Ray Fenwick, whose last recordings of film and TV instrumental music were released by Singsong Music in 2021, was a British guitarist of calibre advanced enough to sustain a 60-year career.
Ray, who died on April 30th 2022 at home, replaced Yes guitarist Steve Howe in The Syndicats and enjoyed a successful career start in Holland with Tee Set and After Tea before joining the Spencer Davis Group. He also co-wrote the theme music to cult British TV children’s show, ‘Magpie’.
In the ‘70s, he was a member of Fancy and the Ian Gillan Band and contributed to a number of solo projects by members of Deep Purple.
In 1987 he formed a musical collective called Forcefield with legendary drummer Cozy Powell.
In November 2020, Ray played lead guitar on the album ‘We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal’ by The Amorphous Androgynous. Described as a ‘symphonic mini album’ it also features Peter Hammill (Van Der Graaf Generator) on vocals alongside a host of musicians including Paul Weller and Brian Hopper (Caravan/Soft Machine).
Much admired, respected and liked in the music business, he will be missed.