Accomplishing the unlikely feat of bridging the great divide between prog rock and pure pop, Supertramp became one of the most successful British bands of the 1970s and 80s. The group’s creative driving force was the partnership between Rick Davies, who has died aged 81 after suffering from multiple myeloma, and Roger Hodgson. They wrote all of Supertramp’s big chart hits and best-known songs, but though the compositions were credited to both of them, the songs were invariably written solely by one or the other.
The New York Times suggested that Hodgson “was known for his celestial tenor and his Paul McCartney-esque ear for melody”, demonstrated on the likes of Dreamer and The Logical Song. Meanwhile Davies’s grittier tones could be discerned on Bloody Well Right, Crime of the Century and Goodbye Stranger.
Davies and Hodgson were contrasting characters. While Hodgson had attended Stowe public school, Davies came from an earthier background, and was studying art at Swindon College when he formed his first band. His lyrics to Bloody Well Right, which gave Supertramp their first hit in the US when it reached No 35 in 1974, alluded to the very English theme of class division: “You say it all depends on money / And who is in your family tree.”
The contrast between the two songwriters would eventually lead to an acrimonious split, but it also helped fuel them creatively. “I could be putting down his way of thinking and he could be challenging my way of seeing life,” Hodgson commented. “The contrast is what makes Supertramp go round.” On the other hand, Davies observed how their relationship was “like two people who are painting a picture on the same canvas … and you have problems, because the picture doesn’t get finished.”
It was their third album, Crime of the Century (1974), that thrust the group into the global spotlight. It reached No 4 in the UK and 38 in the US, and delivered two of their best-loved hits, Dreamer and Bloody Well Right. A hectic touring schedule meant that the follow-up album, Crisis? What Crisis? (1975), was rushed and unsatisfactory, but they made amends with Even in the Quietest Moments … (1977), a Top 20 album in the States that also gave them a Top 20 US single, Give a Little Bit.
But the icing on the Supertramp cake arrived with Breakfast in America (1979), an international smash that topped the US and several other charts, though only reached No 3 in the UK. Boosted by a trio of big US hit singles – The Logical Song, Goodbye Stranger and Take the Long Way Home – the album was glued to the top of the US chart for six weeks and would become Supertramp’s bestselling album, going on to sell 20m copies worldwide.
Born in Swindon, Rick was the son of Elizabeth (nee White), a hairdresser, and Richard, a merchant seaman. The boy’s interest in music was triggered at the age of eight when his parents gave him a second-hand radiogram and some records to go with it. These included Drummin’ Man by the jazz drummer Gene Krupa, which inspired him to start playing drums. He acquired a drum kit and took lessons, and at age 12 he was playing the snare drum with a marching band.
He attended Sanford Street school, and by the end of the 50s was playing drums with a rock’n’roll band, Vince and the Vigilantes. He then went to Swindon College, and also formed his own band, Rick’s Blues. By now he had taught himself the piano and switched to playing a Hohner electric instrument, noticing “that seemed to go over better than my drumming, for some reason”. Occupying the drum stool was the future pop star Gilbert O’Sullivan.
Davies took a break from music when his father fell ill, and worked as a welder temporarily, but returned in 1966 as an organist with the Lonely Ones (an ex-band member was Noel Redding, the future bass player with the Jimi Hendrix Experience). The group renamed themselves the Joint, and when they were playing at a club in Munich they were spotted by a Dutch millionaire, Stanley August Miesegaes. Impressed by Davies’ musicianship, he felt the group was unworthy of his talents. He pledged that if Davies found himself a better band, he would manage them and supply financial backing.
Thus, in 1969 Davies advertised in Melody Maker for new musicians, and one of the applicants was Hodgson, who would play bass and later guitar and keyboards. The pair formed an immediate songwriting bond. Miesegaes helped them secure a deal with A&M records and funded their first two albums, Supertramp (1970) and Indelibly Stamped (1971). Neither of these sold well, despite some favourable reviews that drew attention to the group’s ambitious if sometimes overblown songwriting and inventive instrumentation.
Several lineup changes accompanied the band’s quest for a distinct identity, with the guitarist Richard Palmer and drummer Bob Millar leaving after the first album (it was Palmer who suggested replacing the band’s original name, Daddy, with Supertramp, after WH Davies’ book The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp). Frank Farrell, Dave Winthrop and Kevin Currie joined Hodgson and Davies on the follow-up, but when this sold even fewer copies than its predecessor, the group disintegrated and Miesegaes withdrew his financial support. Hodgson and Davies were left wondering if they had a future.
Their triumphant resurgence owed much to Dave Margereson, a young A&R man at A&M who sensed the pair’s potential. Their initial two-album deal with A&M had terminated, so Margereson organised a new deal and secured them a publishing contract with Rondor Music. Davies and Hodgson recruited the bassist Dougie Thomson, drummer Bob Siebenberg and saxophonist John Helliwell to form the band’s “classic” lineup. Margereson found them a farmhouse in Somerset called Southcombe, where they worked on what would become Crime of the Century, the album that lit the blue touchpaper under the band’s career.
Margereson became the band’s manager and it was at his urging that the group moved to Los Angeles in 1975, to concentrate on breaking into the American market.
Their seventh album, … Famous Last Words … (1982), despite being a No 5 hit in the States and reaching 6 in the UK, was also Hodgson’s last with the band. He disagreed with Davies’s wish to pursue a more progressive-rock direction and quit to pursue a solo career. Davies continued with Supertramp for another six years and a couple more albums, including 1985’s Brother Where You Bound, which delivered the US Top 30 single Cannonball, until the group dissolved after their 1988 tour.
Davies would reform Supertramp during the 90s, but Hodgson was aggrieved that Davies was performing his songs, despite having apparently agreed not to do so. Hodgson argued that “people want to hear the songs sung by the man who wrote them”. In 2002 Supertramp’s 11th and final studio album, Slow Motion, was released.
Davies was planning a farewell European tour with Supertramp in 2015, but had to cancel it when he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.
He is survived by his wife, Sue, who had been Supertramp’s manager since 1984.