Biography of Steve Berry

A late starter (my family bought a record player when I was 12, just so they could play the single of Amazing Grace - played on the bagpipes....), my route to double bass began on violin, then detoured via guitar, then bass guitar. Double bass became an inevitability after hearing Palle Danielsson and Danny Thompson (on record), along with Chris Laurence and Ron Matthewson (on the radio). Chris became my first bass teacher, helping me to tame that first, and fondly remembered, shiny yellow plywood block of musical concrete that I called a bass.

Soon after there followed a real bass (made of wood!), and more tuition from the likes of Daryl Runswick, Dave Holland & - heroes all. I am ever mindful of their help and ongoing inspiration.

Anyway, here comes the inevitable list, of some of the musicians I have variously toured and/or recorded with this past twenty years. It includes: All the people with me in Loose Tubes (Batchelor, Bates, Ballamy, Buckley.. in fact a long & distinguished list of 20 or more people who continue to leave their creative mark), then in no particular order; Mike & Kate Westbrook, Ute Lemper, Lew Tabakin, Jessica Williams, John Surman, Kathryn Tickell, Dagmar Kraus, Mike Walker, Ian Carr, Billy Jenkins, Art Farmer, Tal Farlow, Scott Hamilton, Nikki Iles, Anthony Kerr, Paul Clarvis, Peter Fairclough, Dick Morrissey...........and early on there was a certain amount of touring theatre and musicals, including West Side Story, Blues in the Night, and who could ever forget - Happy As A Sandbag..................well I'm trying to!

I almost forgot, somewhere in there I took up 'cello too, my finest hour on that instrument coming courtesy of Mr Django Bates, and his uniquely brilliant suite of pieces that toured and recorded as the Powder Room Collapse Orchestra, the work in question being The Third Policeman. Well worth a listen. The man's a genius.