Hull musician Trevor Bolder, who played with Uriah Heep and David Bowie's Spiders From Mars, has died aged 62.
The bassist, described by Bowie as a "major inspiration" and a "tremendous guy", died following a battle with cancer.
Born in Hull on June 9, 1950, Bolder was part of a music-orientated family. The son, brother and grandson of musicians and the nephew of an opera singer, he joked during an interview in 2003 in his family "if you weren't a musician, then you were a failure!"
Inspired by his father, a trumpet player, Bolder took up the instrument along with the cornet at the age of seven, and performed with local brass bands during his adolescence.
At 14, having watched the Beatles soar to stardom, Bolder and his brother bought two guitars. "We needed a bass player, but he didn't want to play bass, so it was down to me to learn and play it, and I bought me a bass," Bolder told rock journalist Dmitry M Epstein in 2003.
The brothers played in Hull with their band five nights a week, and at weekends spent their wages on blues albums. They later began performing all over Yorkshire.
Taking inspiration from Jack Bruce, who he saw play in Hull with Graham Bond and Ginger Baker before they formed Cream, Bolder began turning up the bass and playing with what he described as "a melodic feel".
In 1970 Bolder joined his first professional band Ronno with guitarist Mick Ronson, after meeting on the local music scene.
Ronson's band The Rats were playing at a youth club when Bolder was called to stand in for their bass player. Ronson, having seen Bolder play a number of free concerts in parks in Hull, asked him to join the band.
In 1971 Bolder joined Bowie to play on his fourth album, Hunky Dory, along with Ronson and drummer Woody Woodmansey.
The trio joined forces with Bowie after doing a radio show with the soon-to-be star.
Bolder explained: "Mick Ronson and Woody [Woodmansey] had played on 'The Man Who Sold The World' album with David Bowie. They did that album with him and then left – they didn't want to play with Bowie anymore – so they came up to Hull, where I joined them, and we played for about six months as a band.
"And Bowie rang up one day and asked if we'd go down and do this John Peel show with him, cause he needed a band. So we said, 'OK, we'll come down and do that'. That's basically how it all started."
The following year the artists formed the theatrical concept band Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. It was a union which catapulted Bowie to international fame.
Riding the wave of success of The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, The Spiders worked with Bowie on albums Aladdin Sane (1973) and Pin-Ups (also 1973, but minus Woodmansey).
Bowie then separated from the Spiders From Mars and moved to the US.
In 1976, after heading back to Hull, Bolder was called upon to join Uriah Heep. He made his first appearance on their 1977 album Firefly.
Bolder also played on Innocent Victim, Fallen Angel and Conquest, before joining Wishbone Ash for two years.
In 1983 he returned to Uriah Heep and played on Equator two years later. He had appeared on every album since, including their most recent outing, 2011′s Into The Wild.
Bolder spent a total of 35 years with the band and can be heard on 21 separate releases, including studio albums and official live records.
Bolder's CV also includes Cybernauts, a band formed as a tribute to Mick Ronson who died of cancer in 1993.
Bolder formed Cybernauts along with Woodmansey, Dick Decent and Def Leppard members Joe Elliott and Phil Collen.
The band formalised their collaboration after an appearance at a second Ronson memorial staged in Hull in 1997.
Cybernauts released a limited edition live album in Japan only, and in 2001 launched a two-CD set consisting of the live album plus the EP The Further Adventures of the Cybernauts.
Bolder underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer earlier this year, in which he had part of his pancreas removed.
In a statement, Uriah Heep said: "It is with great sadness that Uriah Heep announce the passing of our friend the amazing Trevor Bolder, who has passed away after his long fight with cancer.
"Trevor was an all time great, one of the outstanding musicians of his generation, and one of the finest and most influential bass players that Britain ever produced."
