|
|
 Neil Murray was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, many years ago, and grew up in the small town of Melrose. He has been a member of Whitesnake, Black Sabbath, Brian May Band, Gary Moore's band and Peter Green's Splinter Group, as well as doing sessions and live dates with Sting, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Ian Gillan, Bill Bruford, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and many others. Neil started off playing piano and trombone but was a drummer during his teenage years, before taking up the bass at age 17. After studying graphic design at college he decided to stick with music and joined the jazz-rock band Gilgamesh. The opportunity to tour and record in the USA led to Neil joining Hanson, with whom he recorded an album called "Magic Dragon" in 1974. But only a few month later the band split up, and he then did a couple of tours as stand-in bassist with Cozy Powell's Hammer (which included Don Airey and future Whitesnake guitarist Bernie Marsden) in 1974/75. When Hammer disbanded, Neil and Don Airey joined Colosseum II alongside Gary Moore. After a year, having recorded the "Strange New Flesh" album, he joined progressive jazz-rock band National Health, who had developed out of Gilgamesh and other similar bands, and played on their self-titled album. In December 1977, he joined ex-Deep Purple singer David Coverdale's new band Whitesnake. From 1978 to 1983 Whitesnake grew to be hugely popular, released eight albums, including "Ready An' Willing" and "Live In The Heart Of The City", and did extensive UK, European and Japanese touring. Neil played on Gary Moore's "Corridors of Power" album in 1982, and with Whitesnake's situation uncertain, joined Gary's touring band, together with Don Airey and ex-Deep Purple/Whitesnake drummer Ian Paice. They recorded the live album "Rockin' Every Night" and did lots of touring. Neil and Gary came to a parting of the ways during the recording of "Victims of the Future", and the opportunity came for Neil to rejoin Whitesnake in late 1983. The Whitesnake album "Slide It In" was re-recorded with Neil's bass for the US remix, and big tours of the UK, Europe, Japan and the US followed, culminating in playing in front of an audience of 350,000 at the Rock In Rio festival in 1985. A long period of recording followed for Whitesnake's biggest success, the album "1987", which sold 8 million copies, but Neil was no longer part of the band when they went back on the road. After recording two albums with the Japanese band Vow Wow in 1987/88, and spending months living in Tokyo, he joined Black Sabbath in 1989. Lots of touring followed, including 3 weeks in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and an album entitled "Tyr". Neil, together with Cozy Powell, who'd also been in Whitesnake and Black Sabbath, joined former Queen's guitarist in the Brian May Band in 1992/93, touring North and South America, Europe and Japan, often supporting Guns N' Roses, promoting Brian's album "Back To The Light". In 1994 Neil had the chance to rejoin Black Sabbath and recorded the "Forbidden" album before touring the US, UK, Europe and Japan. Following this, Sabbath returned to their original 70s lineup, so Neil joined ex-Fleetwood Mac frontman Peter Green in his comeback after 25 years in the 'Peter Green Splinter Group'. The band played many club and concert dates and recorded 2 live albums. Brian May had taken 5 years to record his next album "Another World", but when it was time to go on the road in 1998, Neil was once again part of the lineup for a world tour. Ex-Whitesnake guitarists Bernie Marsden and Micky Moody's Company of Snakes had been going for some time when Neil's tour with Brian had finished, but it was a logical next step to team up again with his old bandmates. UK and European dates led to a record deal with SPV records, and there is a studio album planned for release in September 2001, following their live album "Here They Go Again", which was released in February. Neil was very pleased to be asked by Rolf to play on the Empire album project, and flew to Rolf's studio in January to record his bass tracks. |
|
| - Home - News - Discography - Press - Musicians - Guest Book - Contact - Links - |
| - Tony Martin - Rolf Munkes - Lance King - Neil Murray - Gerald Kloos - Mark Boals - Anders Johansson - Don Airey - |