Andy "Thunderclap" Newman (born November 21 1942, died March 20 2016) was a jazz pianist and founder member of Thunderclap Newman, a cobbled together session band whose anthemic Something in the Air was the surprise hit of the summer of 1969.
The band, who went by Newman’s school nickname, was formed by Pete Townshend, guitarist with The Who, and the music impresario Kit Lambert to demo tracks written by the singer/drummer John “Speedy” Keen, Townshend’s occasional chauffeur.
Townshend recruited Newman, a pipe-smoking GPO telephone engineer whom he had known at art school, to play keyboards and Jimmy McCulloch, a 15-year-old Glaswegian guitarist, who later played in Paul McCartney’s Wings. Townshend himself played bass, under the name Bijou Drains, on their only album, Hollywood Dream.
Performing in a trilby, spectacles, braces and bow tie, the bearded Newman provided a dapper counterpoint to his younger long-haired bandmates. He looked like a professor taking his students on a class outing. On his barrelhouse piano, however, he delivered a stomping Dixieland bridge for Something in the Air that blended perfectly with his bandmates’ psychedelic rock.
01 That's What I Like About You
02 Rock Around The Clock
03 After Tonight
04 Water Music
05 Artic Sunset
06 Appalachian Champagne
07 Collage
7.2) Dunn's Bugle Call Blues
7.3) Up the Country Blues
08 Red Skies
09 Oh Baby Take It Away
10 Suzy Wong
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Who knew? Certainly not I, but thanks for bringing it to my attention!
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