Gtaranaki 2010

‘Bass players are ten a penny but a good wit is hard to find, so we hired him’ - David Gilmour

Guy Pratt was born in London in 1962, the son of songwriter/actor Mike Pratt, who was probably best known for writing Tommy Steele’s children’s classic “The Little White Bull” and playing Jeff Randall in the original TV series Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased).

After a brief stint as a graphic designer, Guy decided to pursue a career in music which took off when he was asked to join the then massive-in-Australia Icehouse for a world tour at the tender age of 19 (which included supporting David Bowie on his legendary “Serious Moonlight” Tour of 1983). This led to him being spotted and used by the likes of Robert Palmer, Bryan Ferry, Womack & Womack and even The Smiths amongst others before being thrust into the global premier league of bassists when David Gilmour asked him to play for Pink Floyd.

After 13 months on the road he decamped to LA where he found himself in demand by the likes of Madonna, Michael Jackson and Robbie Robertson before heading off to play groundbreaking shows in Venice and Moscow with Floyd. In 1996, Guy married Gala Wright, daughter of Floyd keyboardist Rick Wright.

Back in London, Guy has played on countless hit records for the likes of Tom Jones, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Iggy Pop, The Pretenders, Ronan Keating, Electronic, Echo & the Bunnymen, Lemon Jelly, The Orb, Natalie Imbruglia, All Saints, Bond and Elton John, as well as touring with Coverdale Page, The Power Station and Gary Moore.  During the past decade, Guy has played bass on Bryan Ferry’s solo tours and with the reformed Roxy Music, including an appearance at Live 8 – he would have played with Pink Floyd but Roger Waters was back for that occasion.  The Floyd link continues however and Guy played on David Gilmour’s 2006 album On An Island and subsequent tour, where the band included David Crosby, Graham Nash and Rick Wright, with David Bowie guesting at the Royal Albert Hall shows, released on DVD in 2007. Sadly, Rick Wright died in 2008.

Guy has also tried his hand at writing and producing, notching up hits with artists including Robert Palmer, The Orb, Fat Les, Jimmy Nail, Marianne Faithfull and Debbie Harry.

He has won a Grammy and been nominated for 2 Ivor Novello Awards.

Aside from his bass-playing, Guy has spent the last few years in the comparatively quiet world of TV music composing, writing and producing the scores for countless TV shows including Channel 4's Spaced (Series 1&2), Now You See Her (film for Sky TV), The Young Person's Guide to becoming a Rock Star, the BBC series Linda Green, Dawn French’s Wild West, Jimmy Nail’s Crocodile Shoes 2 and, ironically, the remake series of Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased).

For theatre he co-wrote the score for The Bedbug by Mayakovsky with Gary Kemp, The Remarkable Piety of the Infamous, performed at The Baron's Court Theatre and Lena by Carla Lane, performed at the Valley Theatre, Liverpool and The Pleasance, Edinburgh. He was also Musical Director of I Just Called By To See The Man directed by Richard Wilson at the Royal Court.

In 2003, Guy began relating his anecdotes of life on the road in a one-man show, which was quickly picked up by the Edinburgh Festival. Suddenly Guy found himself supplementing his bass-playing with a parallel career in stand-up.  In 2007, he published a book of his memoirs, My Bass And Other Animals, to rave reviews.

http://guypratt.ricardopadua.com/