The bassist Neil Murray was born on this day in 1950.
Murray served as a member of Cozy Powell’s Hammer early in the 1970s, a small group with a ridiculously large number of later heavy metal household names. He also served as a founding member of Colosseum II, where he played on Dark Side of The Moon, the first of their three albums.
After leaving Colosseum II, Murray joined another jazz fusion group in National Health. Afterwards, he served as a founding member of the band Whitesnake, one of the most well-known hard rock acts and probably the most successful of Deep Purple’s spinoff bands. He would later follow this up with a stint in Black Sabbath, another one of the most well-known bands toeing the hard rock and heavy metal line.
In between all of these high-profile projects, Murray found time to collaborate with many other notable musicians. One of those collaborations closest to my heart was with Gary Moore for a brief time in the early 80s on two albums, Corridors of Power and Victims of the Future. During the tour supporting the former album, Moore and Murray were joined by Ian Paice, Don Airey and John Sloman for some very memorable stage work.
Even later, Murray served as bassist in the musical “We Will Rock You” while also sometimes keeping up the touring life.
Many happy returns from us here at gotta hear ’em all to Mr. Murray today! We hope the next year’s a good one.
Thank you so much for reading. If you enjoyed this post, please consider donating on my ko-fi page or becoming a patron on my patreon. I appreciate your help!