Post by Slinger on Oct 9, 2022 15:21:34 GMT
Big Jim Sullivan
Quite possibly the most successful guitarist you've never heard of but have undoubtedly heard countless times.
A British guitar legend and I don't use the "L" word lightly. He was the absolute top session guitarist in the sixties and seventies, and the guy other session guitarists learned from, and more often than not, wanted to be.
QUICK FACT CHECK: Big Jim appeared on 0ver 750 singles that reached the charts during his career, including 54 Number Ones.
I think that sorts his pedigree out.
Big Jim Sullivan was born James George Tomkins on February 14, 1941, in Uxbridge, Middlesex, England. His mother died when he was just 2 years old, and his grandparents raised him until he moved in with his aunt and uncle as a teenager.
When he was young (he started learning guitar aged 14 and it took him a whole 2 years to turn pro) he played with Sid Gilbert and the Clay County Boys, a Western swing group, Johnny Duncan's Blue Grass Boys, Vince Taylor & the Playboys, Janice Peters & the Playboys, and the Vince Eager Band.
Jim also gave guitar lessons to a near-neighbour, a kid named Ritchie Blackmore, and Richie had this to say about him:
“I first met Jim Sullivan in 1958. He was introduced to me by my sister-in-law’s brother. We both lived in the same area: Middlesex, Cranford.
He was playing with Marty Wilde and the Wildcats. He showed me another level of playing. He was probably the most advanced guitarist in the London area. I would listen to the radio every week, there was a Marty Wilde show. Jim was often featured on the show so I was glued to the radio. He also made some great instrumentals. One being "Trambone", written by Chet Atkins, and another was "Peak Hour.
He was the first guitarist to play through a wah-wah pedal. It was a DeAmond foot volume and tone control. I remember an instrumental called The Bat, where he used the pedal. That would’ve been around 1959. Last time I saw Jim was in LA where he was playing with Tom Jones. He was one of England’s finest players, a mentor and a good friend to me. His playing will always be in my heart and will live on.
God bless you, Jim.”
In 1956, Sullivan had been playing the guitar only a year when he was invited to join a band called The Soho Group. The group played mostly coffee houses around London such as the Troubadour at Earl’s Court and the Two I’s to small crowds of mostly fellow musicians. It was at the Two I’s that Sullivan first ran into Marty Wilde front man for the up-and-coming group, The Wildcats. Wilde was impressed with Sullivan’s playing and asked his drummer and bassist to inquire whether Sullivan might be interested in joining up with them. Sullivan was interested and played with The Wildcats all across England, including opening up for rock legends Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent for a number of dates. “The Wildcats were at home with Eddie on and off the stage,” Sullivan once said. “Although he was only 21 himself, we looked up to him as a guide. He used to amaze us with his dexterity, both in country and blues.”
In 1958, Jim entered the recording studio for the first time to lay down some tracks with The Wildcats. In anticipation of these sessions, Wilde gave Jim a new guitar to play, a 1955 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop, thought to be the first Les Paul in England.
“It belonged to a gospel singer called Sister Rosetta Tharpe,” Sullivan recalled. “Marty bought it from her in the mid-’50s. I used this guitar until 1959 when American guitars were allowed to be imported into this country.”
Next, Jim went to Ivor Mairants Musicentre in London and laid down £300 on a cherry-red 1958 Gibson ES-345, which became his main axe throughout the early ’60s. In 1965, Sullivan decided to part ways with this guitar and sold it for £200 to Johnny Hallyday’s lead guitarist. It was around this time that Sullivan began a long endorsement period with Rickenbacker and used a variety of their guitars throughout the rest of the 1960s and ’70s.
Of course, Big Jim Sullivan wasn’t always known as “Big Jim.” It was the entrance of a young man named James Patrick Page into the session world that necessitated the nickname in order to differentiate one Jim from the other. “I’ll always remember the first time I met Jimmy [Page],” Sullivan recalled. “We had a session at Decca Studios for Dave Berry. It was the session for ‘My Baby Left Me’ and Jimmy played lead guitar and I played rhythm. I remember the great solo that he did on that session— it is one of the best-constructed rock solos on record.”
After that first session, Sullivan and Page would go on to play together numerous times and became fast friends. “The number of recordings we did together was amazing, and when he said he and John [-Paul Jones] were going to leave, he said I should join them too.” History holds that Sullivan did not join the two members of Led Zeppelin, however, he did loan Page a Gibson J-200 acoustic that Page used extensively on the first two Led Zeppelin albums.
Back to Big Jim, though. He played on the first records in the UK to use a wah-wah effect including Dave Berry's 1964 hit "The Crying Game," (more of which later) with Little Jim on rhythm. He also played on the first record in the UK to use a fuzzbox, which he had borrowed from session guitarist Eric Ford, on P.J. Proby's 1964 hit "Hold Me".
This is starting to turn into a "lists" post, but that's unavoidable with Jim, I'm afraid.
In the early 1960s, he also played on hits by Billy Fury, Frank Ifield, Adam Faith, Frankie Vaughan, Helen Shapiro, Johnny Hallyday, Freddie and the Dreamers, Cilla Black, Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Dusty Springfield and others.
He played guitar on Alexis Korner's and Blues Incorporated's album "R&B from the Marquee" in 1962 and Georgie Fame's first album, "Rhythm & Blues at the Flamingo", in 1964.
In addition to playing on many UK albums Sullivan played on the Everly Brothers' 1963 live album at Olympia, Bobby Darin's 1966 live album "Something Special", Little Richard's 1966 album "Get Down With It: The OKeh Sessions" and Del Shannon's 1967 album, "Home and Away".
For a while, Sullivan was also the resident guitarist for a couple of British television series; Top of the Pops, Ready, Steady, Go and The Saturday Club.
In the 1960s, Jim learned to play the sitar, having been inspired by attending a recording session for Indian classical musician Vilayat Khan. He released an album of Indian-style recordings under his own name, "Sitar Beat" (1967), and one as Lord Sita", "Lord Sitar", in 1968.
He was often to be found at George Harrison's Esher home where he regularly visited to practise on the instrument.
Later in the 1960s and 1970s, he continued to play on a succession of hit records including those by The Walker Brothers, Donovan, David Bowie - he played the banjo, guitar and sitar on Bowie's first album which was released in 1967 - The New Seekers, Thunderclap Newman, Love Affair, Long John Baldry, Marmalade, and the Small Faces.
In 1968 he played on George Harrison's Wonderwall.
He directed and played on Amazing Blondel's first album in 1969, and in the same year played on the album "Sound of Sunforest" - by English psychedelic folk group, Sunforest - and the track Overture To The Sun from this album, was used in the film A Clockwork Orange.
In 1969, after spending more than a decade in the recording studio, Big Jim Sullivan decided to hit the road to support Tom Jones—on tour, and then later for his residency in Las Vegas and on his subsequent television show.
During his time in Las Vegas, with Jones, Jim came face to face with a personal hero of his: Elvis Presley. After their initial meeting where, according to Sullivan, they “sat up for a couple of days chatting and drinking,” the two men struck up a real friendship that lasted until Presley’s death in 1977.
“I think I had more experience of life in the five years working with Tom [Jones] than I did all the rest of my life put together,” Big Jim said in 2006.
Sullivan was an innovator of the Talk-Box, which he demonstrated on Jones' TV show. He released an instrumental album "Sullivan Plays O'Sullivan" (1971) and was also featured giving guitar lessons on the Bay City Rollers' TV series Shang A Lang.
Producer Derek Lawrence, assembled a group of musicians - in 1971 - with whom he had worked in the 1960s. Guitarist Albert Lee had been working with Lawrence as a session player, and the original idea had been to record with former Screaming Lord Sutch bassist Tony Dangerfield. However, the sessions did not work out, so the pair decided to invite other session musicians and Sutch alumni and record a studio jam. The resulting album and the name the "band" recorded it under, was Green Bullfrog, and yes, I have got it. Albert Lee and Big Jim, plus Richie, on the same album, how could I not? Like most of these things though, what seemed a good idea at the time turned into a decidedly mediocre album. It's also known as "Natural Magic".
The full band was:
"Speedy" (Ian Paice) – drums
"Sleepy" (Chas Hodges) – bass
"Bevy" (Tony Ashton) – piano/organ
"Sorry" (Matthew Fisher) – piano
"Boots" (Ritchie Blackmore) – guitar
"Pinta" (Albert Lee) – guitar
"The Boss" (Big Jim Sullivan) – guitar
"The Vicar" (Rod Alexander) – guitar
"Jordan" (Earl Jordan) – vocals
Still in 1971, he played in the Jean-Claude Vannier Orchestra for Serge Gainsbourg's Histoire de Melody Nelson, having previously (1969) played on Serge Gainsbourg's and Jane Birkin's "Je T'aime… Moi Non Plus".
Also, somehow he found the time from somewhere to play on Frank Zappa's 200 Motels in 1971.
In 1972, he wrote arrangements for the orchestral version of The Who's Tommy.
In 1976 he composed the score for an episode of the science fiction series, Space: 1999 ("The Troubled Spirit"), in which he also appeared and performed part of the score onscreen, as a crew member giving a Coral Sitar concert.
Everybody loves a bit of fab and groovy space music, man, and for €815 you can still purchase an updated (Danelectro) version of that original Vincent Bell Coral Electric Sitar
In 1974, Sullivan had teamed up with record producer, Derek Lawrence, to form the record label, Retreat Records. One album release was Big Jim's Back (1975).
He also fronted a band called Tiger, which through its short history, consisted of Nicky Moore (Samson, Mammoth) and Les Walker (Warm Dust) on vocals, Percy Jones (Soft Machine, Brand X) and Mo Foster (Affinity, Mike D'Abo) on bass, Simon Phillips (Gary Moore, Gordon Giltrap) and Billy Rankin (Zal Band, Nazareth)on drums, Dave Lawson (Stackridge, Greenslade) and Alan Park (Beggar's Opera, Bliss Band) on keyboard, and Sullivan on guitar. They were a mixture of Prog, Jazz fusion, and straight-ahead rock and the band recorded three albums—Tiger, Goin’ Down Laughing, and Test of Time—to little commercial success, and their record label, EMI, even refused to release the final album. Sullivan disbanded Tiger in 1978 after the third album was shelved. It was later to reappear under the banner of "The Big Jim Sullivan Band," in 1983.
Retreat Records also produced other artists. Amongst them were Labi Siffre, Chas & Dave and McGuinness Flint.
Sullivan produced and arranged Siffre's "I Got The ...", sampled by Eminem. Lawrence and Sullivan went to the United States during this period, to produce the glam metal band, Angel.
In 1978, he became part of the James Last Orchestra for nine years, which is the only time I actually saw him live. Only 3 musicians out of the whole orchestra got a "solo," that night, and Jim, of course, was one of them. The others, just for the sake of completeness were Barry Reeves, a totally insane (and insanely good) drummer, and Benny Bendorf, the bass player, who got to sing "Silly Love Songs."
I am forever indebted to my late father for tricking me into not attending the James Last gig, and somehow convincing me to pay for my own ticket. My excuse is that it was early on a Saturday morning, and I was in bed, still asleep when he caught me. Apparently, my grunts were interpreted as a resounding "Yes, dad".
TECHNICAL BIT FOR GUITARISTS...
In 1992, Sullivan was approached by independent guitar maker Patrick Eggle who produced a Big Jim Sullivan Legend Model using specifications provided by the guitarist. Big Jim prized this guitar for its versatility and used it almost exclusively for the rest of his life. The guitar itself bears many similarities to a Paul Reed Smith SE with an added Axon AX100 SB guitar-to-MIDI controller, which Sullivan appreciated for its ability to give him a wide range of sounds.
...END OF TECHNICAL BIT
Big Jim later formed a duo with guitarist/singer/songwriter Duncan McKenzie, plus a rhythm section of Malcolm Mortimer and Pete Shaw. McKenzie is no slouch on guitar himself - having studied with guitar maestro Robert Fripp - and he performs a brilliant solo version of Amazing Grace on his 1932 National Steel guitar.
Sorry about the quality of this clip featuring the above lineup but I think it's more than worthy of inclusion, drop-outs and all. If you can't take it, I've included the album version afterwards, but it's not as exciting as the live rendition.
They played together for many years; you can find some of their stuff on YouTube, and they made one album to my knowledge, "Aquila".
In later years Jim was happy to stick with session work and other projects which interested him, and gave him pleasure. “I worked with Van Morrison and I came to realize that money can’t make a decent human being out of you. Here is a man worth 50 million pounds and is as unhappy a person as I have ever seen…” said Jim, of Van The (grumpy old) Man.
Jim made sure he never fell into the same trap. “My whole life is geared to play guitar. I play what I want when I want and I hope the listener gets as much pleasure listening to the music as I get playing it.”
Sadly, Big Jim passed away in 2012, aged 71, those words having already summed up his outlook perfectly.
Once more, I apologise for the "list-like" content of this article, but there was so much to fit in and there was nothing I'd typed out that could be edited out, but there were huge swathes I missed too. It's also been very difficult to choose recordings to accompany this because a large percentage of Jim's work was backing up other, more famous, stars. I've tried to give you a "feel" for his playing, and showcase his versatility too as best I could.
Jim was a giant and a genuine master of his trade and a genuine guitar hero of mine.
I'll leave you with one more song. and two actual lists.
The song is Dave Berry's "The Crying Game," which was released in 1964, and features Big Jim on lead, and Little Jim on rhythm guitar. On it, Big Jim plays what is one of my favourite breaks of all time - I consider it to be as close to musical perfection as one can get - and although I was only 10 years old when it was released it was one of the first "pop" songs I liked, but only later did I realise that the reason I fell in love with it was because of Jim, rather than (the excellent) Dave Berry.
They say you never forget your first, well, this was my first Jim.
And now those lists, the first of which is far from complete.
Some of Jim's more "notable" recordings...
1959 Marty Wilde – "Bad Boy"
1961 KrewKats – "Trambone" "Samovar" "Peak Hour" "Jack's Good" "The Bat"
1961 Michael Cox – "Sweet Little Sixteen"
1962 John Barry – "James Bond Theme" (Vic Flick played lead guitar but Sullivan played on the record and devised the walking-step introduction)
1962 Tony Hatch – "Out of This World"
1963 Bern Elliott and the Fenmen – "Money (That's What I Want)"
1964 P.J. Proby – "Hold Me" and "Together"
1964 Dave Berry – "The Crying Game"
1964 Freddie and the Dreamers – "I Love You Baby"
1964 Simon Scott – "Move It Baby"
1964 Françoise Hardy – "Je n'attends plus personne"
1965 Gerry & The Pacemakers – "Ferry Cross the Mersey"
1965 Donovan – "Catch the Wind" and "Colours" (The album tracks, not the original singles)
1965 Eddy Mitchell – "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (with Jimmy Page)
1966 Joe Loss – "A Shot in the Dark" (Henry Mancini cover)
1967 Clinton Ford – "El Paso"
1967 The Truth – "Walk Away Renee"
1968 Johnny Hallyday – "A Tout Casser"
1968 Anita Harris – "Dream A Little Dream of Me"
1969 David Bowie – "A Space Oddity"
1971 Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson
1971 Cliff Richard – "Silvery Rain"
1972 Julie Felix – "Clotho's Web"
1972 Gilbert O'Sullivan – "Alone Again (Naturally)"
1972 Tom Jones – "The Young New Mexican Puppeteer"
1974 Alvin Stardust – "Jealous Mind" and "Guitar Star"
1977 The Walker Brothers – "Shutout" "The Electrician" (from their album Nite Flights)
And, finally, the Number One singles to which Jim contributed...
1961 Petula Clark – "Sailor"
1961 Eden Kane – "Well I Ask You"
1961 Danny Williams – "Moon River"
1961 Frankie Vaughan – "Tower of Strength"
1962 Mike Sarne – "Come Outside"
1962 Frank Ifield – "I Remember You"
1962 Frank Ifield – "Lovesick Blues"
1963 Frank Ifield – "Wayward Wind"
1963 Frank Ifield – "Confessin'"
1964 The Bachelors – "Diane"
1964 Cilla Black – "Anyone Who Had a Heart"
1964 Peter & Gordon – "A World Without Love"
1964 The Four Pennies – "Juliet"
1964 Cilla Black – "You're My World"
1964 Georgie Fame – "Yeh Yeh"
1965 The Seekers – "I'll Never Find Another You"
1965 Tom Jones – "It's Not Unusual" (not the main guitar)
1965 Jackie Trent – "Where Are You Now (My Love)"
1965 Sandie Shaw – "Long Live Love"
1965 The Walker Brothers – "Make It Easy on Yourself"
1965 Ken Dodd – "Tears"
1965 The Seekers – "The Carnival Is Over"
1966 The Overlanders – "Michelle"
1966 The Walker Brothers – "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore"
1966 Dusty Springfield – "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me"
1966 Chris Farlowe – "Out of Time"
1966 Tom Jones – "Green, Green Grass of Home"
1967 Engelbert Humperdinck – "Release Me"
1967 Sandie Shaw – "Puppet on a String"
1967 Engelbert Humperdinck – "The Last Waltz"
1967 Long John Baldry – "Let The Heartaches Begin"
1968 Esther and Abi Ofarim – "Cinderella Rockafella"
1968 Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich – "The Legend of Xanadu"
1968 Des O'Connor – "I Pretend"
1968 The Scaffold – "Lily The Pink"
1968 Marmalade – "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"
1969 Thunderclap Newman – "Something in the Air"
1969 Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg – "Je t'aime... moi non-plus"
1969 Rolf Harris – "Two Little Boys"
1970 Dana – "All Kinds of Everything"
1971 Middle of the Road – "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep"
1971 Benny Hill – "Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West)"
1971 New Seekers – "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing"
1972 Gilbert O'Sullivan – "Clair"
1973 Gilbert O'Sullivan – "Get Down"
1973 Peters and Lee – "Welcome Home"
1973 New Seekers – "You Won't Find Another Fool Like Me"
1974 Alvin Stardust – "Jealous Mind"
1975 Pilot – "January"
I've even forgiven him for "2 Little Boys".
P.S.
Totally irrelevant fact: Many years ago I remember reading in the New Musical Express that the "whip" sound in DDDBM&T's "Legend of Xanadu" was achieved by scraping a coke-bottle-top down the guitar strings and after many years I found out it was Jim's hand holding that bottle top. That's how young I was when trivia of all sorts started filling my head, leaving little room for anything else. Honestly, who remembers something they once read in the NME in 1968? Oh, yes, me.
Quite possibly the most successful guitarist you've never heard of but have undoubtedly heard countless times.
A British guitar legend and I don't use the "L" word lightly. He was the absolute top session guitarist in the sixties and seventies, and the guy other session guitarists learned from, and more often than not, wanted to be.
QUICK FACT CHECK: Big Jim appeared on 0ver 750 singles that reached the charts during his career, including 54 Number Ones.
I think that sorts his pedigree out.
Big Jim Sullivan was born James George Tomkins on February 14, 1941, in Uxbridge, Middlesex, England. His mother died when he was just 2 years old, and his grandparents raised him until he moved in with his aunt and uncle as a teenager.
When he was young (he started learning guitar aged 14 and it took him a whole 2 years to turn pro) he played with Sid Gilbert and the Clay County Boys, a Western swing group, Johnny Duncan's Blue Grass Boys, Vince Taylor & the Playboys, Janice Peters & the Playboys, and the Vince Eager Band.
Jim also gave guitar lessons to a near-neighbour, a kid named Ritchie Blackmore, and Richie had this to say about him:
“I first met Jim Sullivan in 1958. He was introduced to me by my sister-in-law’s brother. We both lived in the same area: Middlesex, Cranford.
He was playing with Marty Wilde and the Wildcats. He showed me another level of playing. He was probably the most advanced guitarist in the London area. I would listen to the radio every week, there was a Marty Wilde show. Jim was often featured on the show so I was glued to the radio. He also made some great instrumentals. One being "Trambone", written by Chet Atkins, and another was "Peak Hour.
He was the first guitarist to play through a wah-wah pedal. It was a DeAmond foot volume and tone control. I remember an instrumental called The Bat, where he used the pedal. That would’ve been around 1959. Last time I saw Jim was in LA where he was playing with Tom Jones. He was one of England’s finest players, a mentor and a good friend to me. His playing will always be in my heart and will live on.
God bless you, Jim.”
In 1956, Sullivan had been playing the guitar only a year when he was invited to join a band called The Soho Group. The group played mostly coffee houses around London such as the Troubadour at Earl’s Court and the Two I’s to small crowds of mostly fellow musicians. It was at the Two I’s that Sullivan first ran into Marty Wilde front man for the up-and-coming group, The Wildcats. Wilde was impressed with Sullivan’s playing and asked his drummer and bassist to inquire whether Sullivan might be interested in joining up with them. Sullivan was interested and played with The Wildcats all across England, including opening up for rock legends Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent for a number of dates. “The Wildcats were at home with Eddie on and off the stage,” Sullivan once said. “Although he was only 21 himself, we looked up to him as a guide. He used to amaze us with his dexterity, both in country and blues.”
In 1958, Jim entered the recording studio for the first time to lay down some tracks with The Wildcats. In anticipation of these sessions, Wilde gave Jim a new guitar to play, a 1955 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop, thought to be the first Les Paul in England.
“It belonged to a gospel singer called Sister Rosetta Tharpe,” Sullivan recalled. “Marty bought it from her in the mid-’50s. I used this guitar until 1959 when American guitars were allowed to be imported into this country.”
Next, Jim went to Ivor Mairants Musicentre in London and laid down £300 on a cherry-red 1958 Gibson ES-345, which became his main axe throughout the early ’60s. In 1965, Sullivan decided to part ways with this guitar and sold it for £200 to Johnny Hallyday’s lead guitarist. It was around this time that Sullivan began a long endorsement period with Rickenbacker and used a variety of their guitars throughout the rest of the 1960s and ’70s.
Of course, Big Jim Sullivan wasn’t always known as “Big Jim.” It was the entrance of a young man named James Patrick Page into the session world that necessitated the nickname in order to differentiate one Jim from the other. “I’ll always remember the first time I met Jimmy [Page],” Sullivan recalled. “We had a session at Decca Studios for Dave Berry. It was the session for ‘My Baby Left Me’ and Jimmy played lead guitar and I played rhythm. I remember the great solo that he did on that session— it is one of the best-constructed rock solos on record.”
After that first session, Sullivan and Page would go on to play together numerous times and became fast friends. “The number of recordings we did together was amazing, and when he said he and John [-Paul Jones] were going to leave, he said I should join them too.” History holds that Sullivan did not join the two members of Led Zeppelin, however, he did loan Page a Gibson J-200 acoustic that Page used extensively on the first two Led Zeppelin albums.
Back to Big Jim, though. He played on the first records in the UK to use a wah-wah effect including Dave Berry's 1964 hit "The Crying Game," (more of which later) with Little Jim on rhythm. He also played on the first record in the UK to use a fuzzbox, which he had borrowed from session guitarist Eric Ford, on P.J. Proby's 1964 hit "Hold Me".
This is starting to turn into a "lists" post, but that's unavoidable with Jim, I'm afraid.
In the early 1960s, he also played on hits by Billy Fury, Frank Ifield, Adam Faith, Frankie Vaughan, Helen Shapiro, Johnny Hallyday, Freddie and the Dreamers, Cilla Black, Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Dusty Springfield and others.
He played guitar on Alexis Korner's and Blues Incorporated's album "R&B from the Marquee" in 1962 and Georgie Fame's first album, "Rhythm & Blues at the Flamingo", in 1964.
In addition to playing on many UK albums Sullivan played on the Everly Brothers' 1963 live album at Olympia, Bobby Darin's 1966 live album "Something Special", Little Richard's 1966 album "Get Down With It: The OKeh Sessions" and Del Shannon's 1967 album, "Home and Away".
For a while, Sullivan was also the resident guitarist for a couple of British television series; Top of the Pops, Ready, Steady, Go and The Saturday Club.
In the 1960s, Jim learned to play the sitar, having been inspired by attending a recording session for Indian classical musician Vilayat Khan. He released an album of Indian-style recordings under his own name, "Sitar Beat" (1967), and one as Lord Sita", "Lord Sitar", in 1968.
He was often to be found at George Harrison's Esher home where he regularly visited to practise on the instrument.
Later in the 1960s and 1970s, he continued to play on a succession of hit records including those by The Walker Brothers, Donovan, David Bowie - he played the banjo, guitar and sitar on Bowie's first album which was released in 1967 - The New Seekers, Thunderclap Newman, Love Affair, Long John Baldry, Marmalade, and the Small Faces.
In 1968 he played on George Harrison's Wonderwall.
He directed and played on Amazing Blondel's first album in 1969, and in the same year played on the album "Sound of Sunforest" - by English psychedelic folk group, Sunforest - and the track Overture To The Sun from this album, was used in the film A Clockwork Orange.
In 1969, after spending more than a decade in the recording studio, Big Jim Sullivan decided to hit the road to support Tom Jones—on tour, and then later for his residency in Las Vegas and on his subsequent television show.
During his time in Las Vegas, with Jones, Jim came face to face with a personal hero of his: Elvis Presley. After their initial meeting where, according to Sullivan, they “sat up for a couple of days chatting and drinking,” the two men struck up a real friendship that lasted until Presley’s death in 1977.
“I think I had more experience of life in the five years working with Tom [Jones] than I did all the rest of my life put together,” Big Jim said in 2006.
Sullivan was an innovator of the Talk-Box, which he demonstrated on Jones' TV show. He released an instrumental album "Sullivan Plays O'Sullivan" (1971) and was also featured giving guitar lessons on the Bay City Rollers' TV series Shang A Lang.
Producer Derek Lawrence, assembled a group of musicians - in 1971 - with whom he had worked in the 1960s. Guitarist Albert Lee had been working with Lawrence as a session player, and the original idea had been to record with former Screaming Lord Sutch bassist Tony Dangerfield. However, the sessions did not work out, so the pair decided to invite other session musicians and Sutch alumni and record a studio jam. The resulting album and the name the "band" recorded it under, was Green Bullfrog, and yes, I have got it. Albert Lee and Big Jim, plus Richie, on the same album, how could I not? Like most of these things though, what seemed a good idea at the time turned into a decidedly mediocre album. It's also known as "Natural Magic".
The full band was:
"Speedy" (Ian Paice) – drums
"Sleepy" (Chas Hodges) – bass
"Bevy" (Tony Ashton) – piano/organ
"Sorry" (Matthew Fisher) – piano
"Boots" (Ritchie Blackmore) – guitar
"Pinta" (Albert Lee) – guitar
"The Boss" (Big Jim Sullivan) – guitar
"The Vicar" (Rod Alexander) – guitar
"Jordan" (Earl Jordan) – vocals
Still in 1971, he played in the Jean-Claude Vannier Orchestra for Serge Gainsbourg's Histoire de Melody Nelson, having previously (1969) played on Serge Gainsbourg's and Jane Birkin's "Je T'aime… Moi Non Plus".
Also, somehow he found the time from somewhere to play on Frank Zappa's 200 Motels in 1971.
In 1972, he wrote arrangements for the orchestral version of The Who's Tommy.
In 1976 he composed the score for an episode of the science fiction series, Space: 1999 ("The Troubled Spirit"), in which he also appeared and performed part of the score onscreen, as a crew member giving a Coral Sitar concert.
Everybody loves a bit of fab and groovy space music, man, and for €815 you can still purchase an updated (Danelectro) version of that original Vincent Bell Coral Electric Sitar
In 1974, Sullivan had teamed up with record producer, Derek Lawrence, to form the record label, Retreat Records. One album release was Big Jim's Back (1975).
He also fronted a band called Tiger, which through its short history, consisted of Nicky Moore (Samson, Mammoth) and Les Walker (Warm Dust) on vocals, Percy Jones (Soft Machine, Brand X) and Mo Foster (Affinity, Mike D'Abo) on bass, Simon Phillips (Gary Moore, Gordon Giltrap) and Billy Rankin (Zal Band, Nazareth)on drums, Dave Lawson (Stackridge, Greenslade) and Alan Park (Beggar's Opera, Bliss Band) on keyboard, and Sullivan on guitar. They were a mixture of Prog, Jazz fusion, and straight-ahead rock and the band recorded three albums—Tiger, Goin’ Down Laughing, and Test of Time—to little commercial success, and their record label, EMI, even refused to release the final album. Sullivan disbanded Tiger in 1978 after the third album was shelved. It was later to reappear under the banner of "The Big Jim Sullivan Band," in 1983.
Retreat Records also produced other artists. Amongst them were Labi Siffre, Chas & Dave and McGuinness Flint.
Sullivan produced and arranged Siffre's "I Got The ...", sampled by Eminem. Lawrence and Sullivan went to the United States during this period, to produce the glam metal band, Angel.
In 1978, he became part of the James Last Orchestra for nine years, which is the only time I actually saw him live. Only 3 musicians out of the whole orchestra got a "solo," that night, and Jim, of course, was one of them. The others, just for the sake of completeness were Barry Reeves, a totally insane (and insanely good) drummer, and Benny Bendorf, the bass player, who got to sing "Silly Love Songs."
I am forever indebted to my late father for tricking me into not attending the James Last gig, and somehow convincing me to pay for my own ticket. My excuse is that it was early on a Saturday morning, and I was in bed, still asleep when he caught me. Apparently, my grunts were interpreted as a resounding "Yes, dad".
TECHNICAL BIT FOR GUITARISTS...
In 1992, Sullivan was approached by independent guitar maker Patrick Eggle who produced a Big Jim Sullivan Legend Model using specifications provided by the guitarist. Big Jim prized this guitar for its versatility and used it almost exclusively for the rest of his life. The guitar itself bears many similarities to a Paul Reed Smith SE with an added Axon AX100 SB guitar-to-MIDI controller, which Sullivan appreciated for its ability to give him a wide range of sounds.
...END OF TECHNICAL BIT
Big Jim later formed a duo with guitarist/singer/songwriter Duncan McKenzie, plus a rhythm section of Malcolm Mortimer and Pete Shaw. McKenzie is no slouch on guitar himself - having studied with guitar maestro Robert Fripp - and he performs a brilliant solo version of Amazing Grace on his 1932 National Steel guitar.
Sorry about the quality of this clip featuring the above lineup but I think it's more than worthy of inclusion, drop-outs and all. If you can't take it, I've included the album version afterwards, but it's not as exciting as the live rendition.
They played together for many years; you can find some of their stuff on YouTube, and they made one album to my knowledge, "Aquila".
In later years Jim was happy to stick with session work and other projects which interested him, and gave him pleasure. “I worked with Van Morrison and I came to realize that money can’t make a decent human being out of you. Here is a man worth 50 million pounds and is as unhappy a person as I have ever seen…” said Jim, of Van The (grumpy old) Man.
Jim made sure he never fell into the same trap. “My whole life is geared to play guitar. I play what I want when I want and I hope the listener gets as much pleasure listening to the music as I get playing it.”
Sadly, Big Jim passed away in 2012, aged 71, those words having already summed up his outlook perfectly.
Once more, I apologise for the "list-like" content of this article, but there was so much to fit in and there was nothing I'd typed out that could be edited out, but there were huge swathes I missed too. It's also been very difficult to choose recordings to accompany this because a large percentage of Jim's work was backing up other, more famous, stars. I've tried to give you a "feel" for his playing, and showcase his versatility too as best I could.
Jim was a giant and a genuine master of his trade and a genuine guitar hero of mine.
I'll leave you with one more song. and two actual lists.
The song is Dave Berry's "The Crying Game," which was released in 1964, and features Big Jim on lead, and Little Jim on rhythm guitar. On it, Big Jim plays what is one of my favourite breaks of all time - I consider it to be as close to musical perfection as one can get - and although I was only 10 years old when it was released it was one of the first "pop" songs I liked, but only later did I realise that the reason I fell in love with it was because of Jim, rather than (the excellent) Dave Berry.
They say you never forget your first, well, this was my first Jim.
And now those lists, the first of which is far from complete.
Some of Jim's more "notable" recordings...
1959 Marty Wilde – "Bad Boy"
1961 KrewKats – "Trambone" "Samovar" "Peak Hour" "Jack's Good" "The Bat"
1961 Michael Cox – "Sweet Little Sixteen"
1962 John Barry – "James Bond Theme" (Vic Flick played lead guitar but Sullivan played on the record and devised the walking-step introduction)
1962 Tony Hatch – "Out of This World"
1963 Bern Elliott and the Fenmen – "Money (That's What I Want)"
1964 P.J. Proby – "Hold Me" and "Together"
1964 Dave Berry – "The Crying Game"
1964 Freddie and the Dreamers – "I Love You Baby"
1964 Simon Scott – "Move It Baby"
1964 Françoise Hardy – "Je n'attends plus personne"
1965 Gerry & The Pacemakers – "Ferry Cross the Mersey"
1965 Donovan – "Catch the Wind" and "Colours" (The album tracks, not the original singles)
1965 Eddy Mitchell – "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (with Jimmy Page)
1966 Joe Loss – "A Shot in the Dark" (Henry Mancini cover)
1967 Clinton Ford – "El Paso"
1967 The Truth – "Walk Away Renee"
1968 Johnny Hallyday – "A Tout Casser"
1968 Anita Harris – "Dream A Little Dream of Me"
1969 David Bowie – "A Space Oddity"
1971 Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson
1971 Cliff Richard – "Silvery Rain"
1972 Julie Felix – "Clotho's Web"
1972 Gilbert O'Sullivan – "Alone Again (Naturally)"
1972 Tom Jones – "The Young New Mexican Puppeteer"
1974 Alvin Stardust – "Jealous Mind" and "Guitar Star"
1977 The Walker Brothers – "Shutout" "The Electrician" (from their album Nite Flights)
And, finally, the Number One singles to which Jim contributed...
1961 Petula Clark – "Sailor"
1961 Eden Kane – "Well I Ask You"
1961 Danny Williams – "Moon River"
1961 Frankie Vaughan – "Tower of Strength"
1962 Mike Sarne – "Come Outside"
1962 Frank Ifield – "I Remember You"
1962 Frank Ifield – "Lovesick Blues"
1963 Frank Ifield – "Wayward Wind"
1963 Frank Ifield – "Confessin'"
1964 The Bachelors – "Diane"
1964 Cilla Black – "Anyone Who Had a Heart"
1964 Peter & Gordon – "A World Without Love"
1964 The Four Pennies – "Juliet"
1964 Cilla Black – "You're My World"
1964 Georgie Fame – "Yeh Yeh"
1965 The Seekers – "I'll Never Find Another You"
1965 Tom Jones – "It's Not Unusual" (not the main guitar)
1965 Jackie Trent – "Where Are You Now (My Love)"
1965 Sandie Shaw – "Long Live Love"
1965 The Walker Brothers – "Make It Easy on Yourself"
1965 Ken Dodd – "Tears"
1965 The Seekers – "The Carnival Is Over"
1966 The Overlanders – "Michelle"
1966 The Walker Brothers – "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore"
1966 Dusty Springfield – "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me"
1966 Chris Farlowe – "Out of Time"
1966 Tom Jones – "Green, Green Grass of Home"
1967 Engelbert Humperdinck – "Release Me"
1967 Sandie Shaw – "Puppet on a String"
1967 Engelbert Humperdinck – "The Last Waltz"
1967 Long John Baldry – "Let The Heartaches Begin"
1968 Esther and Abi Ofarim – "Cinderella Rockafella"
1968 Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich – "The Legend of Xanadu"
1968 Des O'Connor – "I Pretend"
1968 The Scaffold – "Lily The Pink"
1968 Marmalade – "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"
1969 Thunderclap Newman – "Something in the Air"
1969 Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg – "Je t'aime... moi non-plus"
1969 Rolf Harris – "Two Little Boys"
1970 Dana – "All Kinds of Everything"
1971 Middle of the Road – "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep"
1971 Benny Hill – "Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West)"
1971 New Seekers – "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing"
1972 Gilbert O'Sullivan – "Clair"
1973 Gilbert O'Sullivan – "Get Down"
1973 Peters and Lee – "Welcome Home"
1973 New Seekers – "You Won't Find Another Fool Like Me"
1974 Alvin Stardust – "Jealous Mind"
1975 Pilot – "January"
I've even forgiven him for "2 Little Boys".
P.S.
Totally irrelevant fact: Many years ago I remember reading in the New Musical Express that the "whip" sound in DDDBM&T's "Legend of Xanadu" was achieved by scraping a coke-bottle-top down the guitar strings and after many years I found out it was Jim's hand holding that bottle top. That's how young I was when trivia of all sorts started filling my head, leaving little room for anything else. Honestly, who remembers something they once read in the NME in 1968? Oh, yes, me.
