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Martin Gordon
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Martin Gordon
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Martin Gordon (born 3 May 1954) is an English musician who plays bass guitar, double bass, and piano. He is known for his work with the art pop duo Sparks and the glam rock band Jet, the latter reforming as the punk group Radio Stars. In the 1980s, Gordon performed session work for many bands, and in the 1990s he participated in world music, especially in several gamelan orchestras. He resumed rock and pop work in the 2000s.

Biography

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Martin Gordon was born in Ipswich, and grew up in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. He studied piano and classical guitar as a child and attended summer schools hosted by the British National Jazz Youth Orchestra, where he took lessons from Nucleus bassist Jeff Clyne.

Gordon began his musical career in the 1970s with the Californian pop brothers Ron Mael and Russell Mael in Sparks, who were seeking a bassist after their relocation to the UK. Gordon played with Sparks on the album Kimono My House, which featured his trademark Rickenbacker 4001 bass. "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" and "'Amateur Hour" were UK hits from that album. "This Town..." made No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart but, after one album, Gordon and Sparks parted company.

He then formed Jet (described by AllMusic as "the first supergroup of glam")[1] and then Radio Stars. Both bands featured singer Andy Ellison, drummer Chris Townson, and guitarist Ian Macleod. Jet's album Jet was helmed by Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker. Between the demise of Jet and its reincarnation as Radio Stars in 1976, he performed briefly with pioneer of American punk Ian North; along with drummer Paul Simon, Gordon played a handful of dates with Ian's Radio before rejoining members of Jet to form Radio Stars.

Radio Stars achieved a modicum of success with a single "Nervous Wreck" (which charted at No. 38 in the UK Singles Chart)[2] and two critically well-received albums Songs for Swinging Lovers and Holiday Album. The band has been anthologised with Two Minutes Mr Smith (Moonlight Records) and Somewhere There's a Place For Us (Ace Records). Ace Records re-released the Radio Stars catalogue on CD in 2003. In 2008, Radio Stars reformed for a gig at London's Blow Up Metro Club, to promote the release of live recordings from the 1970s entitled Something for the Weekend. The performance featured original members Martin Gordon, Andy Ellison and Ian Macleod accompanied by drummer Steve Budney who performed on Gordon's 2007 solo debut in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The band also performed one-off gigs at the Rebellion Festival in London (13 December 2008) and at London's 100 Club (22 January 2010). In 2017, the 4-CD box set Thinking Inside the Box was released by Cherry Red/Anagram Records, featuring the band's entire recorded output, BBC sessions and rarities.

Session musician

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Following the end of Radio Stars in 1979, Gordon moved to Paris, France, where he worked as house producer for Barclay Records, and played bass with the Rolling Stones during the recording of Emotional Rescue.[3] He returned to the UK at the beginning of the 1980s, and worked as producer and in other capacities with such musicians as George Michael, Boy George, Blur, Primal Scream, Kylie Minogue, S'Express, Tiger Lillies and Robert Palmer, as well as with a host of minor talents.

World music

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At the beginning of the 1990s, world music took Gordon initially to Bombay with Asha Bhosle and Boy George, and subsequently to Pakistan, Morocco, Egypt, Ghana and The Gambia. After studying gamelan in Bali on a Darmasiswa scholarship, he formed the short-lived Mira ensemble with journalist/musician Peter Culshaw in 1995, releasing an album New Hope For the Dead. They created an elaborate theatrical presentation, which delivered two performances at the Place Theatre, in London and an appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1997. He was a member of the SOAS-based (Balinese) Gamelan Kembang Kirang and the South Bank-based (Javanese) New Music Group between 1996 and 1997. Gordon performs with the Berlin-based (Indonesian gamelan group) Lindhu Raras.[4] During 2019, Gordon was musical director/bassist of the Liberation Orchestra, with the participation of members of the Ensemble Modern, Wimme & Rinne and others, culminating with a one-off performance in Banjul, The Gambia, in the context of the AfriCourage festival in December 2019.

Solo

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Following the recording of an album in Istanbul with Turkish diva Sezen Aksu, Gordon played bass on Aksu's subsequent European tour (2002). This prompted his return to his pop music roots in 2003, via his own label Radiant Future Records.

He has a number of solo albums to his credit, many recorded in collaboration with Swedish vocalist Pelle Almgren. The first three solo releases were collected in a box-set titled The Mammal Trilogy (2006). Allmusic noted that "any release that reminds the world of the brilliance of Gordon's first three 21st century solo albums can only be applauded".[5] His solo albums also feature a selection of Lennon–McCartney and Gilbert & Sullivan tunes alongside Gordon originals. In 2007, Gordon made his live debut as a solo performer in Boston, United States.

The fourth album God is on His Lunchbreak was accompanied by a book detailing the origins of the material, lyrics and assorted musing entitled The Illustrated and Annotated 'God's on His Lunchbreak, Please Call Back' Companion Volume, with illustrations by drummer Chris Townson.[6] The fifth album Time Gentlemen Please was accompanied by the album Time Gentlemen Please – Demos, featuring Gordon's original demos of the material (available only via his website).

Gordon and vocalist Almgren made appearances in 2011 and 2012 as part of the Swedish garage-punk outfit 70–5 (various performances are to be found on YouTube). The sixth and final instalment of the Mammal Trilogy was entitled Include Me Out;[4] released in August 2013, it was recorded in Berlin, Germany and Gnesta, Sweden and was accompanied by Words in Your Shell-Like,[7] a book of Gordon's lyrics from Jet to the Mammal Trilogy. This brought the Trilogy to completion.

An album of Gilbert and Sullivan compositions Gilbert Gordon & Sullivan was released by Radiant Future Records in April 2016, as well as two singles, "Dump the Trump" in October 2016 and Idiots in March 2017. In 2018, Radiant Future released the album Thanks For All the Fish and the single Will of the People.

Gordon's album OMG was released in early 2020, along with a reworking of the Idiots single, entitled COVIDiots and in response to COVID activity and to the fact that German courts decided that the term was in fact allowable under German law. In 2021 he released Another Words, a setting to music of Donald Trump's phone call to Georgia governor Brad Raffensperger, released in 2021. At Xmas 2021, Gordon celebrated the political achievements of Boris Johnson with the single release Booster. Early in 2022, Radiant Future released an expanded version of Another Words featuring the original audio from the Trump-Raffensperger call, entitled Another Words - The Phonecall. In February 2022 Gordon released an instrumental track in support of Ukraine entitled Slava Ukraini. In 2023, the album "Greatest Sh!ts was released, featuring a selection of new and reworked material. 2024 saw the release of a pair of albums featuring earlier material, Singular Obscurities and Obscure Singularities.

In 2025, Gordon celebrated the arrival of a Large Orange Mass on the shores of the UK with the release of a new album of transcriptions of a recent orange speech by the 47th president of the USA, entitled 'His Mother Was a Woman'.

Equipment

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Gordon is known for using the Rickenbacker 4001 bass guitar, most notably on the Sparks album Kimono My House and the later album Jet by the British group of the same name. He has stated in the Rickenbacker Forum[8] that he used H&H amplification for this recording. He used Rotosound round-wound strings to produce his benchmark sound. Such was his identification with the 4001 that he stated that he preferred to be sacked from the group Sparks rather than accommodate the request for him to use a different instrument.[9] In Radio Stars, he used a Rickenbacker 3001 and a Fender Precision bass. In more recent times he has used Yamaha 5-string basses and Stagg upright e-basses, before returning to the Rickenbacker 4003 in 2014.[10]

Academia

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As a result of his association with the Film University Brandenburg Konrad Wolf, Gordon stepped gingerly into academia with the publication of his first paper in 2025 by Abertay University, Dundee, in which he introduced his recent compositional methodology under the title of 'Trapped in the Tar Pit of Common Time', expanded in the follow-up paper 'His Mother Was a Woman'.

Discography

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Solo

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Albums:

Alternative versions:

Singles:

John's Children

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Blue Meanies

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Mira

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  • 1995 New Hope for the Dead – JVC Records
  • 2008 New Hope for the Dead – Radiant Future Records re-issued version with extra material including live tracks, remixes and unreleased content – (download only)

Radio Stars

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Jet

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Sparks

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References

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Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Martin Gordon

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
Martin Gordon is a British bassist, songwriter, and musician known for his role as the original bassist in the art pop band Sparks during their influential mid-1970s UK breakthrough. He contributed to their acclaimed album Kimono My House (1974), where he established a distinctive signature tone on his Rickenbacker 4001 bass, featured prominently in tracks like "Barbecutie." After departing Sparks following the album's success, Gordon formed Jet with former John's Children vocalist Andy Ellison, before the group evolved into the punk-influenced Radio Stars, where he took on primary songwriting responsibilities and continued using his Rickenbacker bass. He later pursued a solo career starting in 2003 with the album The Baboon in the Basement, the first installment of his "Mammal Trilogy," and has released additional solo work, including Another Words (2021), which experimented with setting political speech to music while refining his classic bass sound. Gordon's influences include Jack Bruce of Cream and Chris Squire of Yes, and he has occasionally worked as a producer, including a memorable 1979 session in Paris where he jammed with Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger, Ron Wood, and Charlie Watts. His contributions to Sparks continue to be celebrated, particularly around milestones such as the 50th anniversary of Kimono My House in 2024.

Early life

Martin Gordon was born on 3 May 1954 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. He grew up in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, where he studied piano and classical guitar as a child. He attended summer schools hosted by the British National Jazz Youth Orchestra, taking lessons from Nucleus bassist Jeff Clyne. Limited verified information is available on his family background or further pre-professional details.

Career

Sparks (1973–1975)

Martin Gordon joined Sparks as bassist in 1973, contributing to the band's influential UK breakthrough. He played on the acclaimed album Kimono My House (1974), where his distinctive signature tone on the Rickenbacker 4001 bass was featured prominently in tracks like "Barbecutie." He departed Sparks following the album's success.

Jet and Radio Stars (1970s–1980s)

After leaving Sparks, Gordon formed Jet with former John's Children vocalist Andy Ellison. The group later evolved into the punk-influenced Radio Stars, where Gordon assumed primary songwriting responsibilities and continued using his Rickenbacker bass.

Solo career (2003–present)

Gordon launched his solo career in 2003 with the album The Baboon in the Basement, the first installment of his "Mammal Trilogy." He has released further solo work, including Another Words (2021), which experimented with setting political speech to music while refining his classic bass sound. He has occasionally worked as a producer, including a 1979 session in Paris where he jammed with Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger, Ron Wood, and Charlie Watts. His early contributions to Sparks remain celebrated, including around the 50th anniversary of Kimono My House in 2024. Martin Gordon (the musician and bassist born in 1954) has no known notable acting roles in film or television. The roles described in earlier versions of this section (such as in Doctor Who, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) are credited to a different individual, Martin Gordon (actor, 1931–2025).

Death

Martin Gordon is alive and active as a musician as of 2026, with recent releases including the 2025 album His Mother Was a Woman and an interview published in January 2026. No information indicates that he has retired or passed away.
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