Hodkinson's bluesy yet angular style was already entrenched with Back Door, his early seventies jazz rock outfit when Claypool was still a baby or perhaps not even born. He then went on to record and play with Jan Hammer, Neil Schon, Alexis Korner and Pete York. At the recommendation of Jon Lord, he joined Whitesnake in the early eighties, but after a comparatively short time he was asked to leave again. As he himself said, he did it for the money and never felt comfortable in the Whitesnake world. Used to jazzy players sympathetic to his bass playing, he couldn't lock in with Cozy Powell's powerhouse drumming which required powerful root note quarters and eighths and very little else. Hodkinson was at a loss what to play so he played very little and that rather unconvincingly - I saw him a couple of times with WS and it was akward everytime. He only lit up during his blues solo spot with Micky Moody. After WS he played with Peter Maffay (a German MOR singer/songwriter - ironically Colin was asked to leave that band as well for his rather angular playing when their drummer met Ken Taylor, a black German session bass payer with a much smoother style) as well as the Spencer Davis Group (in one of the more recent touring line ups) and various blues outfits with e.g. Miller Anderson (possibly a one time Back Door member IIRC).
