Alan Spenner
British musician (1948-1991)
Alan Henry Spenner (7 May 1948 – 11 August 1991) was an English bassist who performed with Wynder K. Frog, the Grease Band, Spooky Tooth, ABC, David Coverdale, David Soul, Joe Cocker, Kenny Loggins, Lynda Carter, Peter Frampton, Ted Nugent, Mick Taylor, China Crisis, Murray Head, Kokomo, Roxy Music, and played on the original 1970 concept album Jesus Christ Superstar.
Spenner played bass guitar live at Woodstock in 1969 with Joe Cocker and the Grease Band and can be seen on The Woodstock Directors Cut DVD. In 1975, he played on Bryn Haworth's second studio album Sunny Side of the Street. In August 1982, he played on Roxy Music's VHS/DVD The High Road, filmed live in Fréjus, France.
Spenner died on 11 August 1991 of a heart attack at the age of 43. He was married to Dyan Birch, former lead vocalist with Arrival and then Kokomo. His son Henry is the former drummer for the band Fields.
Equipment
Spenner typically played Fender Precision, Fender Precision Fretless and Wal electric basses through an Ampeg amplification system. His Wal bass was a 78 JG Series that, coupled with his playing style, provided a signature sound heard on many Roxy Music songs, such as "Same Old Scene" and "Avalon".
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Alan Spenner” is british musician (1948-1991). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Alan, Spenner and British, not as a finished interpretation.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4707822. VIAF identifies the subject as 29744510. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1948, 1991, 1970 and 1969.
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This entry incorporates text from “Alan Spenner” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.