Guy Pratt Biography, Pink Floyd Bassist
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Guy Pratt, who was born in London on 3 January 1962, is the offspring of Mike Pratt, a renowned songwriter and actor, celebrated for his work on Tommy Steele’s children’s favourite, ‘The Little White Bull’ and his role as Jeff Randall in ‘Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)’.
Guy Pratt turns to Music
Following a short period working as a graphic designer, Guy chose to follow his passion for music. His career took flight when he was invited to join the Australian sensation, Icehouse, for a global tour at just 19 years old. In 1983, he had the honour of supporting David Bowie on his iconic ‘Serious Moonlight’ tour.
His talent was recognised by several music industry giants, including Robert Palmer, Bryan Ferry, Womack & Womack, and even The Smiths. His skills as a bassist were globally acknowledged when David Gilmour invited him to play for Pink Floyd.
A Trip to LA
After touring for over a year, Guy relocated to LA, where he was sought after by Madonna and Michael Jackson, before performing at ground breaking shows with Floyd in Venice and Moscow.
Guy’s career reached new heights when he was selected as the bass player for Pink Floyd’s post-Roger Waters Delicate Sound of Thunder and PULSE world tours in 1987 and 1994. He shared the vocals in “Run Like Hell”, “Another Brick in The Wall (Part 2)”, “Us and Them” and “Comfortably Numb” with David Gilmour during live performances. He also contributed to several tracks on The Division Bell album, although most of the bass parts were performed by Gilmour. Tony Levin performed most of the bass parts on Momentary Lapse of Reason, with Pratt stepping in for the tour due to Levin’s unavailability.
On An Island
Guy also toured as part of David Gilmour’s On an Island band, alongside another Pink Floyd member (and his father-in-law), Richard Wright.
Guy’s bass playing can be heard on numerous hit records by artists such as Tom Jones, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Iggy Pop, The Pretenders, Ronan Keating, Electronic, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Orb, Natalie Imbruglia, All Saints, Bond, and Elton John. He has also toured with Coverdale Page, The Power Station and Gary Moore.
Luck and Strange Tour
Guy will be joining David once again this time on the Luck and Strange tour in 2024. Most of the band members are fresh faces that David brought in but Guy is hard to replace.
Writing and Producing
In addition to his successful career as a bassist, Guy has also ventured into writing and producing, achieving hits with artists including Robert Palmer, The Orb, Fat Les, Jimmy Nail, Marianne Faithful and Debbie Harry.
He has received a Grammy and has been nominated for two Ivor Novello Awards.
Beyond his bass playing, Guy has delved into the world of Film & TV music composing. He has contributed scores and songs for ‘Hackers’ and ‘Still Crazy’, as well as writing and producing the scores for Channel 4’s ‘Spaced’ (Series 1&2), ‘Now You See Her’ (a film for Sky TV), ‘The Young Person’s Guide to becoming a Rock Star’, ‘Randall & Hopkirk (deceased)’, and the BBC series ‘Linda Green’. He has also contributed to Dawn French’s ‘Wild West’ and ‘Jimmy Nail’s Crocodile Shoes 2’, and composed the theme music for ‘the Pepsi Chart show’ and various commercials.
His work in documentaries includes ‘Riddle of the skies’, ‘The Roswell Incident’, ‘Terror in Texas’, ‘Gloria’s Toxic Death’, ‘The Underboss’, ‘Tracing Che’, ‘Greatest Heroes’ and ‘The Oldest Mummies on earth’.
For theatre, he co-wrote the score for ‘The Bedbug’ by Mayakovsky with Gary Kemp, ‘The Remarkable Piety of the Infamous’ which was performed at The Baron’s Court Theatre and ‘Lena’ by Carla Lane performed at the Valley Theatre, Liverpool and The Pleasance, Edinburgh. He was also the Musical Director of ‘I just called by to see the man’ directed by Richard Wilson at the Royal Court.
A very talented man indeed!
My Bass and Other Animals
In 2005, he took his one-man comedy show, ‘My Bass and other Animals’ to Edinburgh, where it was a sell-out hit. He then toured it successfully over the next few years, while also finding time to tour and record with David Gilmour, Roxy Music (with whom he appeared at Live 8) and Bryan Ferry. He also played on the Jimmy Page/ Leona Lewis version of ‘Whole Lotta Love’ for the Beijing Olympics.
Guy Pratt’s Book: My Bass and Other Animals
His book ‘My Bass and other Animals’, which you can purchase online, was published in 2007, receiving both critical acclaim and commercial success, and is currently on its fifth reprint.
In July 2008, he embarked on a twenty-one-date tour of Australia with his updated show ‘Breakfast of Idiots’. He had previously taken his show to Australia twice before, including two appearances on the popular TV show ‘Spicks & Specks’.
Guy returned to the Edinburgh festival in 2010 with his new show ‘Guy Pratt’s Wake Up Call!’ which he also performed at the Manchester Comedy Festival and Notting Hill’s 20th Century Theatre in October 2010. He embarked on a tour of Australia and New Zealand with the show in the Spring of 2011. Guy was also the musical director of the last two series of The Rob Brydon Show.
He also hosted two major events and served as an international consultant on the Word Adelaide Festival in August 2013.
Guy Pratt in Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets Band
Guy Pratt is a key member of “Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets”, a band formed in 2018 to perform the early music of Pink Floyd. The band is composed of Pink Floyd’s drummer and co-founder Nick Mason, bassist Guy Pratt, guitarists Gary Kemp and Lee Harris, and keyboardist Dom Beken.
The band was formed with the intention of bringing Pink Floyd’s early psychedelic material to a wider audience. They made their debut in May 2018 at Dingwalls, London, before embarking on a European tour in September 2018 and a North American tour in 2019. A 2020 European tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rockonteurs Podcast
Guy Pratt is one half of the presenting team on podcast Rockonteurs. This fantastic podcast gets behind the scenes with so many different people from the music industry. Some of the famous guests include rock gods Jon Bön Jovi and David Coverdale, AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson, Duran Duran’s John Taylor, guitar hero Johnny Marr and billion-dollar hitmaker Nile Rodgers. Nick Mason was also featured.
Links – Guy Pratt’s Official Website and his Biography – Buy a replica of Guy Pratt’s bass called Betsy
