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	BACK DOOR
	An interview with Colin Hodgkinson by Adrian Ashton for Bass Guitar Magazine.
	Can you tell the readers about your wide-ranging bass playing history? The first really important thing I did was with Alexis Korner. I started to play with him in 1969 and I was associated with him right until he died. The last three years he was alive we did a duo together, which was a lot of fun. Then the formation of Back Door started when I was doing a summer show in Bournemouth playing all sorts of acts with saxophonist Ron Asprey. We got bored with the show so we just used to go in with the bass and alto sax and just played. That's the way Back Door got started; it was a pretty weird line up for the time: bass guitar, saxophone and drums. But it also got me into playing chord type things, melody and stuff like that, just on the bass. The critics always loved it but we never sold enough records so that's why Back Door finished. After that I went to New York and I joined the Jan Hammer band. I'd known Jan in the Back Door days from way back and he said, "I'm really sick of fusion music, do you want to play some rock?" and I said "Yeah, I'd love to!" I went out and played with him for almost 4 years and did some things with Neil Schon the great guitar player from Journey. Then Jan received the first script from Miami Vice and the producers wanted him to write some music so he got that gig, which he deserved. (The theme from the series was a huge international success). Since then he's not really played live much at all, which is a great shame, because for me he's one of the best improvisor's I've ever played with. Tell us about your current gig and the tour you're doing. This is a tour with Spencer Davis plus the Yardbirds and The Troggs. We've done forty-three shows in fifty-five days so it's pretty intense, especially when your not as young as you were! We've had a lot of fun and we've had a lot of people come and see us. It's been very very good in most places so there's obviously an audience for R 'n B, which is nice. And its live music of course! How did you get the gig with Whitesnake? I did a tour with Pete York, the drummer from Elvis Presley's band, called 'The Olympic Rock and Blues Circus' which was great, and then he said to me, "David Coverdale from Whitesnake is looking for a bass player, would you be interested?" I'd known him in the north east when he was with Micky Moody, so we were great old pals really. It was great, but it really wasn't for me, lets put it that way. I had a lot of fun with it, but musically I wanted to do something where i could improvise a bit more. I did it for a year. In 1999 Bill Wyman called me, who I'd also known right back to the seventies, and he told me about the Rhythm Kings band. He said "Do you want to come and play bass on tour with me?" I said "Wait a minute Bill, you play bass!" and he said "No, no, no! Do you want to do solo stuff?" I said "Well if you think it will work!" I was really nervous about it, just walking on stage with a bass guitar and singing but it actually went down really well. I didn't know what kind of audience to expect really, whether they would be Rolling Stones fans or whatever but they were just people who liked that kind of music. Then I did the same with Gary Moore, so for the last couple of years I played more in England than I have done in the last fifteen years. How can readers get hold of your CD, The Bottom Line? It's a German label, but what I tend to do is buy some boxes when I'm there, and when I play gigs I sell them. It's also come out as a book, with several pieces transcribed , Its out now, half German and half in English. I did get some and put them in the Bass Centre. When Back Door got back together we did a reunion tour and played a few arts centres where a lot of people said, "Why don't you re-release something?" and when the record company finally did they didn't tell us about it! We went in the studio and we re-recorded six of what we thought were the best from the original things because we thought they'd never see the light of day. It was great after all that time and we did quite a few originals. That's going to come out this year. I dont know about titles or anything yet but it will be out. You're one of very few bassists with a unique style that hasn't been copied. Why do you think that is? I don't know really. I've always liked the country blues, which has been popular with a few people but I dont really know if they're so much into my chord style. The rags have a much more sort of fingerstyle technique, more like guitar technique I suppose. There's a couple of people I know who have had a go at some of the songs but it's amazing the number of people who haven't seen that sort of thing done before. There you go, I dont know the answer. What gear are you using these days? What I'm trying at the moment is a Music Man bass, a 5-string. I think it sounds great. I had one of the first Music Man basses before Ernie Ball took over the company and I really liked it, but I went through a period where I was really hard up and I had to get rid of a lot of stuff. I wish I hadn't. Ernie Ball said that they were still making that model, The StingRay. I like a simple system on a bass; I dont like a lot of knobs because for me, playing live, it's impractical. I like it to be as simple as possible. Music Man are making me a bass right now. I should be picking it up soon and I'm looking forward to that. When you've got seperate bass and treble rather than one tone control like the Fender Precision you've got a bit more flexability. As far as amps go, I guess I've used all sorts of things. I used Fender amps for a long time when we didn't play so loud. Now I'm using Eden, which is absolutely great, and I always use that for the solo stuff. I use the 410XLT cabinet. I got the little one as well, the 210XLT, but I think I might change that for the 15. The 4x10 is enough actually, there's so much power in there. It has a real power rating too, you can crank it up! Generally speaking, I dont like solid state too much but the Eden has a tube preamp. I've used some odd things really. When I worked with Jan Hammer, the tech was very clever so I said "I want a JBL bullet horn in a box" He thought it wouldn't make a difference but of course it does, especially for the solo stuff. Now they put them in as a matter of course, but this was 1978 we're talking about! I thought of it then and i've still got the original one. I've got the endorsment with Eden now and I really love the stuff. It's superb, although for the Spencer Davis tour you can't all take your own equipment because there just isn't physically enough room for three kits. We all agreed we'd have one bass amp, which is an Ampeg SVT 2 and an 8X10 cabinet. I've also got two Fender Precision basses including one I'm playing with I had when I was 15. It's original apart from the bridge, which is a Schecter brass one. I've had so many refrets on it though that even the wood got a bit thin! I got a really great piece of rosewood put on it which is 100 years old and it's absolutely wonderful. I've got a '63 Sunburst, which is all original too. I bought that in 1990. I always look out for that sort of thing, because if you're left handed and you see a bass, you play it on principle! I use that sometimes when I've been band playing rather than solo playing. I've also got a Warwick five-string fretless Thumb Bass, which is beautiful; I was very lucky with that one. String wise, I know you're very keen on Rotosound. Yes, I still use them in an unusual gauge, 35, 50, 80, 100. I've used them since....... well I think I'm the oldest endorsee apart from John Entwistle. (John was still alive at the time of this interview) © 2003 Bass Guitar Magazine
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