“Rest in peace, Bobby”: Veteran vocalist and guitarist Bobby Tench – who worked with the likes of Jeff Beck, Peter Green, Humble Pie, Ginger Baker, Van Morrison and many more – dies, aged 79

Bobby Tench has died aged 79, according to a source close to the guitarist and singer.

Tench was born in 1944 in London, coming of age in time to establish himself as a regular on the city’s ’60s club circuit.

His band, The Gass – formed alongside brothers Godfrey and Errol McLean – played the same handful of venues that nurtured much of the British blues and rock greats of the era and reportedly offered up guest spots to the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Eric Burdon (of The Animals). 

They later recorded the album Juju in 1970, which featured an appearance from another friend from the club scene, Peter Green, who played on the title track alongside the song Black Velvet.

Tench was an adept guitarist, a phenomenal vocalist and even turned his hand to bass when required – a versatility that helped him find homes in a multitude of star-studded settings across his career. 

Indeed, when Jeff Beck was charged with finding a new singer for the Jeff Beck Group after the departure of Rod Stewart and the subsequent label rejection for initial replacement Alex Ligertwood, the guitar hero turned to Tench.

The singer subsequently supplied vocals last minute for the somewhat dismissively titled Rough and Ready and its follow-up, 1972’s The Jeff Beck Group. His more progressive vocal work on Rough and Ready split critical opinion at the time.

There were also stints in the early-’70s- with Ginger Baker (1971’s Stratovarious) and as a guitarist on blues great Freddie King’s final two albums, Burglar and Larger Than Life, not to mention a pre-Wailers fame Junior Marvin. 

He then stepped back into the rock world, reuniting with his Jeff Beck Group associates Max Middleton, Clive Chaman and – briefly, in some sessions with Beck himself – in a new group dubbed Hummingbird. 

By 1975, he was playing in The Streetwalkers with former Family frontman Roger Chapman and Charlie Whitney. 

“Roger Chapman, Charlie Whitney, and Bobby Tench have been one step away from the big time for so long now that it makes you wonder what the problem is,” observed Sounds journalist (and, later, noted publicist) Barbara Charone when she saw them performing in support of The Who in 1976 [via RocksBackPages, paywall]. 

“Everyone knows Family should have made it, that Chapman/Whitney should have made it, and that now Streetwalkers should make it. They certainly deserve to.”

Soon after, Van Morrison recruited Tench as lead guitarist and backing vocalist on his 1978 album, Wavelength, and later that year he also performed on Eric Burdon’s album Darkness, Darkness alongside Brian Robertson of Thin Lizzy. 

As with many of Tench’s connections, it proved to be a lasting relationship and Robertson later brought his friend in for a stint as vocalist with the Thin Lizzy Band, following Phil Lynott’s passing.

Come the turn of the decade, Tench was approached by Steve Marriott to join Humble Pie as a fellow guitarist and singer. They made two albums (On to Victory and Go for the Throat), with Marriot observing at the time to Trouser Press [paywall]: 

“Bobby and I aren't great guitarists, but we're good ones, and with the vocals we've got we don't want no flash guitar; Van Halen can cover that sphere.”

The line-up of Tench’s sessions and star associations continued, though he never found fame in his own right, his extensive resumé evidences the respect with which he was regarded in British rock circles. 

Most recently, Tench’s name was in the headlines again, in association with Mark Knopfler’s record-breaking 1959 Gibson Les Paul ’Burst auction – an instrument that sold for $876,000 and which Knopfler purchased from Tench in the mid-’90s.

Meanwhile, Joe Bonamassa has previously hailed Tench as a significant vocal influence – though he was no slouch on guitar, despite Marriot’s good-humored deprecations above – and took to Twitter to pay tribute to the departed musician. 

“Rest in peace Bobby,” wrote the blues rocker, who shared a clip of Tench’s performance of I Gotta Have a Song with the Jeff Beck Group. “One of the greatest singers to ever step behind the mic.”