John Helliwell

John Anthony Helliwell born 15 February 1945 is an English musician best known as the saxophonist secondary keyboardist backing vocalist and occasional songwriter for the rock band Supertramp He also served as an MC during the bands concerts talking and making jokes to the audience between songs Helliwell played with The Alan Bown Set replacing Dave Green when he joined in January 1966 before joining Supertramp in 1973 along with bassist Dougie Thomson who convinced Helliwell to make the move In 2004 Helliwell formed the band Crème Anglaise with Mark Hart who had joined Supertramp in 1985 This group recorded their eponymous debut album in 2005 In 1987 Helliwell played on Pink Floyds album A Momentary Lapse of Reason his name was misspelled as Halliwell This was after Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour had played on Supertramps album Brother Where You Bound Helliwell also played on French singer JeanJacques Goldmans 1985 album Positif and clarinet on Sara Hickmans 1990 album Shortstop During a professional lull in the 1990s Helliwell began studying for a music degree at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester but he discontinued his studies to join Supertramp on tour when Some Things Never Change was released In 2004 he contributed saxophone work on the Simon Apple album River to the Sea Helliwell contributed clarinet to The Pineapple Thiefs song Fend For Yourself from their Your Wilderness album which was released in 2016 Helliwell fronts the Super Big Tramp Band which has a jazz big band lineup of trumpets trombones saxophones and rhythm section It plays versions of Supertramp tunes arranged by members of the band with no vocals but with Helliwell as the chief soloist The band first played in Manchester in June 2013 In 2019 the band played at the Manchester Jazz Festival in May and was scheduled to play in Hull and Hamburg later in the year In October 2020 Helliwell released Ever Open Door a CD album of ballads with Helliwell on saxophone and clarinet with a string quartet and Hammond organ Source Article John Helliwell from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30