RIP Andy Fraser

aptid · **Joined:** Thu Aug 17, 2006 9:49 pm **Posts:** 1506

Bassist with Free, probably the best bass guitarist of his generation, Mr Big one of my all time favourite riffs.

Hartleblue · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2015 3:11 pm

aptid wrote:

Bassist with Free, probably the best bass guitarist of his generation, Mr Big one of my all time favourite riffs.

Very sad, a fantastic and very underestimated band who wrote some brilliant music. R.I.P.

Malcolm Dawes Knew My Father · **Joined:** Wed May 11, 2011 4:25 pm **Posts:** 4198

Andy was a teenager when he joined Free; still hard to visualize him as anything else.

Great live band with strong Teesside connections in their early days; I saw them for the first time at Redcar Coatham Bowl in about 1969.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1pG3aqC7v0

ElvisC · **Joined:** Mon Aug 15, 2011 9:55 am **Posts:** 4504

Best Bass Guitarist ever, endof, nobody came close. Saw him last year playing with Chris Spedding and he looked ill. As well as his briliant Bass Playing he also wrote two absolute classics in "Every Kinda People" (Robert Palmer) and "Be Good To Yourself" ( Frankie Miller ).

ElvisC · **Joined:** Mon Aug 15, 2011 9:55 am **Posts:** 4504

It'll have been Redcar Jazz Club in 69?!

Malcolm Dawes Knew My Father · **Joined:** Wed May 11, 2011 4:25 pm **Posts:** 4198

Thinking about it ... you'e not wrong.

ElvisC · **Joined:** Mon Aug 15, 2011 9:55 am **Posts:** 4504

Being only young at the time I wasnt there, but I'm well read on Free and their books say how much they loved playing Redcar Jazz Club (Obviously Rodgers Home patch!). Two of the lads from my band play in a Free tribute band and they are really good at portraying their music. We're certainly going to kick off our next set with "The Hunter" and "Wishing Well".

Malcolm Dawes Knew My Father · **Joined:** Wed May 11, 2011 4:25 pm **Posts:** 4198

I was only in my teens myself! Great time to be a schoolboy music fan though, no stupid ticket prices or massive arenas.

demented twig · **Joined:** Mon Feb 20, 2012 10:09 pm **Posts:** 1043

free were probably the first real rock band,and the very best at that,RIP

alibarthez · **Joined:** Tue Nov 25, 2014 10:06 pm **Posts:** 1072

Great band Great music Great Era Great memories.

Montpoolier · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2015 5:39 pm

I love Wishing Well but the bridge spoils it for me. I've no idea where they got the idea from to go all psychedelic for two lines.
"Oh I Wept" gets my vote as their best song. The very essence of mood music. Sublime. Unfortunately all the Youtube versions suffer from really shitty mixing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOh6QRCmPco

born toulouse · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2015 6:06 pm

I hit prime obsessive music listening age during the punk/post punk era and although it was great for getting you to listen to new stuff the year zero attitude to long haired rockers made me ignore a lot of very good stuff for years. Free are a good example and now I can't see why anybody who likes music wouldn't appreciate them.

Having said that I've been trying give Gong some serious listening since Daevid Allen died and although there are some great tracks, like Rational Anthem, there is a lot of evidence that he was a drug addled hippy with limited talent.

RIP Andy Fraser

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