March is for guitar heroes – and Chris Spedding is the iconic guitar hero. Newport Live presents The Chris Spedding Trio with Anton Fig on Friday, March 22nd at 7:30 PM at the the Colony House, Washington Square, in Newport, RI. Tickets are available on EventBrite or at the Newport Live website.
It’s not often these guys get together. But the shows are legendary. In the 80’s, they formed the nucleus of every important band in the world, including Bob Dylan, The Letterman Show Band, Bryan Ferry, Paul McCartney, and many more. Some of the people that turned up backstage and in the audience included people like Steve Winwood, Dave Edmunds, Joe Walsh, Jaco Pastorius, and a host of others, just to watch them play.
Chris continues to tour with Bryan Ferry and Anton is just off an appearance on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Tribute to Link Wray, where he and Jimmy Page played a hot set in tribute to Link.
Today, guitarist Chris Spedding continues to tour worldwide as a guitarist with Bryan Ferry’s band, something he has done since the ’70s. He is the author of a UK #1 hit with “Motorbikin,'” a dozen or so solo albums, and one of the most in-demand session guitarists of the past five decades along with Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck. A short sampling of his credits include sessions with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr’s all-star band in the movie “Give My Regards to Broad Street,” Roger Daltrey’s “Parting Should Be Painless” in the same year as McCartney, Jack Bruce’s (Cream) “Songs For a Tailor” and “Harmony Row, Donovan’s “Cosmic Wheels”, Harry Nilsson (including one of his best-known albums, Nilsson Schmilsson), Elton John’s “Madman Across the Water,” Thelonious Monk duets with Peter Frampton, and the aforementioned Ferry. He was also the producer of the Sex Pistols’ first demos, which were recorded on May 12, 1976 at London’s Majestic Studios, where Spedding had recorded his contributions to Eno’s album Here Come the Warm Jets.
He has been a member of eleven different bands, including Ian Carr’s Nucleus, Sharks with Free’s Andy Fraser and most recently, King Mob with Spedding on guitar, with Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols) on bass, Martin Chambers (The Pretenders) on drums. As part of Ian Carr’s Nucleus, he was runner up in the jazz guitarist category to John McLaughlin in an annual Melody Maker’s poll.
Chris played on the original recording of Jesus Christ Superstar, and also played “Coming from Reality” by Sixto Rodriguez, who was later the subject of the 2012 documentary Searching for Sugar Man. Spedding, a long-time friend of Chrissie Hynde, was a regular concert feature artist with the Pretenders on their US tour. One of Hynde’s first appearances on record was as a backing vocalist on Spedding’s song “Hurt”. Roger Daltrey’s “Parting Should Be Painless”, Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs
Spedding toured with a reformed Roxy Music in 2001 and continues to tour as guitarist for Bryan Ferry. In June 2014, Spedding appeared as a special guest playing guitar with Bryan Ferry at the 2014 Glastonbury Festival held in Pilton, Somerset, United Kingdom. In 2016, and again in 2019, he toured the US with Ferry.
Drummer Anton Fig anchored Paul Shaffer’s the Late Show with David Letterman band for nearly thirty years. During that run he played with the worlds’ greatest musicians including Miles Davis, James Brown, and Bruce Springsteen. Known as “The Thunder from Down Under”, Fig was born in Cape Town, South Africa and started drumming around age 4. Eventually he earned a music degree at the New England Conservatory of Music. He then moved to NYC, where he broke into the session scene, eventually playing with Kiss, Link Wray, Cyndi Lauper, Bob Dylan, Ace Frehley, and Joan Armatrading, to mention a few. In 2010, Fig was voted #1 Best Rock Drummer in Modern Drummer’s Readers Poll. He most recently toured with Joe Bonamassa.