John Gustafson

John “Gus” Gustafson also known as Johnny Gustafson (8 August 1942 – 12 September 2014), was an English bass guitar player and singer, who had a lengthy recording and live performance career. Born in Liverpool, he is known for his work with 1960s bands The Big Three and The Merseybeats, and for singing on the original recording of Jesus Christ Superstar as Simon Zealotes. He made an appearance on Roger Glover‘s The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast album track, “Watch Out for the Bat Now”, as a vocalist. He is probably best known for playing bass guitar for several re-incarnations of the Ian Gillan Band and for his earlier participation in the progressive rock band, Quatermass. He also re-formed The Pirates, originally the backing band for Johnny Kidd.^[1] Gustafson also played with Roxy Music on four of their early albums, which included their only American hit single, “Love Is the Drug“.

Discography[edit]

As contributor[edit]

With The Big Three

• At The Cavern Decca EP (1963)
• Resurrection Polydor (1973)

With The Merseybeats

• The Merseybeats Fontana (1964)
• On Stage Fontana EP (1964)
• I Think of You Fontana EP (1964)
• Wishin’ and Hopin’ Fontana EP (1964)
• The Merseybeats Greatest Hits Look (compilation album) (1977)
• Beats and Ballads Edsel (compilation) (1982)

With Quatermass

• Quatermass Harvest (1970) reissue Repertoire (1990)

With Hard Stuff

• Bulletproof Purple (1972)
• Bolex Dementia Purple (1973)

With Butterfly Ball (Roger Glover)

The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast^[2] (1974)

With Shawn Phillips band

• Furthermore (1974)
• Rumplestiltskin’s Resolve (1976)

With Roxy Music

• Stranded Island (1973)
• Country Life Island (1974)
• Siren Island (1975)
• Viva! Island (1976)

With Ian Gillan Band

• Child In Time Oyster (1976)
• Clear Air Turbulence (1977) Island
• Scarabus (1977) Island
• Live at the Budokan Virgin (1978)
• The Rockfield Mixes Angel Air (1997)
• Live at the Rainbow Angel Air (1978)

With Gordon Giltrap band

• The Peacock Party PVK (1981)
• Live Electric (1981)

With The Pirates

• Lights Out/I’m Into Something Good EP (1986), With Mick Green and Frank Farley
• Still Shakin Magnum/Thunderbolt (1988), With Mick Green And Geoff Britton
• Live in Japan Thunderbolt (2001), With Mick Green And Les Sampson

Solo albums[edit]

• Goose Grease Angel Air (1997)

Associations[edit]

• The Pirates
• Gordon Giltrap Band
• Johnny Gus Set
• Johnny Gustafson
• Johnny and John
• The Merseybeats
• Poormouth
• The Quotations
• The Seniors
• Shawn Phillips
• Quatermass

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Exclusive interview with John Gustafson, August 2007
• The Musicians’ Olympus: John Gustafson at the Wayback Machine (archived October 27, 2009)

John Gustafson is the name of:

• John Gustafson (musician) (1942-2014), bassist and vocalist
• John Gustafson (scientist) (born 1955), computer scientist, inventor of Gustafson’s Law and Director of Research at Intel Labs

This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.