Biography - shorter version

Scroll down for totally epic version…

During his over five-decade career (and still counting), Colin Bass has worked in a wide range of musical fields with a diverse range of international artists: most extensively with British prog-rock veterans, Camel (1979 to present day), and ‘world-music’ pioneers, 3 Mustaphas 3 (1985-1992). He was also a member of British guitarist Steve Hillage’s Band (1975-1976) and has appeared as bassist on albums by top Malian singing star, Oumou Sangare (‘Ko Sira’ 1993), Zimbabwean Mbira Queen, Stella Chiweshe (‘Ambuya’ 1988), Nigerian percussionist Gasper Lawal (‘Ajomase’ 1980, ‘Abiosunni’ 1985), and Senegambian kora masters, Dembo Konte and Kausu Kouyateh (‘Jali Roll’ 1990), amongst others.

He has released three albums under his own name (‘An Outcast of the Islands’ 1998, ‘In The Meantime’ 2003, ‘At Wild End’ 2014) and a series of three albums recorded in Indonesia between 1992 and 1999, in the guise of his 3 Mustaphas 3 persona, Sabah Habas Mustapha. The title track of the first, "Denpasar Moon", became a hugely popular song in Indonesia in the mid-1990s, and has been covered by over 50 Indonesian, Malaysian, and Japanese artists.

His most recent release is a collaboration with keyboardist & composer, Daniel Biro (‘Still’ 2020)

Meanwhile, in the role of Record Producer, his creative input can be heard on albums by The Klezmatics (USA), Sambasunda (West Java, Indonesia), Maija Kauhanen (Finland), Etran Finatawa (Niger), 9Bach (Wales), Krar Collective (Ethiopia), Joonas Widenius (Finland), Stella Chiweshe (Zimbabwe), Alhousseini Anivolla (Niger), and Tarika (Madagascar).

See full Discography HERE

Biography - Longer version

in which nothing much happens but a lot goes on nevertheless

Having early on succumbed to the lure of rock’n’roll (mostly through the transformational sounds of Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Little Richard and Lonnie Donegan), Colin began playing a tennis racquet while practising his moves in front of a mirror at the age of 5.  He finally acquired his first guitar (and accompanying blisters) at the age of 8. Teenage schoolyears in the 60s saw obsessions with The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and The Yardbirds, all three being gateway drugs to the world of the Blues. He formed a group with his schoolfriends, The Reaction, taking on the role of lead singer and blues harmonica player (and thrasher of tambourines and maraccas, of course). That group morphed into another called The Switch (fun fact: the line-up featured future Atomic Rooster lead singer, Peter French), but nothing much happened. He left school at the age of 15 and took a job at a photographic processing firm. In 1967 he answered a classified ad in the Melody Maker newspaper from a band called The Krisis who were looking for a guitarist. An immediate bond was formed and the door to life ‘on the road’ creaked open. In 1968 they ‘went professional’, which means they gave up their day-jobs and began a life of eating mostly chips and sleeping in their van. Luckily, at that time (before the advent of the DJ) it was possible for a young band to get gigs around the country playing in clubs, town halls, colleges, often as ‘support band’ to bigger acts. So it was that, dressed in their flowered shirts and velvet loon-pants (tailored by Colin Wild at The Carnaby Cavern), they did their best to warm up the audiences for such bands as The Who, The Move, Pink Floyd, The Nice, The Bonzo Dog Band and many others. Further fame eluded them however and The Krisis split in 1969. Colin sold his Fender Mustang guitar (bad move) and accquired a Futurama bass (oh well), and set out to explore the lower frequencies of life.

A new band was formed with Krisis drummer Roger Grey and guitarist Ian Gomm, which rehearsed a lot and played a handful of gigs under a succession of inappropriate names but nothing much happened. In 1970 another Melody Maker classified ad landed him a job with the band Velvet Opera, with whom he made his first recordings for Spark Records. But nothing much happened there either. But in 1971 another Melody Maker classified ad landed him a job in an incarnation of the 60’s chart-topping group The Foundations, featuring original members Eric Allendale (trombone, congas), Pat Burke (flute, saxophone) and Tim Harris (drums). Joining on the same day was Liverpudlian guitarist Dave Vasco. They spent a year playing the cabaret circuit, mostly in the north of England, with a memorable tour of Northern Ireland during which all the band’s gear was stolen outside the hotel in Belfast. It was at least a dues-paying, wage-earning and culturally educating time and the stolen Futurama bass was replaced with a proper Fender Precision.

In 1971 former band-mate Ian Gomm, who had since become a member of Brinsley Schwarz, introduced Colin to Ernie Graham, formerly of Belfast rock band Eire Apparent and, together with guitarist Jonathan Glemser, they formed the band Clancy, joined shortly afterwards by the aforementioned Dave Vasco.The band became part of London’s growing Pub-Rock scene and briefly signed with Island Records but were dropped after differences with producer Muff Winwood.

Shortly afterwards the band signed with Warner Brothers and recorded two albums: “Seriously Speaking” (1974) and “Every Day” (1975). The line-up on both was: Bass (bass, vocals), Ernie Graham (guitar, vocals), Gasper Lawal (percussion) Dave Vasco (guitar), Dave Skinner (keyboards, vocals) and Barry Ford (drums, vocals).

Clancy split in 1976 and Colin joined Steve Hillage, who was putting together a band to promote the album “L” on a six-month tour of Europe and the USA, where they supported ELO on a stadium tour. The line-up included ex-Jethro Tull drummer Clive Bunker.

In 1977 Colin was invited by American saxophonist and composer Jim Cuomo, who had occasionally played with Clancy, to participate in his musical “Woe Babylon” at the Edinburgh Festival. The band from the show included pianist Ollie Marland and drummer Miguel Olivares and this quartet became a project known as the Casual Band. Olivares was later replaced by ex-Back Door drummer Tony Hicks. Recordings were made with producer Tom Newman but were never released.

In 1979, Steve Hillage tour manager Laurie Small recommended Colin to British progressive-rock band Camel, who were looking for a bassist to replace Richard Sinclair. The line-up at the time was Andrew Latimer (guitar, vocals), Andy Ward (drums) and Kit Watkins and Jan Schelhaas (keyboards). There followed two albums “I Can See Your House From Here” (1979) and “Nude” (1980) and respective international tours.

In 1981 at the end of the “Nude” tour, Andy Ward’s health problems led to Andrew Latimer’s dissolving of the band. Colin relocated to Paris where he recorded an album and performed live with old colleague Jim Cuomo.

Returning to the UK in 1983 he took up a teaching post, played sessions (notably on two albums by Gasper Lawal), and club and pub gigs with various line-ups until Andrew Latimer invited him to rejoin Camel for the 1984 “Stationary Traveller” tour. In the same year he started to play with the Anglo-Ghanaian band Orchestra Jazira, which led to his induction in the pioneer world-music group 3 Mustaphas 3, who renamed him as Sabah Habas Mustapha.

Between 1985 and 1991 the 3 Mustaphas 3 recorded four full albums and sundry singles and EPs and established a cult following for their live performances, touring in the USA, Europe, Japan and also in the then Soviet-bloc countries of East Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria, as well as forming the orchestra for the memorable London concert by Yemeni-Israeli singer Ofra Haza at the Royal Festival Hall.

When the 3 Mustaphas 3 stopped activities in 1991 Colin went to Indonesia where, over the next ten years he recorded three solo albums with Indonesian musicians under the name of Sabah Habas Mustapha. The first, “Denpasar Moon” (1994), was recorded in Jakarta and explored the sounds of the popular music style Dangdut.

The title song became a major hit in Indonesia in the form of a cover-version by a singer from the Philippines called Maribeth and was subsequently recorded by over 40 different Indonesian artists. It’s still an ‘evergreen’ in Indonesia with new versions popping up occasionally.

In 1997 Colin founded the Kartini Music record label whose first release was another Sabah Habas Mustapha record, “Jalan Kopo”, recorded in Bandung and this time influenced by the sounds of the West Javanese province of Sunda, particularly Degung, Pop-Sunda and Jaipongan.

At the same time, the 90’s also saw a rejuvenated Camel back on the scene after a long period of inactivity due to a protracted legal dispute with previous management. In 1991 Andrew Latimer, now relocated to California, invited Colin to participate in the recording of “Dust and Dreams”, the first release on his own label Camel Productions, which was followed by a world tour in 1992.

Between then and 2003 Camel released another three studio albums,”Harbour of Tears”, “Rajaz” and “A Nod and a Wink”, each followed by concert tours, performing in the US, Europe, Japan and South America.

In 1998 Kartini Music released Colin’s first album under the name Colin Bass: “An Outcast of the Islands”. Recorded in Poland and California and featuring Andrew Latimer on guitar, the then Camel drummer Dave Stewart, Polish progressive rock band Quidam and members of the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra, the album gathered critical praise and helped establish his reputation in Poland. Subsequent tours there produced two live albums: “Live at Polskie Radio 3” (1999) and “Live Vol.2: Acoustic Songs” (2000).

2000 also saw the release of another Sabah Habas Mustapha album recorded in Bandung, Indonesia : “So La Li”. It further explored the sounds of the Sundanese region and featured again the multi-instrumentalist Ismet Ruchimat and several musicians from his group Sambasunda, named for this occasion as The Jugala Allstars. “So La Li” won wide critical acclaim and was nominated for a BBC Radio 3 World Music Award. Sabah Habas and the Jugala Allstars toured the UK and performed at several major European world music festivals including Sfinks in Belgium, Sziget in Hungary and Rudolstadt in Germany.

During the ‘noughties’ Colin expanded his production experience (Etran Finatawa, Daniel Kahn, Sambasunda, a.o.) and continued presenting his long-running (1994-2008) radio show, ‘Sabah am Sonntag’, for RBB Radio MultiKulti in Berlin, the city in which he’d been resident since 1988.

In 2010 he returned to Bandung in West Java to participate in the first Monju World Music Festival and the following year relocated from Berlin to London and worked on productions for Krar Collective (Ethiopia), Lord Mouse & the Kalypso Katz (Germany), and Alhousseini Anivolla (Niger). In 2012 he was commisioned to form a band featuring musicians from Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos, Brunei, Thailand and Cambodia, to appear in the River of Music event as part of the Olympic Games celebrations. After some research an ad hoc but extremely excellent ensemble was formed, named The Bamboo Pearl Orchestra.

Later that same year he moved to the Snowdonia area in north Wales where he set up Wild End Studio and began work on his third solo album, ‘At Wild End’.

2013 began with a trip to Niger to oversee recording of another Etran Finatawa album, which took place in a makeshift tent in the Saharan dunes outside of Niamey.

The year continued with recording and mixing sessions at Wild End Studio for the Welsh band 9Bach. The resulting album ‘Tincian’ was released on Real World records.

2013 continued a surprise re-emergence of Camel after a hiatus of some 10 years due to mainman Andrew Latimer’s ill-health, beginning with sessions for a re-recording of the classic Snow Goose album and extensive rehearsals and eventual “Snow Goose” tour.

More Camel activity followed over the next few years. A more extensive tour began in 2015 - Blog of that one here. In 2016 preparations for a tour in Japan (Blog here) led to the recruitment of keyboard player Peter Jones, creating an empathetic four-piece line-up that continued to the 2018 ‘Moon Madness’ tour, the band’s most successful to date, starting in Japan and playing to sold out venues in Istanbul, Israel, Netherlands, Germany and around the UK, finishing up at the Royal Albert Hall. A DVD of that show is available from Camel Productions.

Despite the restrictions of the ensuing covid saga, work has been continuing at Wild End Studio on new material and collaborations with other artists, most recently with Iranian experimental prog-jazz ensemble, Quartet Diminished and appearances on the album by Dutch guitarist Eddie Muldur, Blind Hunter. At time of writing, the 50th Anniversary Camel world tour is being set in motion for 2023.