Raymond John Fenwick (18 July 1946 – 30 April 2022) was an English guitarist and

session musician A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...

, best known for his work in

The Syndicats The Syndicats were an English beat band formed in September 1963 in North London with Thomas Ladd on vocals (post Johnny Lambs departure), Steve Howe on guitar and backing vocals, Kevin Driscoll on bass and backing vocals, Jeff Williams on orga ...

and in

The Spencer Davis Group The Spencer Davis Group were a British blues and R&B influenced rock band formed in Birmingham in 1963 by Spencer Davis (guitar), brothers Steve Winwood (vocals, keyboards, and guitar) and Muff Winwood (bass guitar), and Pete York (drums). ...

in the 1960s, and as the lead guitarist of

Ian Gillan Ian Gillan (born 19 August 1945) is an English singer who is best known as the lead singer and lyricist for the rock band Deep Purple. He is known for his powerful and wide-ranging singing voice. Initially influenced by Elvis Presley, Gillan ...

's post-

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical style has varied throughout their career. Originally for ...

solo project, the

Ian Gillan Band The Ian Gillan Band were an English Progressive rock, progressive Jazz fusion, jazz-rock band formed by singer Ian Gillan of Deep Purple in 1975. Their sound is a departure from the Heavy metal music, heavy metal of Deep Purple by featuring a ...

Career

Fenwick's first professional group was a ska and bluebeat group called Ray and the Red Devils. In 1964, he joined

, replacing

Steve Howe Stephen James Howe (born 8 April 1947) is an English musician, best known as the guitarist and backing vocalist in the progressive rock band Yes (band), Yes across three stints since 1970. Born in Holloway, London, Holloway, North London, Howe d ...

, and in turn being replaced by

Peter Banks Peter William Brockbanks (15 July 1947 – 7 March 2013), known professionally as Peter Banks, was an English guitarist. He was the original guitarist in the rock bands Yes (band), Yes, Flash (band), Flash, and Empire; he was also a guitarist f ...

. In 1965, he joined the Dutch group

Tee-Set Tee-Set was a pop rock musical ensemble, band formed in 1965 by singer Peter Tetteroo in Delft, Netherlands. The band is best-known for their single "Ma Belle Amie", which was a No. 5 hit in the United States and No. 3 in Canada. The band had a ...

, from which developed another group After Tea. He was with

from 1967 to 1969. He also co-wrote the

theme music Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

to the 1970s television series ''

Magpie Magpies are birds of various species of the family Corvidae. Like other members of their family, they are widely considered to be intelligent creatures. The Eurasian magpie, for instance, is thought to rank among the world's most intelligent c ...

'', which was credited to "The Murgatroyd Band", which was basically The Spencer Davis Group at the time. Fenwick wrote all songs on the group's 1969 album ''Funky'' (briefly released in the US in 1970; full release only in 1997) and recorded his own album ''Keep America Beautiful, Get a Haircut'' in 1971 with a similar line-up, albeit minus Davis. In July 1972, he played guitar on a number of the tracks for

Bo Diddley Ellas Otha Bates (December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known professionally as Bo Diddley, was an American guitarist and singer who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll. He influenced many artists, including Buddy ...

Chess Records Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock an ...

album ''The London Bo Diddley Sessions''. During the 1970s, he was part of the

. He participated in

Jon Lord John Douglas "Jon" Lord (9 June 194116 July 2012) was an English keyboardist and composer. In 1968, Lord co-founded the hard rock band Deep Purple. Lord performed on most of the band's most popular songs; he and drummer Ian Paice were the only ...

's live album

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

(1974). He was also in the group

Fancy Fancy may refer to: Music Albums * ''Fancy'' (Bobbie Gentry album), 1970 * ''Fancy'' (Idiot Flesh album), 1997 * ''Fancy'' (video), a 2007 video album by Les Claypool Songs * "Fancy" (Bobbie Gentry song), 1969, covered by Reba McEntire in 19 ...

, who had the hits "Touch Me" and a cover of

Chip Taylor Chip Taylor (born James Wesley Voight; March 21, 1940) is an American songwriter and singer noted for writing " Angel of the Morning" and " Wild Thing". He is the paternal uncle of actress Angelina Jolie and former actor James Haven. He is the ...

's " Wild Thing". He also was a member of the studio project Forcefield (1987–1989) along with Tony Martin (

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler, and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. After adopting the Black Sabbath name in 1969 (the band ...

Cozy Powell Cozy Powell (born Colin Trevor Flooks; 29 December 1947 – 5 April 1998) was an English drummer who made his name with major rock bands and artists such as The Jeff Beck Group, Rainbow, Michael Schenker Group, Gary Moore, Graham Bonnet, B ...

(

Rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...

, Black Sabbath, Emerson, Lake and Powell),

Jan Akkerman Jan Akkerman (born 24 December 1946) is a Dutch guitarist. He first found international commercial success with the band Focus (band), Focus, which he co-founded with Thijs van Leer. After leaving Focus, he continued as a solo musician, adding ja ...

and Neil Murray (

Whitesnake Whitesnake are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1978. The group were originally put together as the backing band for singer David Coverdale, who had recently left Deep Purple. Though the band quickly developed into their ow ...

, Black Sabbath). He returned to sessions and then featured on former

vocalist

Graham Bonnet Graham Bonnet (born 23 December 1947) is an English rock singer. He has recorded and performed as a solo artist and as a member of several hard rock and heavy metal music, heavy metal bands including Rainbow (rock band), Rainbow, Michael Schenke ...

's album '' Here Comes the Night'' (1991). In 2003, Fenwick toured with

Yes Yes or YES may refer to: * An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no Education * YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US * Young Eisner Scholars, in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and Appalachia, US * Young Ep ...

guitarist

as part of his band Steve Howe's Remedy, appearing on the live concert DVD of Steve Howe's Remedy ''Live'' released in 2005. He appears on Steve Howe's compilation ''Anthology 2: Groups and Collaborations'', released 2016. The two guitarists play together on the track "Slim Pickings", recorded 2002, which closes the album. Fenwick produced

Jo Jo Laine Jo Jo Laine (born Joanne LaPatrie July 13, 1953 – October 29, 2006)
''Telegraph'' was a ...

's girl group single "When the Boy's Happy" on

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...

under the name Jo Jo Laine & The Firm.

Personal life

Fenwick taught guitar and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

grades at various colleges and schools in Britain, including

Boston College, Lincolnshire Boston College is a predominantly further education College#Further education, college in Boston, Lincolnshire, Boston in Lincolnshire, England. It is a Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) for Childcare, Early Years Care. History In 1957 cons ...

. He died at home on 30 April 2022.

Discography

;Solo * 1971 ''Keep America Beautiful, Get a Haircut'' * 1979 ''Queen of the Night / Between the Devil and Me'' (SP) * 1997 ''Groups and Sessions 1962–1978'' (anthology) ;with Ian Gillan Band * 1976 ''

Child in Time "Child in Time" is a song by English rock band Deep Purple, released on their fourth studio album, '' Deep Purple in Rock'' in 1970. It is the longest track on the album, running over ten minutes. The song's lyrics are loosely inspired by the ...

'' * 1977 ''

Clear Air Turbulence In meteorology, clear-air turbulence (CAT) is the turbulent movement of air masses in the absence of any visual clues such as clouds, and is caused when bodies of air moving at widely different speeds meet. The atmospheric region most susceptibl ...

'' * 1977 '' Scarabus'' * 1977 '' Live at the Budokan'' (1983, European release) ;Other projects * 1967 ''National Disaster'' (After Tea) * 1968 '' With Their New Face On'' (Spencer Davis Group) * 1969 ''

Funky Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the mi ...

'' (Spencer Davis Group) * 1971 ''Magpie (Theme From Thames Television Programme)'' (The Murgatroyd Band) * 1972 ''Hector and other Peccadillos'' ( Mike Absalom) * 1973 ''Gluggo'' (Spencer Davis Group) * 1973 ''

The London Bo Diddley Sessions ''The London Bo Diddley Sessions'' is the 17th studio album by musician Bo Diddley recorded in 1973 and released on the Chess label.The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast'' (Roger Glover) * 1974 ''

'' (

) * 1974 ''Wild Thing'' (Fancy) * 1976 ''Turns You On'' (Fancy) * 1976 ''Wizard's Convention'' (Eddie Hardin) * 1982 ''Circumstantial Evidence'' (Eddie Hardin) * 1981 ''Finardi'' (Eugenio Finardi) * 1982 ''Secret Streets'' (Eugenio Finardi) * 1984 ''Life on Mars'' ( Johnny Mars) * 1985 ''Wind in the Willows'' (Eddie Hardin) * 1987 ''Long Hot Night'' (Minute By Minute) * 1989 ''Timewatch'' (Minute By Minute) * 1991 ''Wind in the Willows – A Rock Concert'' (Eddie Hardin) * 1993 ''First of the Big Band – BBC1 Live in Concert '74'' (Ashton & Lord) * 1995 ''Wizard's Convention 2'' (Eddie Hardin) * 1995 ''Still a Few Pages Left'' (Hardin & York) * 1997 ''Musicians Union Band'' (recorded in 1971) * 1997 ''24 Carat'' (Tee Set) * 1997 ''Guitar Orchestra'' (recorded in 1971) * 2003 ''The Fabulous Summer Wine'' (Summer Wine) (recorded in 1972) * 2005 ''Live'' (Steve Howe's Remedy) - DVD * 2016 ''Anthology 2: Groups and Collaborations'' (Steve Howe) - Fenwick and Howe play together on "Slim Pickings"

References

External links

website

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fenwick, Ray 1946 births 2022 deaths People from Romford English rock guitarists The Spencer Davis Group members Ian Gillan Band members