Bass Player: Martin Briley

Martin Steven Briley (born 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist and keyboardist. He was born in London and has recorded with and written for a variety of well-known musicians, as well as releasing several solo albums. Briley began playing and writing music when he was ten years old. Arthur Brown, of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown fame, was his events teacher.^[1]

At the age of seventeen, Briley and his band “Mandrake Paddle Steamer” (later shortened to Mandrake)^[2] signed their first record deal with Parlophone/EMI, and subsequently recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studio. However, the group’s published output during their lifetime was limited to two singles, one of which was released only in Sweden.^[3]

Briley was later signed to George Martin’s AIR group of companies and went on to become an important part of the London studio scene as an arranger, vocalist and sought-after session guitarist. He also had a brief stint as bassist/guitarist of the British Prog Rock band, touring with the group and playing on this 1975 album.

Briley moved to New York, where he found work as a touring and session musician for numerous artists, including Meat Loaf, Julian Lennon, Bonnie Tyler, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Donna Summer, The Hollies, Tom Jones and many more.

Briley signed a deal with Mercury Records as a solo artist in the early 1980s, going on to release three albums under his own name. His single ‘The Salt In My Tears’ went into heavy rotation on MTV and reached No. 36 on the national charts on 30 July 1983^. Briley has received orchestral commissions and has written songs for artist such as Celine Dione, Michael Bolton, NSYNC, Gregg Allman, Night Ranger and Barry Manilow amongst others.

This is a transcription of Briley’s bass parts for the full ‘Time and Tide’ album. There are a couple of tracks missing at there is no bass on three tracks on the album (Time, Tide and Doldrums’) but the rest is here.

Note: Apologies to Martin for misspelling his name on a couple of the charts. Only spotted after the pad was put together.