Bobby Tench
Robert Tench was a British singer, guitarist, sideman, songwriter and arranger.
Tench was best known for his work with Freddie King and Van Morrison, as well as being a member of the Jeff Beck Group, Humble Pie and Streetwalkers At the start of his career he performed and recorded with the Gass and also appeared with Gonzalez, before joining the Jeff Beck Group. He recorded with Ginger Baker before touring with Beck, Bogert & Appice as vocalist and recording sessions with Linda Lewis. Associations with Wailer Junior Marvin and blues guitarist Freddie King followed.
He signed to A&M Records and formed Hummingbird, later joining Roger Chapman and Charlie Whitney in Streetwalkers. During this period he had brief associations with Boxer and Widowmaker, recording album tracks with each before working with Van Morrison. When his commitments with Morrison came to an end he moved on to work and record with Eric Burdon also Axis Point, before Steve Marriott included him as an official band member in a new lineup of Humble Pie. Tench continued to record and make live appearances, until his death in February 2024 at the age of 79.
Early years
He was born in Trinidad and his family moved to London when he was young. Inspired by Ray Charles and Sam Cooke he began singing in bands as a teenager and learnt to play guitar. Bands he played with during his teenage years included The Senators and The Creators.Career
The Gass
Tench formed the Gass with Godfrey and Errol McLean in May 1965 and they soon recruited the remaining three members, Humphrey Okah, Ian Thomas and Stuart Colwell. The band played mainly in the London Club circuit appearing at West End venues such as Rasputin's, The Bag O'Nails, The Speakeasy Club, The Flamingo Club, Sibyllas and Revolution. They also made other appearances elsewhere in the UK with occasional tours in Europe.The Gass were often accompanied on stage by guest musicians such as Georgie Fame, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Burdon. They recorded two singles for Parlophone and another for CBS with their original lineup, before taking a "more progressive musical direction". During 1968 they were supporting bands such as Led Zeppelin who were billed as The Yardbirds for their first UK appearance on 25 October that year at Surrey University. Tench moved on with drummer Godfrey McLean to form a new lineup and were signed by Polydor Records soon before their debut release. By that time, the band was simply known as Gass and were the backing band for Catch My Soul, a stage musical produced by Jack Good. Tench was later featured as a part of Gass on the original UK cast soundtrack "Catch My Soul" released in 1971. They recorded Juju featuring the Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green on the tracks "Juju" and "Black Velvet".
Tench instigated an early lineup of Gonzalez in 1970. with Godfrey McLean. This included Gass bandmates bassist Delisle Harper, percussionist Lennox Langton and sax player Mick Eve.
The Jeff Beck Group
Tench moved on at the end of May 1971, leaving Gass and Gonzalez to become a member of the Jeff Beck Group. Jeff Beck had signed a record deal with CBS in June 1971, having reformed the Jeff Beck Group. Vocals by Alex Ligertwood had been unexpectedly rejected by record company bosses, forcing Beck to find a replacement singer. Having heard Tench perform with Gass "Upstairs" at Ronnie Scott's club in Soho, London Beck employed him as the replacement vocalist. In their book about Beck, Chris Hjort and Doug Hinman mention these circumstances. He was given only a short time to add his vocals to Rough and Ready, before mixing resumed on tracks previously recorded in London by Beck and the other band members including, drummer Cozy Powell, bassist Clive Chaman and keyboard player Max Middleton.When the album was released in Europe they toured Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany. Rough and Ready was released in USA eight months later and a sixteen date promotional tour followed. The album eventually reached No. 46 on the US album charts. Of Tench Rolling Stone magazine stated: "...then comes Situation a long, well-played evocation of that misnamed hybrid jazz-rock and a neat rocker called Short Business. Vocalist Tench does a valiant job on both considering the considerable handicap of being mixed down under the guitar." In January 1972, the Jeff Beck Group travelled to United States to join Beck at TMI studios in Memphis, Tennessee, where they recorded the album Jeff Beck Group with Steve Cropper as producer. The promotional tour which followed included an appearance on the BBC In Concert series, which was recorded on 29 June 1972 at the Paris Theatre, London. During this session Tench's guitar playing was featured on "Definitely Maybe".
On 24 July 1972, the second Jeff Beck Group was officially disbanded and Beck's management released this statement: "The fusion of the musical styles of the various members has been successful within the terms of individual musicians, but they didn't feel it had led to the creation of a new musical style with the strength they had originally sought".
Ginger Baker, BBA and Freddie King
In 1971 Tench played guitar with Cream's drummer Ginger Baker, studio sessions were recorded and released on the album Stratavarious in July 1972. He was credited as Bobby Gass and appeared with Afro beat musician Fela Ransome-Kuti. He also appeared at live dates with Baker during this period. He reunited with Jeff Beck during the summer of 1972. At that time Beck was collaborating with bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice and they had begun touring the United States on 1 August 1972, billed as The Jeff Beck Group. Tench was flown in from England to replace vocalist Kim Milford, who left after the Arie Crown concert in Chicago, on 8 August. The tour concluded at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, on 19 August 1972 and Tench ended his association with Jeff Beck further to the formation of the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice.Tench recorded with the blues rock guitarist Freddie King, credited on two King albums, Burglar and Larger Than Life.
Linda Lewis and Junior Marvin's Hanson
Tench featured as guitarist on Fathoms Deep, an album by Linda Lewis which followed her top twenty success with "Rock a Doodle Do" in the UK singles charts. He appeared alongside former Jeff Beck Group keyboardist Max Middleton, bassist Phil Chen and guitarist Jim Cregan who also produced the album. In her review of Fathoms Deep for Allmusic, Amy Hanson wrote: "Helmed by a virtual supergroup featuring the likes of R&B masters Bobby Tench, Max Middleton, Danny Thompson and rocker Philip Chen, alongside Jim Cregan, Fathoms Deep is a true singer songwriter's album, tasteful and tight".During February 1973 he went into the studio with Junior Marvin who had formed the band Hanson also later known as Junior Marvin's Hanson. They recorded tracks for the album Now Hear This. Marvin had previously appeared with Tench on the Gass album Juju three years previously, credited as Junior Kerr. The lineup on this album included drummer Conrad Isidore, bassist Clive Chaman who later joined Tench in Hummingbird and DeLisle Harper who also played bass and had been a member of Gass with Tench. The album fused rock with funk and was produced by Mario Medious also known as Big M.
A&M records, Hummingbird and Streetwalkers
Tench signed to A&M in 1973, and later formed the rock and soul fusion band Hummingbird, whose lineup included members of the second Jeff Beck Group also a second guitarist Bernie Holland and drummer Conrad Isidore. They recorded Hummingbird in 1975, the first of three albums produced by Sammy Samwell. Jeff Beck recorded several tracks with the band which remained unreleased and made a live appearance with them at the Marquee Club in London.In April 1975 he became a member of the Streetwalkers. He had already been performing as part of a fluid lineup with Roger Chapman and Charlie Whitney's band "Chapman Whitney Streetwalkers". Tench appeared with this touring band at concerts such as at Hyde Park in London in june 1974. He also appeared in television appearances with Streetwalkers, including Rockpalast in March 1975. Streetwalkers recorded their first album Downtown Flyer early in 1975, which was released during October the same year in Europe and the USA, following it up with a second album, the groove heavy Red Card, which became their most respected album. On 8 June 1976 and in March 1977 he appeared with Streetwalkers on the BBC Radio 1 Peel Sessions
Tench recorded the second album with Hummingbird, We Can't Go On Meeting Like This, released in 1976 as the first of two albums to feature drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. Tench also recorded at this time with Mott the Hoople and Spooky Tooth guitarist Luther Grosvenor's band Widowmaker which had been formed during 1975. He contributed guitar and vocals to their album Widowmaker.
During 1976 Tench recorded with the UK band Boxer, formed in 1975 by Mike Patto and Ollie Halsall. These tracks were recorded at The Manor Studios in Oxfordshire and released on the album Bloodletting. He appeared with members of Boxer at the Crystal Palace Garden Party concert promoted by Harvey Goldsmith on July 1 1976, billed as Dick and the Fireman. This concert also featured Eric Clapton, Freddie King, Larry Coryell and Ronnie Wood on the same bill. On 19 April 1977, Streetwalkers on their third appearance on Rockpalast. During 1977 they released their third and last studio album Vicious but fair and also Live Streetwalkers as the band broke up. Tench and Hummingbird's final album Diamond Nights was released the same year.
Van Morrison and Wavelength
included Tench in a new band lineup as the lead guitarist and a vocalist in March 1978, to record the Wavelength album. Tench was recommended to Morrison by drummer Peter Van Hooke, after Hooke had seen him perform with Streetwalkers. In an interview with Johnny Rogan Tench stated: "I quite liked the songs 'Natalia' and 'Wavelength' because I had a lot to do with them. They came together quickly. He's a very quick worker and once it's there he doesn't see why you can't record it. He let us get on with it, really. It was a good band." He was credited with production assistance, guitar and backing vocals on this album. This became Morrison's best selling album at that time. He also contributed lead guitar and vocals to the promotional tour which followed. This tour started in Santa Clara, California on 30 September 1978 and ended on 1 March 1979 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.By the end of the tour he had appeared in Morrison's lineup sixty two times. One of these appearances with Morrison was recorded and broadcast by WNEW-FM radio on 1 November 1978 at the Bottom Line in New York. In his book Van Morrison: The Mystic Music, Howard. A. DeWitt described this concert as: "the best live Van Morrison concert broadcast over radio". Later that year on 26 November 1978, Morrison appeared with the same band at the Roxy in Los Angeles, USA. This performance was recorded and released as the promotional album Live at the Roxy. Two tracks were released later as part of the remastered Wavelength album in 2008.
Tench's last appearance with Morrison's band was in the video Van Morrison in Ireland. This was filmed in February 1979 during Morrison's Wavelength Tour. Of the band's performance on the video Tony Stewart commented in the music paper NME that: "The band display a range of textures reminiscent of The Caledonia Soul Orchestra, first with the dark resonance of Toni Marcus' violin then Pat Kyle's bright sharp tenor sax and finally Bobby Tench's prickly electric guitar". In a review of the same video in 2012 Eleanor Mannikka mentions "the quality of the music" in her review for The New York Times.