“He’s so playful and cheeky… nothing he ever does sounds muso. I recognise the punk-rock chancer that I am in his playing”: What Guy Pratt learned from Tony Levin

Guy Pratt and Tony Levin — (Image credit: Getty Images)

If Tony Levin hadn’t been busy with Peter Gabriel in 1987, Guy Pratt might not have landed the bassist role with Pink Floyd – a role that cemented his career. In 2019, as Prog celebrated our 100th issue by celebrating 100 great musicians of the genre, Pratt explained why bass, upright bass and Chapman Stick player Levin was his personal prog icon.

“I’m choosing Tony as my prog icon, although obviously his work straddles a great deal of genres. He’s as much art-rock as anything; you could say the same of Robert Fripp.

Tony has played on so many records that I love. He’s probably been the biggest influence on me as a bass player, more than anyone, yet not in an overt way. What’s so extraordinary about him is that for someone who has such stratospheric technical ability – he’s transcribed Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite for the Chapman Stick, for Christ’s sake – he’s so playful and cheeky as a player.

Nothing he ever does sounds muso. I recognise the punk-rock chancer that I am in his playing. He’s one of the few players where I often think: ‘I would have done that!’

I only got the Pink Floyd gig because Tony had to go on tour with Peter Gabriel, so I owe him. On that first tour with Floyd, on One Slip there’s a Stick solo in it, which I had to emulate on bass. I did it by turning up every effect I had and just going nuts. Copying his playing felt really natural – pretty much everything he does feels incredibly natural.

I went with Lee Harris [from Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets] to see him at the reunion of L’Image, Tony’s original 70s band with Steve Gadd. Everyone in this band was so stellar. Lee said that they were so good, it was the only time he’d ever seen a band with Steve Gadd in it and forgotten that Steve Gadd was in it!

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I’ve always got on fantastically with Tony – he’s the most charming, delightful company. We got on stage together at the NAMM Show in California in 2013. He’d done a long thing explaining to the audience why he couldn’t play Sledgehammer because he didn’t have the right effects. I reminded him that the first rule of showbiz is that you don’t tell people why you can’t do something – you just do it. So we started playing it.

King Crimson’s Elephant Talk is a riff I always play at soundcheck, but my personal favourite – and that’s because there’s a little trick I nicked off it unconsciously, which has been a mainstay of my playing ever since – is Not One Of Us from Peter Gabriel III. I wasn’t even sure that was a Stick; I just wondered how on earth you could get a bass to sound like that.”

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Daryl Easlea has contributed to Prog since its first edition, and has written cover features on Pink Floyd, Genesis, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel and Gentle Giant. After 20 years in music retail, when Daryl worked full-time at Record Collector, his broad tastes and knowledge led to him being deemed a ‘generalist.’ DJ, compere, and consultant to record companies, his books explore prog, populist African-American music and pop eccentrics. Currently writing Whatever Happened To Slade?, Daryl broadcasts Easlea Like A Sunday Morning on Ship Full Of Bombs, can be seen on Channel 5 talking about pop and hosts the M Means Music podcast.