Roger O'Donnell (born October
29, 1955) is
an English keyboardist best known for his work with
bands; The
Cure, Psychedelic Furs, the Thompson
Twins and Berlin.
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Contents
- 1 Background
- 2 Tenure
with The Cure
- 2.1 Further
friction and exodus
- 3 Solo
work
- 4 Discography
- 5 Trivia
- 6 External
links
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Background
O'Donnell was born into a musical family, next to the piano in his
parents' London
home according to interviews. Given his birthplace, playing music seem
natural from birth and his parents and brother encouraged him in this
pursuit. O'Donnell left Art School to pursue a career as a professional
musician, with his first paying gig coming in 1976, at Oxford
Town Hall backing legendary British pop icon Arthur Brown.
In the early 1980s while with The
Thompson Twins, Berlin, and The
Psychedelic Furs, O'Donnell was a big fan of synthesisers
produced by Sequential Circuits, which
produced such classics as the Prophet 5, Prophet T8, and Prophet VS. While on tour with The
Psychedelic Furs, O'Donnell set the record for having the most
Sequential models onstage at one time.
Tenure with The Cure
O'Donnell first joined The Cure in 1987, replacing Lol
Tolhurst on keyboards,
after being long time friends with the drummer Boris
Williams. With O'Donnell on keyboards, this permitted Porl
Thompson to focus on guitar fulltime, instead of assisting Tolhurst on
keyboards for many of the songs. His songwriting contributions can be
heard on the album Disintegration
notably the song "Untitled" and "Fear of Ghosts," which is the B-Side to the hit
single "Lovesong."
Following the band's Prayer Tour in
1989, tensions intensified between the band members. O'Donnell left the
band temporarily in 1990 due to a difference of opinion with some of
the other members, but then rejoined in 1995. He helped record several
studio albums, including Disintegration,
Wild Mood Swings,
Bloodflowers,
and The Cure. He
also appears on the live album Entreat as well as Trilogy.
He also appears on the delux issue of Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me.
Some of his best keyboard performances can be heard on the songs
"Homesick", off Disintegration,
"Out of This World"
and "The Last Day of Summer" off the Bloodflowers
LP.
Even though he co-wrote only one album with the
Gallup/Smith/Thompson/Williams lineup, he is considered the
keyboardist of the band during that period having been the only member
of the band where piano/keyboards were his primary instrument, unlike Laurence
Tolhurst and Perry Bamonte who moved to
keyboards from other instruments, and back again in Perry's case.
Further friction and exodus
In 2004, there were rumours that O'Donnell was unhappy with
the band and was planning to quit. In particular, O'Donnell did have
big problems with the band, notably not getting along with The
Cure's producer Ross
Robinson. When O'Donnell started working on his solo album The
Truth In Me in early 2005, he revealed he had no plans on
leaving. However, shortly after in May, Robert Smith
decided to reconfigure The Cure as a trio, without
O'Donnell and Perry Bamonte. Smith
apparently felt that they were on too different philosophies to
continue to work together and fired O'Donnell over email.
Solo work
O'Donnell has his own label "99 Times Out of 10" or "99X/10"
for short, and is assisting on Erin Lang's musical works. The
Truth In Me, an all-instrumental
album was scheduled for release on May 16 2006, following many delays.
Additionally, he has provided exposure to young, underground
musicians through his label sampler. The sampler was released during
the latter half of 2005 and made available through his website.
In April 2006, whilst in discussion with Label and Artist
management group Worlds Fair, O'Donnell was offered a record deal with
release through their new label Great Society and Warner
Brothers distribution and marketing. The album — scheduled for release
on October 24, 2006 in the US — is slated for worldwide release in 2007.
Discography
- Grey Clouds, Red Sky (previously
unreleased instrumental solo album recorded in 1994. A remastered,
limited edition saw release in early 2005; each copy was autographed
by O'Donnell)
- The Truth In Me
(2006, solo album)
- The Truth In Me Review: [1]
- Moog Soundtrack (O'Donnell
contributed a song to the film score for 2004's Moog,
created exclusively with the Minimoog Voyager).
Credits
O'Donnell is credited as the keyboardist on the following
recordings:
Trivia
- O'Donnell appeared in only one official Thompson Twins music
video, but it was made quite some time after he had left the group in
the summer of 1986. The Thompson Twins became a duo (following the
departure of Joe Leeway) had recorded a song
for the film Nothing in Common
starring Tom
Hanks and featuring the last ever performance by Jackie
Gleason. The video for the song of the same name as the movie was shot
on location in Chicago,
with Hanks making a cameo appearance playing drums. O'Donnell appeared
playing the keyboards.
External links
