Godfrey Townsend-bio

lead & rhythm guitar, slide guitar, 6 & 12 string acoustic guitar,

piano, organ, synth, lead & backup vocals

Bio / Credits...

Early '90s - Hosted the Wednesday Night Pro Jam at New York City's China Club

Jamming with...

John Entwistle, Bruce Willis, Eddie Vedder,

Ace Frehley, Steve Lukather, Jason Bonham,

Billy Squier, Noel Redding, Buddy Miles,

Mick Jones, Joe Lynn Turner, TM Stevens,

Living Colour, Julian Lennon, Andy Newmark,

Enuff 'Z Nuff, "Rabbit" Bundrick, "Skunk" Baxter,

Anthony Michael Hall, Linda Perry, and many others.

Sept. thru Dec. 1995 - Member of the "Juke Box Giants" cast at the Flamingo Hilton / Laughlin, NV

Performing with...

Mitch Weissman & David Leone / Orig. B'way Cast of Beatlemania
Merrilee Rush ("Angel Of The Morning")
Mitch Ryder ("Devil With The Blue Dress", "Sock It To Me")
Spencer Davis ("Gimme Some Lovin", "I'm A Man")
Joey Molland of Badfinger ("Come And Get It", "Day After Day")
Cub Koda of Brownsville Station ("Smokin' In The Boys Room")
Dennis Yost of Classic IV ("Spooky, "Stormy", "Traces Of Love")
Sal Valentino of Beau Brummels ("Laugh, Laugh", "Just A Little")
Len Barry of The Dovells ("1-2-3", "Bristol Stomp")
Pat Upton of Spiral Staircase ("More Today Than Yesterday")
Tiny Tim ("Tip Toe Through The Tulips").

Rock & Sock Productions' "Juke Box Giants"

performed two shows a night, six nights a week.

January 1996 thru June 2002 - Member of The John Entwistle Band

Lead vocalist / lead guitarist with...

John Entwistle, bass guitarist of The Who.

For several North American Tours...

January - March 1996
June - August...October/November 1998
July/August 1999 (including Woodstock '99)
May/June 2001...October 2001

Studio recordings:

"Music From Van-Pires" CD
"When The Sun Comes Up" CD single

Live recordings:

"Left For Live" CD
"Left For Live / Deluxe" 2 CD Set

DVDs:

The John Entwistle Band Live
An Ox's Tale (Documentary)

Summer 2001 - Musical Director for "A Walk Down Abbey Road / Tribute to The Beatles" Tour

Vocalist / Guitarist / Keyboardist with...

A star-studded line up of legendary artists,

similar to Ringo Starr's "All Starr Band" tours. Each artist performed several

of their own hits as well

as several Beatle songs.

The tour played over 30 dates across

the U.S. & Canada followed by

a tour of Japan in the Fall.

The 2001 Summer tour featured...

John Entwistle of The Who
Ann Wilson of Heart
Todd Rundgren
Alan Parsons
David Pack of Ambrosia

Summer 2002 - Musical Director for "A Walk Down Abbey Road / Tribute to The Beatles" Tour

The 2002 Summer tour featured...

Alan Parsons
Todd Rundgren
Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad
Eric Carmen of The Raspberries
Christopher Cross
Jack Bruce of Cream

2002's tour started in Hawaii and

played 25 dates across the U.S & Canada,

including Greek Theater in Los Angeles, Summerfest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

and Massey Hall, Toronto.

It was by the end of this tour that

Cream bassist, Jack Bruce and

Alan Parsons recruited Godfrey

to work with them extensively.

2002 to Present - Lead Guitarist / Vocalist with Jack Bruce

On October 18 & 19, 2002,

Godfrey played two shows with Jack

at BB King Blues Club in New York.

The first night they performed as a "Cream" style power trio...

The second night, Godfrey performed with Jack's Cuicoland Express band featuring Bernie Worrell.

There exists a much sought after

4 CD bootleg of those shows.

Godfrey also appears on one of Jack's solos albums,

"More Jack Than God". (Sanctuary 2003)

The title is actually a reference to Godfrey.

It was recorded in 2002 at New York's Sorcerer Sound

studio with Kip Hanrahan engineering.

Godfrey played on several tracks but, only "Kelly's Blues"

made it onto the CD's final tracklist.

For the past decade, Godfrey has continued to work extensively with

Jack whenever he performs in the US.

Summer 2003 & 2004 - Musical Director for "A Walk Down Abbey Road / Tribute to The Beatles" shows

Both 2003 & 2004 saw a few scattered show dates

for the AWDAR tribute keeping Parsons, Rundgren

& Cross in the line up with the addition of ...

Denny Laine from The Moody Blues and Paul McCartney's Wings
Joey Molland of Badfinger

Shows included...

July 17, 2003 / 100 Years Of Flight / Dayton, OH
August 8 & 9, 2003 / Hilton Casino Ballroom / Atlantic City, NJ
June 12 & 13, 2004 / Hilton Casino Ballroom / Atlantic City, NJ

2000 to Present - Clapton Is GOD-frey / Annual Birthday Tribute to Eric Clapton

at BB King Blues Club in Times Square / New York City

An evening of music devoted to the large body of work that is Eric Clapton's amazing career.

Godfrey and his band have been celebrating EC's birthday at New York City's BB King Blues Club for over a decade. It has been the longest running, successfully repeated event in the club's history with several years being to sold out houses.

2003 thru 2009 - Member of Alan Parsons "Live" Project

Godfrey toured extensively for seven years, as the "Live" Project's lead guitarist, also providing lead and background vocals, and some additional piano.

The six member group toured all over South America, Mexico, and Europe several times as well as performing in Tokyo, India, Armenia, Turkey and

the Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia.

They also performed a number of shows which included full orchestras and laser light shows.

A "live in concert" DVD of their Plaza De Mayor, Madrid show

from May 14th, 2004 entitled,

"Live In Madrid" (originally independently released and sold exclusively via APLP's website)

was officially released in 2010 on Frontiers Records.

2006 thru 2011 - Musical Director for Flower Power Productions "Hippiefest" Summer tours

Godfrey & his band have backed up Felix Cavaliere, Country Joe McDonald, Terry Sylvester,

Joey Molland, Flo & Eddie of The Turtles, Mitch Ryder, Jack Bruce, Chuck Negron, Dave Mason,

Mark Farner, Rick Derringer,and Gary Wright during the past six consecutive years.

2010 - 2013 / Musical Director for the "Happy Together" Summer tours

Godfrey & his band have backed up members of The Turtles, The Grassroots, The Association,

The Buckinghams, Mark Lindsay (Paul Revere & The Raiders), Gary Puckett of The Union Gap, Gary Lewis of Gary Lewis & The Playboys

and Micky Dolenz of The Monkees over the past four summers.

2005 to Present - Musical Director for the "Here Comes The Sun" Program

A multimedia presentation featuring

the music of George Harrison performed by

Godfrey Townsend & friends,

rare film and photos, and a stellar narration

by author Joshua Greene.

The program has performed

at various yoga & new age centers...

college universities across the country...

& the Business and Consciousness Convention

in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Joshua M. Greene / narrator is an

acclaimed writer & author of the bestseller

Here Comes The Sun: The Spiritual and

Musical Journey of George Harrison.

Mr. Greene is an instructor at Hofstra University and an Emmy Award-nominated filmmaker. After 13 years of yoga study, including one year in India, he now lectures at universities nationwide.

2007 - Composed, performed, co-produced, & co-engineered

by Godfrey Townsend & Steve Murphy

In March of 2007,

Godfrey released a debut CD

of instrumental guitar music.

"Easy Journey To Other Planets"

(Misty Bridge / MB108)

It was received very well by the public and has also gotten some great reviews in guitar magazines both here and internationally.

Available at www.cdbaby.com

From Jack Bruce of Cream...

Godfrey, What a great CD! Thank you. You are playing better than ever and in

fact the whole thing feels like a journey to other, unknown, but deeply yearned

for galaxies. The concepts are beautiful and the realization even more so.

Good luck with it - you really deserve it.
Love, Jack

As soon as Godfrey had joined The Alan Parsons live band, I discovered that he could effortlessly recreate virtually anything played by any guitar player in the world while still managing to put his own stamp on it. On this album he shows that he is in a class of his own when it comes to writing and playing his own material. For the record,

he's also one of the wittiest and funniest people on the planet.

All the best, Alan Parsons

Godfrey has worked with many of rock & pop's royalty...

...touring extensively in the U.S. and Canada, South America, Mexico, Europe and Asia.