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| Noel Redding | |
|---|---|
| Name | Noel Redding |
| Caption | Noel Redding in the 1970s |
| Birth date | 25 December 1945 |
| Birth place | Folkestone, Kent |
| Death date | 11 May 2003 |
| Death place | Clonakilty, County Cork |
| Occupation | Musician, songwriter |
| Years active | 1965–2003 |
| Instruments | Bass guitar, guitar, vocals |
| Associated acts | The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Fat Mattress, The Noel Redding Band |
Noel Redding was an English rock musician best known as the bassist for The Jimi Hendrix Experience during the late 1960s. He performed on seminal albums and iconic festivals, later fronting his own groups and collaborating with artists across rock music scenes in England and Ireland. Redding's work bridged psychedelic rock, hard rock, and folk rock during a formative era for popular music.
Redding was born in Folkestone, Kent, into a family with ties to World War II veterans and the postwar cultural shift in England. He attended local schools in Folkestone before leaving formal education to pursue music, influenced by recordings from Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, The Everly Brothers, and the skiffle movement linked to Lonnie Donegan. Redding began on electric guitar and was active in regional bands that played in London clubs and on the UK live circuit, intersecting with musicians from Liverpool and the burgeoning British Invasion scene.
Redding joined The Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1966 after auditions held in London; the trio included Jimi Hendrix and Mitch Mitchell. He contributed bass lines to the group's breakthrough single "Hey Joe" and the albums Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love, and Electric Ladyland. Redding toured with the Experience at major events such as the Monterey Pop Festival, Woodstock Festival, and the Isle of Wight Festival, sharing bills with acts like The Who, The Rolling Stones, Cream, and Jefferson Airplane. The Experience's studio work involved collaborations with producers and engineers connected to Polydor Records, Reprise Records, and Track Records, and Redding's playing underpinned songs that interacted with the work of contemporaries like Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, Paul McCartney, and John Lennon. Redding left the Experience in 1969 amid tensions common to high-profile bands of the era, paralleling departures by musicians in groups such as Pink Floyd and Fleetwood Mac.
After departing the Experience, Redding formed Fat Mattress, assuming lead vocal and guitar duties; the group toured with acts including Led Zeppelin and released albums through labels allied with Island Records and Polydor Records. In the 1970s he worked with The Noel Redding Band and engaged in session work with artists from the British folk rock and progressive rock communities, intersecting with musicians associated with Fairport Convention, Strawbs, and Mott the Hoople. Redding later relocated to Ireland and continued collaborations with members of The Faces, Thin Lizzy, and veteran session players linked to BBC Radio broadcasts and European festival circuits. He participated in reunion appearances and tribute concerts honoring Jimi Hendrix and performed on recordings alongside producers and engineers who had worked with David Bowie, Brian Eno, and Tony Visconti.
Redding's technique evolved from guitar to bass, informing a melodic approach related to the practices of players like John Entwistle, Paul McCartney, and Jack Bruce. He favored a driving, treble-forward bass tone that complemented Hendrix's lead work and Mitchell's jazz-inflected drumming. Redding played Fender Precision and Fender Jazz basses, instruments associated with Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, and used amplification and effects common to late-1960s rock stages, linking him to hardware used by contemporaries such as Hendrix and Pete Townshend. As a guitarist and songwriter in Fat Mattress and later projects, Redding referenced folk and blues idioms that connected his work to traditions upheld by Muddy Waters, Big Bill Broonzy, and Revival-era musicians.
Redding's personal life included marriage and family ties in both England and Ireland; he settled in Clonakilty, County Cork, where he lived until his death in 2003. He navigated the pressures faced by touring musicians of his generation—press scrutiny, substance culture shared with peers from The Beatles-era circles, and the shifting economics of the recorded-music industry influenced by companies like EMI and Universal Music Group. Redding also engaged in visual art and local community activities in Clonakilty, interacting with artists and cultural figures from Cork and participating in music education events tied to regional festivals.
Though sometimes overshadowed by Hendrix's global reputation, Redding's contributions to The Jimi Hendrix Experience are recognized by historians and musicians studying late-1960s rock. His bass lines appear on tracks frequently cited in histories of psychedelic rock and are analyzed in works about the period alongside studies of counterculture festivals and recording innovations at studios such as Olympic Studios and Electric Lady Studios. Redding influenced bassists in rock and alternative rock who cite melodic yet propulsive low-end playing—artists linked to lineages including Nirvana, U2, and R.E.M.—and his post-Experience songwriting broadened his standing among followers of British folk rock. Commemorations after his death included tribute concerts and retrospectives in music press outlets that also covered figures like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck. Redding's work remains part of curricula and archival projects concerning the 1960s and 1970s popular-music transformations.
Category:1945 births Category:2003 deaths Category:English bass guitarists