Dave Greenfield

Dave Greenfield

Dave Greenfield (left) and Baz Warne, 2007.
Background information
Birth name David Paul Greenfield
Born

29 March 1949 (1949-03-29) (age 62)

Brighton, England
Genres Punk, New Wave, Rock
Instruments Keyboard, Synthesiser, Organ, Vocals
Years active Late 1960s–present
Associated acts The Stranglers, Rusty Butler

Dave Greenfield (born David Paul Greenfield, 29 March 1949, Brighton, England) is the keyboard player with English rock band, The Stranglers.

Biography

He is noted for his trademark style of playing rapid arpeggios.[1] His distinctive sound on the early Stranglers recordings involved the use of Hohner Cembalet electric piano, Hammond L-100 electric organ, a Minimoog synthesizer, and later an Oberheim FVS-4 polyphonic synthesizer.

He also frequently contributes harmony backing vocals to the band's songs, and sang the lead vocals on a few of their tracks, including:

On the albums The Raven, Gospel According to the Meninblack and Aural Sculpture, Greenfield also used a Korg VC-10 vocoder. Notable instances of this include in "Genetix" when it accompanies his own vocal and during the "Gene Regulation" section underneath Hugh Cornwell's monologue, on "Baroque Bordello" towards the end of the song, and in the song "North Winds".

Greenfield and fellow-Strangler Jean-Jacques Burnel released a joint album in 1983, Fire and Water (Ecoutez Vos Murs), used as the soundtrack for the film, Ecoutez vos murs directed by Vincent Coudanne.

It was a piece of music written by Greenfield during recording for The Meninblack, which was discarded by other members of The Stranglers, that Hugh Cornwell later adapted into their biggest hit "Golden Brown", although the band themselves did not initially see this as a potential single, let alone an Ivor Novello award winning, UK number 2 hit single.

In addition to his duties with The Stranglers, Greenfield also takes part in mediaeval battle re-enactments.

Until 2003, he ran a pub called The Windmill, in Somersham, Cambridgeshire. He is also known for his cross-handed technique on the keyboard and "downing" pints in the concert rendition, keyboard solos, of "Duchess" and "No More Heroes".

Albums

References

  1. ^ Yahoo! Music – Stranglers biography