Noel Redding

David Noel Redding (25 December 1945 – 11 May 2003) was an English rock musician, best known as the bass player for the Jimi Hendrix Experience and guitarist/singer for Fat Mattress.

Following his departure from the Experience in 1969 and the dissolution of Fat Mattress in 1970, Redding formed the short-lived group Road in the United States, which released the self-titled album Road before he re-located to Clonakilty, Ireland, in 1972. There he formed the Noel Redding Band with former Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell, with whom he released two albums. Although by the 1980s Redding had largely removed himself from the music business, he would later perform around his new hometown with wife Carol Appleby.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 as a member of the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Redding was born at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Folkestone, Kent, to Bromley-born Margaret (née Berggren) and Horace Albert Redding. He grew up on Cliff Road, Seabrook, where his mother ran a guest house, with his Swedish-born grandmother, his brother Anthony, and his sister Vicki. He attended St Leonards Primary school in Hythe, and the Harvey Grammar School in Folkestone. At the age of nine he played violin at school, and then mandolin and guitar. His first public appearances were at the Hythe Youth Club, and at his school.

At 17, Redding became a professional musician and toured clubs in Scotland and Germany with Neil Landon and the Burnettes (formed in late 1962) and the Loving Kind (formed in November 1965). In addition, the Lonely Ones reunited in September 1964, and Redding remained with them a year before taking his leave.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.