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Henry "King Thumb" Thomas


stingrayfan

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  • 3 months later...

I was in Jr High School when I first became obsessed with music. This was during the early 80's. I was born and raised in northern California and followed the hard rock/heavy metal scene there--especially Y&T. I still love Y&T.  Back then, it was hard rock or nothing. . .  until I saw the Rock School episode on funk. I recorded it onto VHS and tried to pick up what that bass player was layin' down. 

I read in an earlier post that his first instrument was the cello. This does not surprise me. Can't you picture him playing a cello? The cellist is an assassin on that bass. 

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  • Bilbo changed the title to Henry "King Thumb" Thomas
On 11/06/2017 at 23:50, dms said:

this makes me feel very old, in 1989 essex county council ran a "rock school" weekend for young musicians, henry Thomas came and taught bass and deidre cartwright did the guitars, henry Thomas made all the bass players play a bit so he could assess us, he made some notes, I saw his notes later on and next to my name was "v.good" - that still makes me chuckle, then i got to play in deidre cartwrights band for the rest of the weekend, having been told I was "v.good" she handed me some sheet music, I pointed out I could not play a note, she said just jam on "g" and then go to "e" when I nod..... oh and I got to play henry's g & l bass, the first active high spec bass I had ever played at that time, it was amazing. in his way henry Thomas was probably as important as mark king in the early 80s to the british bass explosion

I've got a similar story.  Probably around 1987 ish, there was a week long JRSM Jazz Rock Studio Music course run at the Guildhall School of music "in association with Rockschool".  A bunch of us signed up and Henry was the bass teacher.

A room full of bassists, and the first thing he did was to ask each of us to play a bit.  A nervous chill went round the room, and someone volunteered to go first.  Well this "student" was a pretty awesome player, and I remember thinking "wow what's Henry going to be able to teach this guy?".  After the bloke finished his little bit, Henry asked him to play it again, and then delivered a fantastic improvised bass solo over the top of the guy's playing.  I was in heaven.

I don't remember how my own audition went, but I would probably have been in the middle of the pack.

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On ‎16‎/‎04‎/‎2020 at 19:48, visog said:

Gary Moore was unhappy with the way his contribution was cut and used over several episodes. He thought he'd be featured in one episode. Christ! His rig had serious noise

I remember reading an interview with Gary Moore in a guitar mag, and Rockschool came up. He said some uncomplementary things about Deidre.

Maybe that explains it.

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I had the Henry Thomas/Rock School bass VHS that my mum had bought me from Virgin Megastore the same day my parents bought me my first bass at the age of 10.

I loved that tape, tho I can't remember much of it now I do still remember some of the warm and basic finger exercises from it. This must've been back in '95. 

It's amazing the life long relationship you can have with an instrument and that tape definitely helped point me in the right direction. 

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16 hours ago, Nail Soup said:

I remember reading an interview with Gary Moore in a guitar mag, and Rockschool came up. He said some uncomplementary things about Deidre.

Maybe that explains it.

I remember him having a go at a young Bonamassa in a magazine interview, saying he was too full on all the time! In fairness, GM could play quiet, delicate, intricate pieces - he just chose not to.

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  • 1 year later...
On 06/08/2020 at 16:11, Nail Soup said:

I remember reading an interview with Gary Moore in a guitar mag, and Rockschool came up. He said some uncomplementary things about Deidre.

Maybe that explains it.

 

GM had a reputation for saying uncomplimentary things about everyone...

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On 06/08/2020 at 13:34, Bilbo said:

Does anyone have any contact details for Henry? I have tried Facebook but not got any response. Email or phone would be cool. PM me if you can help. 

 

Your Google-Fu is weak. Try searching 'Henry Thomas Bass'.

 

https://www.mizarolli.net/bass-lessons.html

 

It's a terrible website, but the Henry Thomas page has his email 'prominently displayed', shall we say 🙂

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42 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

And look at this for a no-name Bitsa with great sound...  Look at that professionally finished control plate!

 

 

Looks like he’s raided an Ibanez Musician for the parts and built something that doesn’t have the gravitational pull of a dying sun.

 

I saw HT a couple of times in the Morrissey/Mullen band in the ‘80s, he was great.

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  • 2 years later...

Old topic i know, just wanted to point out thats his G&L L2000 series E with slot pole pieces, thats the reason i got mine, he used that alot, check out paul weller live, but not sure what was going on with the control plate so im thinking this was pre production that he might have got in the early 80s because of rock school, maybe a push by G&L for promo in to the Uk, or may be he ripped out the old electrics and made it him self ? no idea, as said i did try and contact him to find out as i have always wanted to ask him about this, so if anyone see him maybe ask him for us all ? its interesting

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