Simon Hanson

Simon Hanson 2012

Simon Hanson (born 3 February 1964) is an English musician, drummer, songwriter and producer. He is best known as the former drummer of Death in Vegas and the current drummer of British band Squeeze.^[1]

Early life

Hanson was born in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. His family moved around England until Hanson was about fourteen years old. In 1978, the family returned to Lincolnshire, settling in Louth. Hanson’s father, Peter Hanson was a chief police inspector and pilot. Hanson’s father and sister both died in a plane crash in 1983.^{[2][citation needed]} Simon grew up wanting to become like his father, but due to colour blindness, had to give up on his dream and decided to become a musician. At the age of fourteen he began playing drums for Vicious Fish and the Entrails, a punk band. In 1978, after answering an ad in a local gazette, he became the drummer of rock band Delusion. The band was signed by Wizzo Record Mablethorpe Lincs and together they started rehearsing and doing gigs. At the age of fifteen, Hanson took the opportunity of a half-term holidays to go to London where he played gigs with Delusion. He eventually ran out of money, and had to go back to Louth where he finished his school year before deciding to drop out of school to move permanently to London and try his luck there. During the first months he stayed around Camden Town where he befriended some people. Hanson attended hundreds of auditions and was often turned down by bands because he was very young at that time. In his first years in London Hanson played for various cover bands and did small jobs here and there to survive. In the mid eighties he worked as a stage painter at the Hammersmith Odeon in the hope of meeting people. There he had the opportunity to make the acquaintance of musicians such as Nick Sheppard, Bob Dylan and Santana.

Career

In 1985, Hanson formed the band Shot, which was signed by IRS records. However nothing was ever released. Simon Hanson was then spotted by a member of the band The Blessing and joined them on tours. Together they signed with MCA Records and recorded Locusts and Wild Honey. Jimmy Miller was called in to produce three tracks on the album. Miller was hugely influential on Hanson’s work as Miller had been himself a drummer. Miller taught him that being creative, is not always being in control. Unfortunately Miller died before the album’s release, in 1994.^[3]

In the early 1990s, Hanson worked with Tina Hamilton at Session Connection, playing drums with Ace of Base, Natalia Imbruglia, Hall and Oates and the P.F. Project amongst others. By the mid-nineties he started touring with Energy Orchard and worked on the Pain Killer album released in 1995. Hanson recorded with artist Bap Kennedy on MCA label. In 1995 he toured with Energy Orchard replacing drummer Dave Toner, as they were the support band of The Animals’ tour in Germany.

From 1996 to 1998 he toured with Tony Hadley and recorded with Bruce Woolley and the Radio Science Orchestra. Hanson joined The Aloof in 1997 and discovered the emerging world of Dance music. As the drummer of The Aloof he recorded the Seeking Pleasure album released in 1998 signed by East West Records. At that time the Radio Science Orchestra wrote, co-produced and performed the title track "Storm", performed by Grace Jones for the 1998 film The Avengers.^[4]

Death in Vegas 2000

By 1998 Hanson joined Death in Vegas and recorded the album Contino Sessions, released in 1999, before touring with the band in the UK and in the US. Hanson also played the drums on the album Scorpio Rising. Hanson that had been a been so far influenced by rock and roll in the previous years, discovered dance and house music while touring with Death in Vegas. This experience with dance music was to influence his playing style which evolved to become a combination of rock and roll and dance music. In the late nineties Simon Hanson performed live on tours with hard rock and rock and roll bands The Quireboys and The Dogs D’Amour. In 1996 he worked with The Dogs D’Amour frontman Tyla and Spike Gray from the Quireboys with whom he recorded the album Flagrantly Yours, under the name Spike and Tyla's Hot Knives. In 1999 Hanson was called in to play the drums on Rick Wakeman’s concept album Return to the Centre of the Earth, a sequel to the previous Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1974). From 1999, Hanson recorded with Death in Vegas. He participated on the Contino Rooms and Scorpio Rising albums including collaborations with Iggy Pop.^[5] and Liam Gallagher. He also toured with the band in France and the UK.

Between 2000 and 2006 Hanson lent his talent as a drummer to various brands amongst which The Men They Couldn’t Hang, Baxter Dury, Joy Zipper, The Boy Least Likely To and Secret Affair He also recorded and toured around the UK and the US with Squeeze frontman and friend, Glenn Tilbrook. He worked on Tilbrook’s albums The Incomplete Glenn Tilbrook, Transatlantic Ping Pong and Pandemonium Ensues that was released in 2009.

In 2007, after half a decade of solo work Chris Difford and Tilbrook that they would re-form Squeeze and Hanson was to become a full time member and the drummer of the band. Together they recorded Squeeze's first album in twelve years, Spot the Difference, consisting entirely of new recordings of older Squeeze songs.

Squeeze Cornbury 2013

It was a huge honour for Simon Hanson to become a member of Squeeze as he had been a long term fan of Squeeze and friend of Glenn Tilbrook. Since 2010 Tilbrook and Hanson have been touring together. In 2010, while on a tour in Colchester, Tilbrook asked Hanson to sing a Kevin and Dave,^[6] a song that they had co-written together. Whilst on the road Simon decided to write his own songs, often writing and recording on the back of the tour bus, using an iPad that which given to him. His first solo album will be released during the autumn 2012. One of the track’s titles is "A9 South Road" and was written between Aberdeen and Glasgow.

Since 2001, Hanson has been working with the Teenage Cancer Trust in association with Yamaha.^[7] He teaches young people with cancer to play drums and write songs. In 2011 Squeeze played at the Royal Albert Hall^[8] for the Teenage Cancer Trust.^[9] In this instance Simon Hanson’s drums kit and two guitars were painted by Damien Hirst and auctioned by Christies, the money raised by the sales was given to the Teenage Cancer Trust.^[10]

Discography^[11]

Personal life

Hanson has two children with Nicole Richards.

Management

Hanson is managed by Dermot Smyth at Fantastic Partners.com.

References

External links

• Official website
• IMDb
• YouTube