Years active 1977–present | Name Russell Webb | |
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Occupation(s) Musician, record producer, composer Instruments Bass guitar, backing vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion Website www.myspace.com/russellwebbmusic Role Musician · myspace.com/russellwebbmusic Albums Similar People | ||
Russell Webb (born 1958 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish new wave bass guitarist who was member of bands like Slik, PVC2 (both with Midge Ure), Zones, Skids, The Armoury Show and Public Image Ltd, and collaborated with Richard Jobson and Virginia Astley and The Who.
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Slik and PVC2
In 1977, future Ultravox and Live Aid face, guitarist and singer Midge Ure, drummer Kenny Hyslop, keyboardist Billy McIsaac and bassist Jim McGinlay had commercial successes as a band, named Slik, of different styles like glam and soft rock and bubblegum pop, playing since 1975 different promising songs such as "Forever And Ever" and "Requiem", but punk rock originated their falling, so McGinlay left in early 1977. Webb, who recently dropped out of university, replaced him and Slik changed their name to PVC2 and also their musical style to punk. It is unknown if McGinlay left or Webb replaced him when the band made those changes. PVC2 released one single, "Put You in the Picture", in 1977.
Zones
By late 1977/early 1978, Webb and the rest of PVC2 called Alex Harvey's cousin Willie Gardner to replace Ure, who went to join Glen Matlock's Rich Kids, and founded Zones. This band released singles during 1978 and 1979 and one album called "Under Influence" in the latter year. The Zones failed to get success and split up shortly afterwards.
Skids
Without Kenny Hyslop and Billy McIsaac, he joined Skids halfway through their career in February 1980, replacing co-founding member William Simpson. Webb performed on the last two Skids albums, The Absolute Game released in 1980 and 1981s Joy. During that time, he was collaborating with Jobson's solo career and engineering The Who's new recordings, which were incomplete because that band split up.
The Armoury Show
After Skids broke up, he and Jobson along with guitarist John McGeoch (formerly of Magazine and Siouxsie and the Banshees) and drummer John Doyle (also of Magazine) formed The Armoury Show in 1983. They only recorded one album in their brief existence called Waiting for the Floods, which was critically acclaimed but a commercial letdown. The band released more singles until 1988, when they broke up. The Armoury Show recorded a second album for Parlophone which was to feature a song entitled "I Will Find You" sung by Webb; however, Jobson and Webb decided to disband the group before the album could be released. Following a discussion with Jobson and Clive Black of Parlophone, Webb agreed to allow the album to be issued under Jobson's name, entitled Badman.
Public Image Ltd
In mid-to-end 1992, Webb joined John Lydon's post-Sex Pistols band, Public Image Ltd, replacing bassist Allan Dias.
After popular music career
After PiL, Webb formed his own band called The Ring, which toured Europe opening for Jery Harrison of Talking Heads in promotion of his second solo album Casual Gods in 1988 but no commercial success followed. Webb retired from performing to be a board game designer. Following a discussion with Richard Branson at the latter's knighthood party at his private club The Roof Gardens in Kensington, Branson agreed to take Webb's first board game (4 years in the making) entitled Lost to Necker Island for playtesting with his family and children. The playtesting was a success, but the game failed to proceed into commercial production, instead becoming the initial inspiration for JJ Abrams' hit TV show Lost, for which Webb was never credited. Webb continued to work on various projects with his Armoury Show associate, John McGeoch, until the death of the latter in 2004.
Webb currently contributes music to dramas by Blue Hours Productions, a company specializing in retro horror/sci-fi/fantasy drama for radio and the Internet.
He currently lives in England.