DON AIREY Don Airey, keyboardist extraordinaire, has been a major player on the heavy rock scene for nearly 25 years, having worked on well over a hundred albums, and been a member of countless bands. He has also made his mark as an arranger and composer in the commercial field, and is about to embark on a new chapter of his career as a solo artist with the release on 121 of his album, K2.
Born in Sunderland, N.E. England, Don’s musical talents were forged with an amalgam of classical training, (taking all the piano grades), a lively interest in his local rock and jazz scene, and regular paid gigs playing Hammond organ for the cabaret turns at the numerous Working Men’s Clubs in the locale. He continued his musical education by taking a degree at Nottingham University and a diploma at the Royal Northern College of Music, and turned pro in 1972 taking his own band round the world, playing on cruise liners, to residencies in Africa, Florida, and the Far-East. Moving to London, in 1974 he entered the world of rock via Cozy Powell’s band Hammer, which had three hit singles, and a year of touring. When this petered out, he moved onto a more esoteric level with fusion outfit Three albums followed, Strange New Flesh, Electric Savage, and Wardance plus a chart-topping collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber, Variations (still to be heard introducing ITV’s The South Bank Show). In 1977 Don contributed keys to Gary Moore’s first solo outing, Back on the Streets, providing the arrangement for a tune called Biscayne Blues, which Phil Lynott’s lyrics transformed into Parisienne Walkways, a top ten hit all over the world. When Colosseum II sadly folded in 1978, Don briefly joined Black Sabbath, playing keys on the album Never Say Die, before answering Cozy Powell’s call to fly to New York and join him and the legendary Ritchie Blackmore in Rainbow. Two hit albums, Down to Earth, and Difficult to Cure followed, plus worldwide hit singles Since You Been Gone, All Night Long, and I Surrender, with three years of world tours. On a break in 1980 Don played on Ozzy Osbourne’s first album since leaving Sabbath, Blizzard of Oz, and it was Don’s gothic keyboard intro to Mr Crowley, that helped to break the band on American radio. At the conclusion of the Rainbow world tour of 1981, Don flew to LA and climbed aboard the Ozzy crazy train staying for another three year stint, that saw the albums Bark at the Moon, and Speak of the Devil emerge. Returning to the UK in 1985, he played diverse sessions (including Gary Moore’s Out in the Fields) before flying to Vancouver to add keyboards to an album that would become one of the biggest selling rock albums ever, Whitesnake’s Whitesnake 87, spawning three world-wide top ten singles, In the Still of the Night (complete with monumental 2 minute keyboard instrumental), Here I go Again, and Is this Love. Don returned to touring in 1987 joining Jethro Tull for their European and US jaunts. Securing a solo deal with MCA, he quit Tull in Jan 88 to compose K2, which was recorded in the summer with Gary Moore, Cozy Powell, Chris Thompson and Colin Blunstone. It had a limited release in Japan and Germany only, in 1989. Meanwhile its author had fled back to Los Angeles to begin work on the next Whitesnake album, Slip of the Tongue. Returning to London in the autumn he joined the pre-production rehearsals for Gary Moore’s new blues project. Playing Hammond, and arranging all strings and brass, the album Still got the Blues went on to become the biggest selling blues album ever, producing three hits : King of the Blues, Still Got the Blues, and Walking by Myself, plus one year’s worth of touring. In 1991, he continued to tour and record, albeit more sporadically, with Brian May, Cozy Powell, Tony Iommi, Katrina & the Waves, Uli Roth, and in 1996 joined the reformed Electric Light Orchestra on their year-long world tour. In 1997 he coaxed Colin Blunstone out of retirement and onto a sell-out club and theatre tour of the U.K. and Europe. Even more unlikely, he flew to Dublin in April where he arranged and conducted Love Shine a Light for Katrina & the Waves, to win the Eurovision Song Contest for the Royaume Uni. In 1998 Don produced Colin Blunstone’s critically acclaimed comeback album The Light Inside, and toured with Joe Satriani’s G3. He then joined a Whitesnake re-incarnation with old chums Bernie Marsden and Micky Moody, The Snakes, that has toured constantly ever since. 1998 Don equally collaborated with Black Sabbath singer Tony Martin, and guitar wiz Dario Mollo, on metal album project The Cage, released in Europe this year. Visit the Cage web site @ http://www.homecage.com 1999 will see the release of a re-mastered and re-packaged K2 on 121 plus a tour starting in May with his own band, playing not only music from the album, but past hits celebrating 25 years in the business. Don lives in British South-West Cambridgeshire, with his wife Doris, and their three children, where he runs his own pre-production and project studio.
More about K2 Visit the official Don Airey web site Back to the K2 CD page