Andy Davis

The rock & roll career of Andy Davis may be full of his own bandleading highlights, yet he has been heard by the widest audience in his almost equally busy role as a sideman. Davis, who is sometimes identified under the full name of Andrew Cresswell Davis, played acoustic guitar and sang backing vocals on <a href="spotify:artist:4x1nvY2FN8jxqAFA0DA02H">John Lennon</a>'s Imagine album. Despite the grandeur of his full name, this artist should not be mistaken for the great British conductor and keyboard performer named Andrew Davis.

<a href="spotify:artist:3ZxLjJocCVjyyKQLJH8eEa">Stackridge</a>, something of an eccentric country-rock band that Andy Davis founded in 1970, put him into the major-label orbit: the group made a half-dozen albums over a half a decade for MCA, <a href="spotify:artist:3PhoLpVuITZKcymswpck5b">Elton John</a>'s Rocket label, Warner Brothers, and Sire. The <a href="spotify:artist:3WrFJ7ztbogyGnTHbHJFl2">Beatles</a> connection continued on the group's third album, entitled The Man in the Bowler Hat and produced by <a href="spotify:artist:4Fgf6RvuWpiwDXSE7Vammx">Sir George Martin</a>. In 1979, Davis and former <a href="spotify:artist:3ZxLjJocCVjyyKQLJH8eEa">Stackridge</a> mate <a href="spotify:artist:2isGvN9FKkQYbtlzb6efMX">James Warren</a> became songwriting partners and started a new band, <a href="spotify:artist:69zRcOlNdSZ17VfIZe4VU3">the Korgis</a>.

Despite the success of this venture it hardly represents the end of Davis' collaborations. He has also written with <a href="spotify:artist:08UXlaxE4lidrpiGWrhBAW">Roger Cook</a> from Nashville, the singer <a href="spotify:artist:1G1mX30GpUJqOr1QU2eBSs">Yaz</a>, Clive Deamer of <a href="spotify:artist:6liAMWkVf5LH7YR9yfFy1Y">Portishead</a>, and many others. He had added touches of guitar, keyboard, and vocalizing to sides by <a href="spotify:artist:4bthk9UfsYUYdcFyqxmSUU">Tears for Fears</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2RcvmCViumRYdDso9zifzN">Bill Nelson</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5sMku8iI6FH3ypZTErz4kv">Julian Cope</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:6DKmuXxXASTF6xaJwcTfjv">Spiritualized</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5BKsn7SCN2XmbF7apdCpRS">Goldfrapp</a>, and the unusual avant-garde composer and performer <a href="spotify:artist:7HvQfRNJCvPXTVirKKB0Nn">Moondog</a>. Davis has also released a pair of albums under his own name. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi