Barry Adamson is in a weird position. After winning acclaim for the noir-cinematic atmospheres of solo projects such as Moss Side Story and the mash-up of Back To The Cat, writing songs for directors such as Danny Boyle, Oliver Stone and David Lynch, and composing film scores for Delusion and Out Of Depth, the 53-year-old writer/multi-instrumentalist found himself directing, writing and acting in his own movie with 2011’s The Therapist. “I’m a marketing man’s nightmare,” he jokes. To make things more intense, Adamson—post-punk’s most legendary bassist, with roles in Magazine and Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds—returned to the scene of the live-music crime by playing gigs with Howard Devoto’s re-united Magazine after decades of being a lone wolf. What was he thinking? And how did all of that recent interaction inspire his newest project, the aggressive Destination? Read our new Q&A with him below. Adamson will also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week.
Adamson: My personal instrument of choice. I thought I would be the lead guitarist, of course, but could only play a few chords as a youngster. Then the drums fascinated me, but I wasn’t allowed a set. So. When punk arrived, a chance encounter with an old school friend saw him giving me a bass guitar with two strings on it! I went to a music store and bought the other two where I saw an advert for the group that would become Magazine and I called that number and set up an audition for the next day. I stayed up all night and just played anything, with the neck resting on the head of the bed (so the sound reverberated). Next day I went to the audition and played, with Howard Devoto playing the guitar—and got the job!
It seemed to come quite naturally to me, more so than other instruments, plus I’d always loved the playing of Jimmy Garrison and Paul Chambers on upright; Larry Graham, James Jamerson, John Entwhistle, Carole Kaye and Bernard Edwards on electric bass. I play a Fender Jaguar bass mainly but also own a Fender Jazz, a couple of precision copies, a Gibson EB3, an Ovation Magnum and a blonde upright I bought 30 years ago.
One reply on “From The Desk Of Barry Adamson: Bass”
Hi BArry. Wasn’t “That blonde upright” you bought 30 years ago the same bass which you used for the first three promo videos of Magazine (“Motorcade”, “The Light Pourst Out Of Me” and “Touch and Go”). Did you recorded “Real Life” with that?