Mick Hawksworth ...

[uwe]

... did not only look like Glenn Cornick's twin brother in the seventies, he also shared the latter's penchant for Gibson basses. A member of Alvin Lee's late seventies Ten Years Later power trio outfit, he was the first guy I saw with an RD when he played in 1978 in Germany's Rockpalast, a series of Europe-wide live concert TV broadcasts.

Did he just refin the middle section of this TBird or is that actually a replacement maple center piece? Neck looks kind of wider than on a reg TBird. It would be an interesting concept of taking the Fenderbird even further ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpJvWqMnX34&feature=related

With the RD Artist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stS0qDAmvwU&feature=related

This man was obviously a non-Fenderista, pleasantly so. He switched basses from song to song, but had fine taste, even a Guild B-302 gets a showing:

[lowend1]

I don't know if the center was replaced (seems kinda pointless on a neck thru), but the pickups look like they are closer together than they should be - sort of. Unless they were swapped for something larger, like a pair o' muddies... hard to tell.

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

Cooool

See my Leo Lyons thread over yonder that I just posted tooo

[EvilLordJuju]

oooh, he looks like a good candidate for an interview... anyone know how to contact him?

[EvilLordJuju]

Mick Hawksworth - what a nice man. Yes that Thunderbird has indeed got a new centre block. It was actually owned by Gary Thain (Uriah Heep), and Mick bought it (with new centre block added) from the guy who inherited Garys equipment.

His current band is called Tres Geezers and i'm going to see them in a couple weeks (Surrey somewhere if any UK readers fancy a night out). He plays de-fretted RD Artists these days. There will be plenty more in the interview when I finally get it done (you all know what i'm like, it'll take me some time) but for now check out his bass playing on these tracks from the 1971 fuzzy duck album. Nice.



Check out the breakdown from 3:20 - why hasn't someone sampled that?

[uwe]

Hey, do I get a commission for discovering him for you?    Glad you contacted him and the Gary Thain connection is interesting.

Ask him whether he still plays The Pink Panther theme in his bass solos like he did at Rockpalast (and uses the mic stand to play slide on his bass)! And how the Alvin Lee years were. While Herr Lee had a prima donna reputation with Ten Years After, I had the impression from the Rockpalast gig (out on DVD) that Mick and the drummer did get quite a bit of feature, he had his own extensive solo spot for instance ("Bass Boogie").