Bobby Tench

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.

• Name — Bobby Tench • Birth Name — Robert Tench • Alias — Bob Tench, Bobby Gass • Born — 21 September 1944 • Birthplace — Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago • Died — 19 February 2024 • Place of death — London, England • Instruments — * Guitar • bass • vocals • keyboards • Genre — * Rock • blues rock • electric blues • funk • Occupation — Musician • Years Active — 1960s–2024 • Label — * A&M • Atco • Epic • Jet • Mercury • Parlophone • Polydor • RCA • RSO • Sanctuary • Stiff • Vertigo • Past Member Of — * Alan Price & The Electric Blues Company • The Gass • Catch My Soul • Gonzalez • Ginger Baker • Freddie King • Junior Marvin's Hanson • Humble Pie • Van Morrison • The Jeff Beck Group • Streetwalkers • Hummingbird • Topper Headon

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.

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 (also known as The Pink Flamingo), 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 at the University of Surrey, who were making an early UK appearance billed as The Yardbirds. 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 (1968), a stage musical produced by Jack Good. Tench was later featured as a part of Gass on the original UK cast but soundtrack "Catch My Soul" released in 1971. They recorded Juju (1970) 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.

• Illustration — Tench performing with the Jeff Beck Group in 1971 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 (1971), 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 (1972) 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".

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 (1974) and Larger Than Life (1975).

Tench featured as guitarist on Fathoms Deep (1973), 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 (1973). 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.

Tench signed to A&M in 1973, and 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 (1976), 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 (1976). 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 (1979). 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 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 (1979). 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 (1981). 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.

During May 1978 Tench joined Eric Burdon to record the album Darkness Darkness, at Roundwood House in County Leix Ireland. The album was released nearly two years later. This album was recorded using Ronnie Lane's Mobile Studio and with a lineup also including guitarists Brian Robertson from Thin Lizzy and Henry McCullough formerly of Wings and Mick Weaver from Traffic. He performed with Burdon at concerts during this time later joining Streetwalkers guitarist Charlie Whitney's band Axis Point. Tench became a member of Humble Pie in 1980 further to a previously aborted attempt to enlist him. The lineup included founder member guitarist and vocalist Steve Marriott, their original drummer Jerry Shirley and American bassist Anthony "Sooty" Jones. They recorded and submitted "Fool For a Pretty Face" to record companies which Marriott had written with Shirley earlier. The song secured a recording contract with Atlantic subsidiary Atco in USA and Don Arden's Jet Records in UK. Tench remained with them and they recorded On To Victory (1980). This reached number sixty in the Billboard 200 album charts. The single "Fool For a Pretty Face" reached number fifty two in the US singles charts. Tench toured with Humble Pie in USA as part of the Rock 'N' Roll Marathon, which included others such as Aerosmith. The band recorded Go for the Throat (1980) and toured this album after its release Earlier in the tour scheduled appearances by the band were delayed and later Marriott became ill. These circumstances caused the tour to be cancelled. Soon afterwards Humble Pie disbanded. Tench recorded "Chain Gang" in 1982 as a tribute to Sam Cooke, which was released by the German label Line Records. "Looking for a Good Time" was featured on the B side, a song co-written by Tench and Peter Bardens.

In the early 1980s Tench formed the touring band Heart and Soul. He appeared with Roger Chapman's Shortlist at Glastonbury in 1985, also appearing with them at various other European festivals during that period. Moreover, he recorded with Topper Headon the drummer from The Clash, credited on Headon's album Waking Up (1986). The lineup included Headon, Tench, vocalist Jimmy Helms, former Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Clash keyboard player Mick Gallagher and bassist Jerome Rimson. In 1986 he recorded vocals for a cover of "Still in Love with You" (1986) for Stiff Records, as a tribute to Phil Lynott who had died on 4 January the same year. The song was released as a single by the Stiff label, later the same year and featured Brian Robertson who had played on the original Thin Lizzy recording. The B side "Heart Out Of Love" was co-written by Jeremy Bird and Tench. In 1993 Tench sang lead vocals with the Thin Lizzy band, which featured original Thin Lizzy drummer Brian Downey, former guitarist Brian Robertson also Doish Nagle and bassist Dough Brookie. The band played a tour of Ireland. The next year he played guitar and sang vocals with former Animals keyboardist Alan Price and The Electric Blues Company recording Covers (1994) with them. Later that year they recorded "A Gigster's Life for Me" with the same lineup. This album was recorded between July and August 1995 at Olympic Studios, London and released the next year as part of Sanctuary's Blues Masters Series. In his review for Allmusic, Thom Jurek stated that "the Peter Barden's and Bobby Tench song 'Good Times, Bad Woman' with its slippery guitars and keyboards feels more like Peter Green's mid-period work and the killer read of Boz Scagg's Some Change is more driven and funky than the original. Then there's the reggae-blues of the title track, which swings out of a jazzy backbeat into a rootsier inner circle type groove." During 1995 he contributed guitar and vocals to Rattlesnake Guitar (1995), a tribute to Peter Green, joining Paul Jones and Max Middleton on the song "Whatcha Gonna Do" and Zoot Money on "Albatross". The album was released in October of the same year. Tench contributed guitar and vocals to Ruby Turner's rhythm and blues album Call Me by My Name during 1998 which was released in the same year, appearing alongside Boz Burrell, Stan Webb and Zoot Money. Humble Pie drummer Jerry Shirley reformed Humble Pie in UK during 2000 with a lineup including former member Tench, their original bassist Greg Ridley and a new rhythm guitarist Dave "Bucket" Colwell. They recorded Back on Track, which was released by Sanctuary Records on 19 February 2002. A brief tour of UK and Europe with Company of Snakes followed but was curtailed due to Greg Ridley becoming ill. On 14 April 2001, he appeared as a guitarist and vocalist at the Steve Marriott Tribute Concert and performed the Humble Pie song "Fool for Pretty Face", which he had originally recorded with the band in 1980. He was also fronted the house band which included Zak Starkey, Rabbit Bundrick and Rick Wills. Performances from this concert were recorded and a DVD entitled The Steve Marriott Astoria Memorial Concert 2001 was eventually released on 5 October 2004. Tench continued with studio work, occasionally making appearances at live shows such as with Roger Chapman, Arthur Louis and Jim Cregan. In 2009 he was a featured artist in the Maximum Rhythm and Blues Tour of thirty two UK theatres. On 17 March 2015 he performed several songs at The Half Moon, Putney music venue in London at a benefit concert for the former Wings guitarist Henry McCullough. The billing included Paul Carrack and Nick Lowe. During the same concert Tench also performed with the backing band Henry's Heroes, an appropriate pseudonym for Hinkley's Heroes. In the following years he appeared with the Barnes Blues Band and Alan Price at the historic music venue Bull's Head in South West London and elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

Tench sold his vintage 1959 Les Paul Standard to Mark Knopfler in 1999. Knopfler sold this guitar for £693,000 at a Christie's auction in London on January 31, 2024. He also played Fender Stratocasters, during his time with Streetwalkers and throughout his career using models finished in powder blue, sunburst and black. In the latter part of his career he occasionally played a modified V100 Icon Lemon Drop made by the Vintage guitar company.

• Date of issue — A-side — B-side — Label — Country — Single — Format • 1982 — "Chain Gang" (S.Cooke/C.Cooke) — "Looking for a Good Time" (Tench/Bardens) — Line — Germany — Tribute to Sam Cooke — 7" • 1986 — "Still in Love with You" (Lynott/Moore) — "Heart out of Love" (Tench/Jeremy Bird) — Stiff — UK/Europe — Tribute to Phil Lynott • Extended version — 12"

Gass • Date of issue — A-side — B-side — Label — Country — Album — Format • 1965 — "One Of These Days" — "I Don't Know Why" — Parlophone — UK — N/A — 7" • 1966 — "The New Breed" — "In The City" • 1967 — "Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)" — "Jitterbug Sid" — CBS • 1971 — "Something's Got to Change Your Ways" — "Mr. Banana" — Polydor — UK/Europe The Jeff Beck Group • Date of issue — A-side — B-side — Label — Country — Album — Format • 1971 — "Got the Feeling" — "Situation" — Epic — US/Europe — Rough and Ready — 7" Hanson (Junior Marvin) • Date of issue — A-side — B-side — Label — Country — Album — Format • 1973 — "Love Knows Everything" — "Take You into My Home" — Manticore — US/Europe — Now Hear this — 7" Freddie King • Date of issue — A-side — B-side — Label — Country — Album — Format • 1974 — "My Credit Didn't Go Through" — "Texas Flyer" — RSO — US — Burglar — 7" Streetwalkers • Date of issue — A-side — B-side — Label — Country — Album — Format • 1975 — "Raingame" — "Miller" — Vertigo — US/Europe — Downtown Flyers — 7" • 1976 — "Daddy Rolling Stone" — "Hole in Your Pocket" — Europe — Red Card • 1977 — "Chilli Con Carne" — "But You're Beautiful" — Vicious but Fair Hummingbird • Date of issue — A-side — B-side — Label — Country — Album — Format • 1975 — "For the Children's Sake" — "You Can Keep Your Money" — A&M — US/Europe — Hummingbird — 7" • 1976 — "Troublemaker" — "Gypsy Skies" — We Can't Go On Meeting Like This • 1977 — "Madatcha" — "Anna's Song" — Diamond Nights Boxer • Date of issue — A-side — B-side — Label — Country — Album — Format • 1976 — "Hey Bulldog" (this song only) — "Loony Ali" — Virgin — UK/US/Europe — A)Bloodletting B)Below the Belt — 7" Widowmaker • Date of issue — A-side — B-side — Label — Country — Album — Format • 1976 — "On the Road" — "Pin a Rose on Me" — Jet — US/UK/Europe — Widowmaker — 7" • "When I met you" — "Pin a Rose On Me" • "Pin a Rose on Me" — "On the Road" Van Morrison • Date of issue — A-side — B-side — Label — Country — Album — Format • 1978 — "Wavelength" — "Checkin' It Out" — Mercury — US/Europe — Wavelength — 7" • 1979 — "Kingdom Hall" — "Checkin' It Out" • "Natalia" — "Lifetimes" Humble Pie • Date of issue — A-side — B-side — Label — Country — Album — Format • 1980 — "Fool For a Pretty Face" — "You Soppy Pratt" — Atco/Jet — US/Europe — On to Victory — 7" Topper Headon • Date of issue — A-side — B-side — Label — Country — Album — Format • 1986 — "Leave it to Luck" — "Casablanca" — Mercury — UK/Europe — Waking Up — 7" • "I'll Give You Everything" — "You're So Cheeky" — Side A Waking Up • "Leave It to Luck"/"Casablanca" — "East Versus West"/"Got to Get Out of This Heat" — Waking Up — 12" Jeff Beck • Date of issue — A-side — B-side — Label — Country — Album — Format • 1991 — "People Get Ready" — "New Ways/Train Train" (this song only) — Mercury — UK/Europe — Beckology — CD

This list is of the original record and CD releases on which Tench is credited and does not include other releases or re-issues with the same or different track listings. • Year — Artist — Album — Label • 1970 — Gass — Juju — Polydor • Gass (re-issue of Juju) • Supergroups Vol 2 (track 1 "Black Velvet") • 1971 — |Catch My Soul • The Jeff Beck Group — Rough and Ready — Epic • 1972 — Jeff Beck Group • Ginger Baker — Stratavarious — Atco • 1973 — Hanson — Now Hear This — Manticore • Linda Lewis — Fathoms Deep — Reprise • 1974 — Freddie King — Burglar — RSO • Linda Lewis — Heart Strings — Reprise • 1975 — Freddie King — Larger than life — RSO • Hummingbird — Hummingbird — A&M • Streetwalkers — Downtown Flyers — Mercury/Vertigo • Live at the BBC — BBC • 1976 — Red Card — Mercury/Vertigo • Hummingbird — We Can't Go On Meeting Like This — A&M • Widowmaker (UK) — Widowmaker — United Artists • 1977 — Streetwalkers — Vicious but Fair — Mercury/Vertigo • Hummingbird — Diamond Nights — A&M • Streetwalkers — Live Streetwalkers — Mercury/Vertigo • 1978 — Van Morrison — Wavelength — Mercury • 1979 — Axis Point — Axis Point — RCA • Boxer — Bloodletting — Virgin • Van Morrison — Van Morrison Live at the Roxy (promotional release) — Warner Bros • 1980 — Humble Pie — On to Victory — Atco • Eric Burdon — Darkness Darkness — Polydor • 1981 — Humble Pie — Go for the Throat — Atco • 1986 — Topper Headon — Waking Up — Mercury • Various artists — Live in World — EMI • 1989 — Roger Chapman — Walking the Cat — Castle • 1990 — Hybrid and Lowdown — Polydor • 1991 — Jeff Beck — Beckology — Epic/Legacy • Streetwalkers — Best of Streetwalkers — Vertigo • 1992 — Freddie King — Stayin' Home with the Blues — Universal/Spectrum • 1994 — Alan Price & The Electric Blues Company — Covers — AP • Chapman Whitney Streetwalkers — BBC Radio 1 in Concert — Swansong • 1995 — Various artists — Rattlesnake Guitar tribute to Peter Green — EMI • 1996 — Alan Price & The Electric Blues Company — A Gigster's Life for Me — Sanctuary • 1998 — Ruby Turner — Call Me by My Name — Indigo • Ginger Baker — Do What You Like — Polygram • 2003 — Al Slavik — The Secret One — Slavik • 2005 — Tim Hinkley — Hinkley's Heroes — Akarma • 2006 — Steve Marriott — Tribute — Darlings of Wapping Wharf • 2010 — Various Artists — This is The Blues. Vol 2 — Eagle • Freddie King — Texas Flyer 1974–1976 — Eagle

• Van Morrison: Van Morrison in Ireland. Video (1981) • Steve Marriott: Astoria Memorial Concert 2001. DVD (2004) • Streetwalkers: Live at Rockpalast DVD (2013)