Keith Gemmell
British musician
Keith Gemmell (15 February 1948 – 24 July 2016) was a British musician. He was best known for being a member of art rock band Audience from 1969 to 1972 and from 2004 to 2016. He was also a musical arranger and composer, published digital sheet music, wrote articles for the UK publication Music Tech Magazine, and was the author of several books including the best-seller Cubase Tips & Tricks.
Early life and career
Keith Gemmell was born in Hackney, London. He started playing the recorder at the age of 13 and was later attracted to the clarinet on hearing Acker Bilk's "Stranger on the Shore". He has cited his early influences as the British trad jazz bands of the day, Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball and Chris Barber being the best known names. Upon hearing such bands as Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, Sounds Incorporated and The Mar-Keys he decided to take up the saxophone and began playing in local bands. Aged 17, he turned fully professional, joining Bognor Regis based band The Noblemen and between August 1965 and May 1966, toured Europe playing in clubs, US bases and the Piper Club in Rome. On returning to the UK he joined Hackney band, The Lloyd Alexander Blues Band, who later metamorphosed into Audience.
Performing and recording career
Formed in 1969, Audience had an unusual line up of tenor sax doubling clarinet and flute, electric acoustic guitar, drums and bass.
“Keith Gemmell” enters the record as british musician. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Keith, Gemmell and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 22, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q6384396. The first chronological checks are 1948, 2016, 1969 and 1972.
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This entry incorporates text from “Keith Gemmell” 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.