Usually keeping in the back of a group he lent his name to, Andy Newman was a backbone of THUNDERCLAP NEWMAN, even though many perceived it either as a launchpad for guitarist Jimmy McCulloch or the vehicle for drummer Speedy Keen’s songs. Unlike his mates, Newman was a versatile multi-instrumentalist, most proficient on piano and sax, so it was his sonic vision that shaped the group’s sound which the world came to know on their only hit “Something In The Air” and one that Andy somehow maintained, on a lower level, in the years after the ensemble’s break-up.
A few years ago, the veteran revived the name for a combo he led with the help of Mark Brzezicki of BIG COUNTRY and PROCOL HARUM fame, yet they didn’t produce new recordings. They could have, yet Newmark died on March 30th, aged 72, the last of the original line-up to make it this far. R.I.P.
“Music is a form of expression which transcends language and words. I feel that it has a greatness which surpasses near material things, and if I die having done something musically great, I will die happy,” Andy once remarked. Hopefully, he did exactly as he said.
