuncts were frequently used to distinguish between Fish's persona and band itself (The J ...

. Levitation released several EPs and single plus one album, and split in 1994. He reunited with former Levitation bandmates

Christian Hayes Christian David "Bic" Hayes (born 10 June 1964) is an English rock guitarist, singer and songwriter. Best known as the frontman of Dark Star (band), Dark Star and guitarist with Levitation (band), Levitation, he has also released solo material ...

and

David Francolini David Thomas Giuseppe Francolini (born 13 September 1969) is an English rock drummer, songwriter and record producer, best known as the drummer in Dark Star and Levitation. Career Prior to forming Levitation, Francolini played with several ba ...

in 1996 to form Dark Star, who released ''Twenty Twenty Sound'' in 1999 before splitting in 2001. He also formed The Hope Blister with

Ivo Watts-Russell Ivo Watts-Russell (born 1954) is a British music producer and record label executive. He was joint-founder with Peter Kent of the independent record label 4AD. He has produced several records, although he prefers to use the term "musical director" ...

in 1997.Strong, Martin C. (2003). ''The Great Indie Discography''. Edinburgh: Canongate. pp. 381, 835. .Kellman, Andy (undated)
"Dark Star Biography"

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

. Retrieved 24 September 2013.Ankeny, Jason (undated)
"The Hope Blister Biography"

. Retrieved 24 September 2013. Following the demise of Dark Star, O'Keefe has continued work as a session musician and toured with the likes of Sophia,

Dead Can Dance Dead Can Dance are a British-Australian band founded in Melbourne in 1981 by Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard, before relocating to London the following year. The Australian music historian Ian McFarlane described Dead Can Dance's style as "const ...

and

Martina Topley-Bird Martina Gillian Topley-Bird (''née'' Topley; born 7 May 1975) is an English singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who first gained fame as the featured female vocalist on trip hop pioneer Tricky (musician), Tricky's debut album, ''Maxi ...

References

External links

* 1965 births English bass guitarists English male bass guitarists English rock bass guitarists Alternative rock bass guitarists English alternative rock musicians British indie rock musicians British trip hop musicians British ambient musicians Living people Musicians from Newcastle upon Tyne Psychedelic rock musicians Dark Star (band) members Levitation (band) members Dragons (band) members {{England-musician-stub