Keith Gemmell

Keith Gemmell (15 February 1948 – 24 July 2016) was a British musician. He played saxophone, clarinet, and flute, and was best known for being a member of art rock band Audience from 1969 to 1972 and from 2004 to 2016. He was also a musical arranger and composer, published digital sheet music, wrote articles for the UK publication Music Tech Magazine, and was the author of several books including the best-seller Cubase Tips & Tricks.

Keith Gemmell was born in Hackney, London. He started playing the recorder at the age of 13 and was later attracted to the clarinet on hearing Acker Bilk's "Stranger on the Shore". He has cited his early influences as the British trad jazz bands of the day, Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball and Chris Barber being the best known names. Upon hearing such bands as Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, Sounds Incorporated and The Mar-Keys he decided to take up the saxophone and began playing in local bands. Aged 17, he turned fully professional, joining Bognor Regis based band The Noblemen and between August 1965 and May 1966, toured Europe playing in clubs, US bases and the Piper Club in Rome. On returning to the UK he joined Hackney band, The Lloyd Alexander Blues Band, who later metamorphosed into Audience.

Formed in 1969, Audience had an unusual line up of tenor sax doubling clarinet and flute, electric acoustic guitar, drums and bass. They had no lead guitarist as such and with the aid of echo loops and wah-wah pedal Gemmell's reeds replaced this traditional rock band role.

After Audience, in 1972, Gemmell joined forces with Mick Underwood, Geoff Sharkey, Paul Simmons and Mick Hodgkinson to form Sammy. Their one and only album was produced by Ian Gillan (Deep Purple).

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