Born Jan 18, 1943
Greenslade first came to attention as the
keyboards player for the jazz-blues-rock fusion outfit Colosseum, for whom
he composed the epic "Valentyne Suite," a 17-minute, multi-section
production that became the centerpiece of the album of the same name. Colosseum
would eventually founder on the various ambitions of its members, finally
drifting apart in 1971. Greenslade spent the next two years playing sessions
and putting together a band that was notable for the fact that it performed
progressive rock music without the benefit of a guitarist; the lineup included
second keyboardist Dave Lawson, drummer Andy McCullough and Colosseum bandmate
Tony Reeves on bass. This lineup released Greenslade and Bedside Manners Are
Extra via Warner Bros. The third album, Spyglass Guest, broke the pattern,
with guitarists Andy Roberts and Dave "Clem" Clempson (another former
bandmate) delivering some six-string action. By the time the final Greenslade
album arrived, Martin Briley had taken over for Tony Reeves. In 1975, the
band was finished.
The following year Greenslade would release the charming Cactus Choir under
his full name. In 1979, he composed and released the ambitious Pentateuch
of the Cosmogony (often seen just as Pentateuch; the CD edition trims a couple
minutes of music but preserve the artwork). This double LP was created in
association with artist Patrick Woodroffe, whose fantasy artwork inspired
Greenslade's music, which was performed on Greenslade's ever-expanding arsenal
of electronic keyboards. Greenslade virtually vanished from sight in the following
years, becoming, as his friend Terry Pratchett (author of the Discworld novels)
proclaimed, the man every TV producer in England would call when a new TV
theme was needed (which may be news to the ever-prolific Barrington Phelung).
The association with Pratchett, however, was the thing that brought Greenslade
back out into the open, with the 1994 release of From the Discworld, an album
of music inspired by Pratchett's humorous fantasy novels. Since 1994, all
has once again been quiet on the Greenslade front.