Today we're looking at another bass player,
David Paton, who shared the bass guitar duties with
Del Palmer on the
The Kick Inside & Lionheart albums..
David Paton was born on Oct 29th 1949, in Edingburgh Scotland. He started his career as a guitarist/singer, and did not actually start playing the bass until he was 20. His early semi-pro bands included
Boots & Christian, but he made his professional break through as bassist in the band
Pilot, who released 4 albums between 1974 and 1977 before calling it a day.
Pilot will be remembered for their 2 hit singles
January & Magic, though there were other minor chart hits for the band.
Paton moved to session work in order to make a living, and his discography details appearances on recordings by many significant artists during the late 70s & 80s, including Andy Lattimer's
Camel, The Pretenders & Chris De Burgh. Like other Kate Bush stalwarts
Ian Bairnson & Stuart Elliot (previously discussed here),
Paton played with the
Alan Parson's Project, between 1975 and 1986, subsequently playing on every one of the
Project's recordings.
During the middle of the 80s,
Paton worked on some film soundtrack recordings, the most significant of these being
"Ladyhawke". At this time he also formed a new band called
Keats, though they were not particularly successful. He also added some classical guitar work & vocals to a recording by the brilliant ex-
Yes Keyboardist
Rick Wakeman.Probably the most significant times of his career came during periods between 1986 and 1996, when he recorded on 4 albums by
Elton John, including
Leather Jackets, Reg Strikes Back & Ice on Fire. He was the bassist on
Elton's world wide hit single
Nikita.
Paton also performed as a member of
Elton's touring band on several treks around the world, joining another Kate regular,
Charlie Morgan to form an ultra reliable rhythm section.
Although he is still a working session player,
Paton is now more focussed on his own projects. He has recorded 2 solo albums and also recordings of traditional Scottish music. He also runs his own small scale recording studio (
PS Studios) and is currently working with guitarist
Ian Bairnson on the remastering of
Pilot's recordings for future release.
Paton has owned some highly desireable guitars over the years, including a Gibson 335 semi-solid electric, a Gibson Les Paul Goldtop and a Rickenbacker.
His most recent electric guitar is a surprisingly modest Japanese made Fender Squire Stratocaster, that was selected for him by his friend
Ian Bairnson. He has an old and much loved acoustic guitar made by Aria, and an unspecified classical guitar with which he first started to make music.
His bass guitars include an early Music Man 4 string (which he converted to fretless) and two Music Man Sting Ray 5s (5 string models) which he purchased for
Elton's 1996 US & World tour. More unusually, he also owns a Steinberger bass, radical for it's time - being headless and with 'wrong' end mounted tuners, that was bought for him as a working gift by
Elton for his US tour of 1986. Though I've been unable to find a mention of it, I believe that
Paton played either a Fender Precison bass or a shorter scale Gibson EB model on his recordings with Kate Bush.
As a personal comment, I would state that
Paton is a fine player indeed. His work is extremely melodic (and therefore entirely suited to KB's needs) if generally modest and somewhat unspectacular. In truth, I don't believe that he could honestly be described as particularly innovative, but he more than deserves his long career and the success he has had. Anyone who wants to understand where
David Paton is coming from as a bassist - and what he can add to a track - should listen very carefully to
Lionheart (rather than
TKI) where his playing is often exquisite. I particularly recommend
Fullhouse for the total
Paton effect and
Symphony in Blue for a demonstration of his taste and restraint..
I am obliged to the
theavenueonline site for biographical information, and
Paton's own excellent site for other details. You can also hear examples of his guitar and bass playing at this location.
www.davidpaton.com
I plan to start a thread on Les Paul soon. He was recently featured on PBS radio here. Paul has 5 new albums set for release, including his first 'rock' album. I'm looking foward to that - as I'm sure, what with you being a guitarist, will be as well. 
