Andy Bell
He co-founded 90s shoegazers Ride and Hurricane #1, was a member of Britpoppers Oasis, and even worked with Be-Bop Deluxe and XTC producer John Leckie. His debut solo album brings his love of psych and krautrock to the fore, so it’s time we asked: How prog is Andy Bell?
Words: Rob Hughes.
PRESS/SHIARRA BELL
A
ndy Bell answered a knock on his door the other day. There stood Pink Floyd’s manager, who gifted him a copy of the Record Store Day 2020 single, Arnold Layne Live 2007. Not only was it a wholly unexpected surprise, but it also brought back vivid memories of a treasured moment in Bell’s career.
In May 2007, a host of big names gathered at London’s Barbican Hall for The Madcap’s Last Laugh, a tribute gig in honour of Syd Barrett, who’d passed away the previous year. The surviving members of Pink Floyd were there, as were special turns Kevin Ayers, John Paul Jones, Robyn Hitchcock, Damon Albarn, Chrissie Hynde and Captain Sensible. To close proceedings, Pink Floyd reunited (minus Roger Waters) to play Arnold Layne, the single that sent the original line-up on its way some 40 years earlier.
Bell happened to be onstage with them that night. “It was the greatest thing ever,” he recalls. “I’d been called in to play bass in the house band for the concert. Nick Laird-Clowes from The Dream Academy was the bandleader and we became the musical core for all the guests. During our final rehearsal, this guy close to the Floyd camp had popped his head in to listen to us. The next morning I got a call from Nick, who told me that the Floyd really approved of what was going on and wanted to do a tune: ‘Roger is going to be there, but he won’t play with them. So will you be Roger?’ I didn’t even hesitate.”
Bell didn’t actually meet the band until the first half of the show was complete. “I got pulled into a side room at the Barbican and they were all in there,” he continues. “David Gilmour had his Strat unplugged and turned to me: ‘We’re just making sure you know what we’re going to do here. Let’s run though it quickly.’ What was really cool onstage was that Nick [Mason] didn’t count in the song with his sticks. Instead, David Gilmour walked over to me and went [in an impossibly polite voice]: ‘One, two, three, four…’ It was all done in this lovely, very English way.”