Ricky Gardiner
Ricky Gardiner (31 August 1948 – 13 May 2022) was a Scottish guitarist and composer.
Ricky Gardiner
- Name
- Ricky Gardiner
- Born
- 31 August 1948
- Birthplace
- Edinburgh, Scotland
- Died
- 13 May 2022
- Occupation
- Guitarist, composer
- Full name
- Denis Roderick Gardiner.
- Nationality
- United Kingdom.
- Fields
- music, music composing, composed musical work and music composition.
- Education
- Craigmount School and Eastwood High School.
- Languages
- English.
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Ricky Gardiner (31 August 1948 – 13 May 2022) was a Scottish guitarist and composer.
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Note VALÉORINE
Ricky Gardiner (1948–2022) was a composer and guitarist, of British nationality. The composer was born Denis Roderick Gardiner in Edinburgh.
Ricky Gardiner was educated at Craigmount School and Eastwood High School. Activity centred on composed musical work, music and music composing.
The work spans progressive rock, punk rock and rock and roll. Languages used include English.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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wikidata · Q4405710 · wikipedia · Ricky Gardiner
In this article
Biography
Biography
Ricky Gardiner studied at Craigmount School and Eastwood High School. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is music, music composing and composed musical work. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are punk rock, rock and roll and progressive rock.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Ricky Gardiner • Born — 31 August 1948 • Birthplace — Edinburgh, Scotland • Died — 13 May 2022 • Genre — Punk rock, rock and roll, progressive rock • Occupation — Guitarist, composer • Instruments — Guitar • Past Member Of — Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Beggars Opera
Biography
Biography
Gardiner joined his first band, the Vostoks, at school in 1962. He then joined both The Kingbees and The System, with whom he formed Beggars Opera in 1969. He played in his own outfit with this band, Beggars Opera, and also with friends David Bowie and Iggy Pop. For Bowie he played lead guitar on the 1977 album Low. For Pop he worked on his album Lust for Life the same year: the issue included "The Passenger", regarded as one of Pop's best songs, for which Gardiner composed the music. Bowie biographer David Buckley described it as being "possessed with one of the greatest riffs of all time". On 19 October 1977, Gardiner was selected by Tony Visconti to play guitar for the pre-recorded backing of Bowie's performance on "Heroes" on the BBC's Top of the Pops. The recording was made at Good Earth Studios in Soho, London, with Bowie, Visconti, and pianist Sean Mayes. Gardiner emulated Robert Fripp's feedback-driven guitar line. "I was asked to reproduce Robert Fripp's line. As we went through the song, my amplifier started dying. As the song finished, so did the amp." From the 1970s, Gardiner played and composed in a variety of music styles, including ambient, classical, and rock. In 2017, photographs Gardiner took at the Château d'Hérouville, during the making Low in 1977, were included in a hardcover book that accompanied the vinyl and CD box set of A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982), alongside photographs by Anton Corbijn, Helmut Newton, Andrew Kent, Steve Shapiro, Duffy, and others. Gardiner said that he suffered from electromagnetic hypersensitivity, which he believed he contracted through exposure to high levels of computer radiation and magnetic fields. Gardiner died on 13 May 2022, aged 73, after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
Identity and overview
Identity and overview
The following is established of the heading itself.
Origins and background
Origins and background
The following is established of origins and background. Recorded at birth as Denis Roderick Gardiner. Institutional cataloguing adds that ricky Gardiner was born in 1948 at Edinburgh. Institutional cataloguing adds that ricky Gardiner died in 2022.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Goldring, Susie. David Bowie – Low. Classic Pop/Rock Review. BBC. 18 April 2007.
- 2.Carr, Roy. Bowie: An Illustrated Record. Avon / Eel Pie Publishing. 118. 1981. 0-380-77966-8.
- 3.Buckley, David. Strange fascination: David Bowie: the definitive story. Virgin Books. 318. 1999. 978-1-85227-784-0.
- 4.David Bowie – "Heroes" – Top of the Pops, 1977 – (Nacho version). David Bowie News Celebrating the Genius of David Bowie. 19 October 2017.
- 5.O'Leary, Chris. Ashes to Ashes: The Songs of David Bowie 1976–2016. Repeater. 2019. 978-1912248308.
- 6.Behind the scenes photos by Ricky Gardiner at Château d'Hérouville recording David Bowie's Low album. David Bowie News Celebrating the Genius of David Bowie. 9 May 2017.
- 7."Ricky Gardiner", 16 May 2022. Bowiewonderworld.com, Retrieved 16 May 2022
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This entry is compiled from 2 catalogued sources across 2 independent registers. The registers consulted are Wikidata and Wikipedia. Every statement above is held against the register that stated it; where the registers are silent, the entry is silent.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 20 August 2026.
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