Scotsman Obituaries: Ricky Gardiner
25.05.2022 - 12:19
/ msn.com
Ricky Gardiner, musician. Born: 31 August, 1948 in Edinburgh. Died: 13 May, 2022, aged 73The opening shots of Trainspotting, with Ewan McGregor and Ewen Bremner sprinting down Edinburgh’s Princes Street to the boppy strains of Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life, are among the most iconic in Scottish popular culture.
Lesser known, yet just as far-reaching, is the life and work of the Edinburgh man who played lead guitar on Lust for Life. Ricky Gardiner secured local hero status in Scottish progressive rockers Beggar’s Opera before being headhunted by producer Tony Visconti to play guitar on David Bowie’s trailblazing Low album. Gardiner is all over Side One of that classic record, featuring on the seminal likes of Sound and Vision, Be My Wife and Always Crashing in the Same Car.
Having made his idiosyncratic contribution to its influential sound palette, he joined Bowie in Iggy Pop’s touring band and then in the studio to help compose and record the Lust for Life album, for which he penned the low-slung prowl of The Passenger, one of Iggy’s signature tunes. Little wonder that Visconti hailed him a “guitar genius” when news broke of his death, aged 73, while Iggy Pop himself paid tribute to “dearest Ricky, lovely, lovely man, shirtless in your coveralls, nicest guy who ever played guitar. Thanks for the memories and the songs, rest eternal in peace.
”Gardiner was a self-taught musician, raised on a diet of Italian opera gleaned from his parents’ collection of 78s before discovering, like so many musicians of his vintage, the electrified wonder of The Shadows. In 1962 he joined school band The Vostoks – named after Yuri Gagarin’s capsule – alongside keyboard player Virginia Scott, who became his lifelong partner. Other outfits
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