Martin Gordon
British musician
Martin Gordon (born 3 May 1954) is an English musician who plays bass guitar, double bass, and piano. He is known for his work with the art pop duo Sparks and the glam rock band Jet, the latter reforming as the punk group Radio Stars. In the 1980s, Gordon performed session work for many bands, and in the 1990s he participated in world music, especially in several gamelan orchestras. He resumed rock and pop work in the 2000s.
Biography
Martin Gordon was born in Ipswich, and grew up in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. He studied piano and classical guitar as a child and attended summer schools hosted by the British National Jazz Youth Orchestra, where he took lessons from Nucleus bassist Jeff Clyne.
Gordon began his musical career in the 1970s with the Californian pop brothers Ron Mael and Russell Mael in Sparks, who were seeking a bassist after their relocation to the UK. Gordon played with Sparks on the album Kimono My House (1974), which featured his trademark Rickenbacker 4001 bass. "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" and "'Amateur Hour" were UK hits from that album. "This Town..." made No. 2 in the UK singles chart but, after one album, Gordon and Sparks parted company.
The public source identifies “Martin Gordon” as british musician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Martin, Gordon and British.
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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 Jul 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6775548. VIAF identifies the subject as 35655776. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1954 and 1974.
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This entry incorporates text from “Martin Gordon” 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.