SimonKirke

Simon Kirke (www.simonkirke.com) - Artist in Residence Biography Simon Kirke was born in London on July 28th, 1950 and spent his early years living in the borderlands of Wales. Leaving school at age 17, he returned to London and set about finding a drumming job in the booming blues scene. After a fruitless 18 months he was resigned to returning to the country when he met Paul Kossoff who was playing in a band called the Black Cat Bones. Simon was offered the drumming position in the band for which he played for 6 months. Simon and Paul Kossoff left the band and together with Paul Rodgers and Andy Fraser formed Free. In the four years Free were together, they had an enormous influence on many bands on both sides of the Atlantic. Their biggest hit “Alright Now” has become a rock classic and recently polled over 2 million plays on the radio. After the disbanding of Free in 1973, Simon and Paul Rodgers once again teamed up to form Bad Company. They were joined by guitarist Mick Ralphs and bassist Boz Burrell. Bad Company became one of the biggest and best live acts which have sold approximately 60 million singles and albums to date. As well as touring with Ringo Starr’s All Star Band on three separate occasions, Simon is an accomplished songwriter, releasing “Seven Rays of Hope” in 2005 and is currently working on his new CD scheduled for release in late 2006. He has also worked on projects with Wilson Pickett, Bo Didley, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Keith Richards, Ronnie Woods and Eric Clapton. A governor on the boards of NARAS (the Grammy Committee) Simon now lives in Manhattan with his wife Lorraine and four children.