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John Helliwell

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John Helliwell
Helliwell performing in 2011
Helliwell performing in 2011
Background information
Birth nameJohn Anthony Helliwell
Born (1945-02-15) 15 February 1945 (age 77)
Todmorden, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
GenresRock
Occupation(s)Musician
Instrument(s)
  • Saxophone
  • clarinet
  • keyboards
Websitejohnhelliwell.com

John Anthony Helliwell (born 15 February 1945) is an English musician, best known as the saxophonist, secondary keyboardist, backing vocalist, and occasional songwriter for the rock band Supertramp.[1] He also served as an MC during the band's concerts, talking and making jokes to the audience between songs.

Helliwell played with The Alan Bown Set, replacing Dave Green when he joined in January 1966,[2] before joining Supertramp in 1973 along with bassist Dougie Thomson, who convinced Helliwell to make the move. In 2004, Helliwell formed the band Crème Anglaise with Mark Hart, who had joined Supertramp in 1985. This group recorded their eponymous debut album in 2005.

In 1987 Helliwell played on Pink Floyd's album A Momentary Lapse of Reason; his name was misspelled as "Halliwell".[3] This was after Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour had played on Supertramp's album Brother Where You Bound. Helliwell also played on French singer Jean-Jacques Goldman's 1985 album Positif, and clarinet on Sara Hickman's 1990 album Shortstop.

During a professional lull in the 1990s, Helliwell began studying for a music degree at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, but he discontinued his studies to join Supertramp on tour when Some Things Never Change was released. In 2004 he contributed saxophone work on the Simon Apple album River to the Sea.[4]

Helliwell contributed clarinet to The Pineapple Thief's song "Fend For Yourself" from their Your Wilderness album which was released in 2016.[5]

Helliwell fronts the Super Big Tramp Band, which has a jazz big band line-up of trumpets, trombones, saxophones and rhythm section. It plays versions of Supertramp tunes, arranged by members of the band, with no vocals, but with Helliwell as the chief soloist. The band first played in Manchester in June 2013.[6] In 2019 the band played at the Manchester Jazz Festival[7] in May and was scheduled to play in Hull and Hamburg later in the year.[8]

In October 2020, Helliwell released Ever Open Door, a CD album of ballads with Helliwell on saxophone and clarinet, with a string quartet and Hammond organ.

Discover more about John Helliwell related topics

Master of ceremonies

Master of ceremonies

A master of ceremonies, abbreviated MC or emcee, is the official host of a ceremony, staged event, conference, convention, or similar performance.

Dougie Thomson

Dougie Thomson

Douglas 'Doogie' Campbell Thomson is a Scottish musician, born in Glasgow and raised in the Rutherglen area of the city. He was the bass guitarist of progressive rock band Supertramp during much of the seventies and eighties.

Mark Hart

Mark Hart

Mark Hart, is an American musician and multi-instrumentalist best known for being a member of both Supertramp and Crowded House. As well as being a group member, touring and session musician for acts such as Ringo Starr, Hart has composed film scores and is a record producer.

A Momentary Lapse of Reason

A Momentary Lapse of Reason

A Momentary Lapse of Reason is the thirteenth studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in the UK on 7 September 1987 by EMI and the following day in the US on Columbia. It was recorded primarily on guitarist David Gilmour's converted houseboat, Astoria.

David Gilmour

David Gilmour

David Jon Gilmour is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined as guitarist and co-lead vocalist in 1967, shortly before the departure of founding member Syd Barrett. Pink Floyd achieved international success with the concept albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), The Wall (1979), and The Final Cut (1983). By the early 1980s, they had become one of the highest-selling and most acclaimed acts in music history; by 2012, they had sold more than 250 million records worldwide, including 75 million in the United States. Following the departure of Roger Waters in 1985, Pink Floyd continued under Gilmour's leadership and released three more studio albums.

Brother Where You Bound

Brother Where You Bound

Brother Where You Bound is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Supertramp, released in 1985. It was their first album after original member Roger Hodgson left the band, leaving Rick Davies to handle the songwriting and singing on his own. The album features the group's Top 30 hit "Cannonball".

Jean-Jacques Goldman

Jean-Jacques Goldman

Jean-Jacques Goldman is a French singer-songwriter and music record producer. He is hugely popular in the French-speaking world. Since the death of Johnny Hallyday in 2017 he has been the highest grossing living French pop rock act. Born in Paris and active in the music scene since 1975, he had a highly successful solo career in the 1980s, and was part of the trio Fredericks Goldman Jones, releasing another string of hits in the 1990s.

Clarinet

Clarinet

The clarinet is a single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell.

Big band

Big band

A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and dominated jazz in the early 1940s when swing was most popular. The term "big band" is also used to describe a genre of music, although this was not the only style of music played by big bands.

Manchester Jazz Festival

Manchester Jazz Festival

Manchester Jazz Festival is an annual 9-day-long festival focused on showcasing contemporary jazz from the North West of England and beyond.

Kingston upon Hull

Kingston upon Hull

Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, 25 miles (40 km) inland from the North Sea and 37 miles (60 km) south-east of York, the historic county town. With a population of 267,014 (2021), it is the fourth-largest city in the Yorkshire and the Humber region after Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford.

Hamburg

Hamburg

Hamburg, officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, is the second-largest city in Germany after Berlin, as well as the overall 7th largest city and largest non-capital city in the European Union with a population of over 1.85 million. Hamburg is 941 km2 in area. Hamburg's urban area has a population of around 2.5 million and is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, which has a population of over 5.1 million people in total. The city lies on the River Elbe and two of its tributaries, the River Alster and the River Bille. One of Germany's 16 federated states, Hamburg is surrounded by Schleswig-Holstein to the north and Lower Saxony to the south.

Source: "John Helliwell", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2022, December 18th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Helliwell.

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References
  1. ^ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Andrew Leahe. "Supertramp". All Music Guide. Archived from the original on 4 October 2009.
  2. ^ Jeff Bannister (2007). "The Alan Bown Set". Retrieved 1 July 2010.
  3. ^ A Momentary Lapse of Reason
  4. ^ "johnhelliwell.com". johnhelliwell.com. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  5. ^ Ainscoe, Mike (17 July 2016). "THE PINEAPPLE THIEF - YOUR WILDERNESS – album review". louderthanwar.com. Louder Than War. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  6. ^ "RNCM Big Band with Supertramp's John Helliwell - Rob Buckland - Saxophonist". robbuckland.com. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  7. ^ "Big Band Super Tramp featuring John Helliwell". Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  8. ^ "johnhelliwell.com". johnhelliwell.com. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
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