Christopher John Spedding (born Peter Robinson, 17 June 1944) is an English guitarist and record producer. In a career spanning more than 50 years, Spedding is best known for his studio session work. By the early 1970s, he had become one of the most sought-after session guitarists in England. Spedding has played on and produced many albums and singles. He has also been a member of eleven rock bands: the Battered Ornaments, Frank Ricotti Quartet, King Mob, Mike Batt and Friends, Necessaries, Nucleus, Ricky Norton, Sharks, Trigger, and the Wombles. In May 1976, Spedding also produced the very first Sex Pistols recordings.
AllMusic has described Spedding as "one of the UK's most versatile session guitarists, [he] has had a long career on two continents that saw him tackle nearly every style of rock and
Spedding, a long-time friend of Chrissie Hynde, was a regular concert feature artist with the Pretenders on their US tour in March/April 1980. He appeared regularly during the band's encores, playing the guitar solos on their version of the Kinks' song "Stop Your Sobbing".
As well as his celebrated work as a session musician, Spedding pursued a solo career, releasing his debut album Songs Without Words in 1970. Since then, he has released fourteen studio albums, and two live albums. His only solo hit was 1975's "Motor Bikin'".
Career
Chris Spedding was born in Staveley, Derbyshire, but was raised in Sheffield and Birmingham by adoptive parents Muriel and Jack Spedding, and renamed Christopher John Spedding.
Whilst still with the Battered Ornaments, which without the departing Pete Brown left Spedding as their frontman, he joined the Frank Ricotti Quartet, and played guitar on the album Our Point of View, released in July 1969. He was also invited to play on Jack Bruce's first and third solo albums, Songs for a Tailor (1969) and Harmony Row (1971).
Spedding then recorded his own instrumental album, Songs Without Words (1970) for Harvest Records, which was released only in Japan.
During this time, he was also playing jazz-fusion with Nucleus and recorded and toured with Mike Gibbs, featuring as lead soloist on the track "Five for England" on Gibbs's Tanglewood 63 album. He played guitar on the Pete Atkin/Clive James album Driving Through Mythical America. He was a session player on Harry Nilsson's breakthrough album, Nilsson Schmilsson, recorded in London. In 1970, he played on the original recording of Jesus Christ Superstar, and in 1971 he also played on Pieces of Me by Linda Hoyle and Coming from Reality by Sixto Rodriguez, who was later the subject of the 2012 documentary Searching for Sugar Man. During 1972–74, Spedding played a central role in Sharks, initially with ex-Free bassist Andy Fraser. They recorded two albums and toured with Roxy Music. After that, he toured and recorded with John Cale. He also played with Roy Harper's occasional backing band Trigger, notably on 1975's HQ album. In 1972–76, he played in Mike Batt's novelty band The Wombles, and confirmed on the Marc Riley show on BBC Radio 6 Music that he performed on television in a Womble suit.
In 1975, Spedding had a Top 20 solo hit in the UK with "Motor Bikin'", which he promoted with popular television appearances on Top of the Pops and Supersonic, dressed in leather motorcycling gear, with greased hair. On his 1976 single Pogo Dancing he was backed by UK punk band The Vibrators. When further hits failed to materialise, he subsequently became better known as a session guitarist, appearing and recording with Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music, Elton John, Brian Eno, Jack Bruce, Nick Mason, Art Garfunkel, Typically Tropical, Katie Melua and Ginger Baker, amongst others. During the mid-1970s, he took part in the Wombles' UK tour in full costume, whilst wielding his trademark Gibson Flying V. His own album Chris Spedding (1975) was produced by Mickie Most. Spedding recorded a version of the American singer-songwriter Garland Jeffreys' song, "Wild in the Streets", on his own Hurt album. The song has since been covered by the Circle Jerks and is featured on Tony Hawk's American Wasteland.