Tony Dangerfield

Anthony Stuart Dangerfield, singer and bass player: born Wolverhampton 31 August 1944; twice married (one son, two daughters); died London 20 July 2007.

Joe Meek's home-based recording studio in Holloway Road was the training ground for many noted musicians, including Ritchie Blackmore, Clem Cattini, Carlo Little and Tony Dangerfield. Dangerfield was a much respected bass player and vocalist, but his personality meant that he never stuck with any one group for very long.

He was born in Wolverhampton in 1944 and grew up in the mid-Fifties with a love of the new rock'n'roll music. He learnt to play the guitar, although his first engagement was playing bass with a jazz group. He and Johnny Bedder then formed a rhythm and blues group, Gulliver's Travellers. In late 1963, he was invited to join the hit-making Big Three when a dispute wrecked their line-up, but he preferred another invitation to join Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages. Sutch was more of a showman than a vocalist and there was mayhem at every performance.

Sutch and his band were produced by Joe Meek, who was immediately attracted to Dangerfield's looks, his hair being bleached blond with pink and green streaks. Because Meek already had a blond attraction in the top 10 artist Heinz, he asked Dangerfield to become jet black with the intention of marketing him as a rival to P.J. Proby. Dangerfield's single, the light-voiced rock ballad "I've Seen Such Things", was written by Paul Jones and Tom McGuinness from Manfred Mann. He was featured on ITV's Thank Your Lucky Stars, but then, unwisely, had his hair cut short and Ready, Steady, Go! thought he looked too dated for an appearance. Another single, "Take Your Time", followed and then he rejoined the ever-changing personnel of Sutch's Savages, this time with Ritchie Blackmore and Matthew Fisher.

Dangerfield worked for many years as a jobbing musician. By the mid-1970s, he was playing in pub bands and he continued to flit from one local band to another. From time to time, until Sutch's death in 1999, he played with the Savages. At the time of his death, he had been due to play in a tribute reunion.

Spencer Leigh