A violinist wizard of electronics

Simon House, the violinist and keyboardist who passed away on 25 May 2025, was one of the most underrated musicians in the history of British rock. Given how important and wide-ranging his work turned out to be over the roughly fifteen years spanning the late Sixties to the early Eighties, today his name is remembered by only a handful of fans, and even tracking down photos of him online isn't easy.

It should also be said that, despite his creativity, House never had any desire for the spotlight, and this constant living in the shadow of louder figures may well be what made him so invisible. 

What follows is a brief overview of the most important milestones of his career, accompanied by a playlist that we hope best captures his eclecticism.

Denny Gerrard

Simon House founded High Tide in 1969, together with Tony Hill (vocals and guitar), Pete Pavli (bass) and Roger Hadden (drums). Today the band enjoys a certain cult status among fans of psychedelia and prog, but what many don't realise is that their first recording actually came as a backing group on "Sinister Morning", an album by the little-known singer-songwriter Denny Gerrard, recorded in the spring of 1969, though released a year later. 

The record contains some interesting folk rock with psychedelic overtones, but it went completely unnoticed. Gerrard would go on to reinvent himself as a manager, and it was he who landed High Tide their first record deal.

Anyone curious can listen to the opening track, "Native Sun", which is however absent from the Spotify playlist and can only be found on a YouTube video dating back to 2011 (which incidentally gets the title wrong, listing it as "Native Son", and devotes its description to the career of an unrelated, Canada-based Denny Gerrard of the same name).

In any case, in this driving track House's contribution is very much to the fore, both through an electric organ drone sustained for almost the entire duration, and through a violin solo in the middle section.

High Tide

In 2020, OndaRock dedicated a milestone feature to the second album by High Tide, which also delves into the band's origins and their debut record. We recommend reading it for a deeper look at the subject.

For the playlist we picked “Nowhere,” from “She Shanties” (1969), and “Blankman Cries Again,” from “High Tide” (1970). The two tracks immediately highlight how much the band evolved in just one year, a shift that truly symbolizes the passage from Sixties psychedelia (here colored by muscular hard rock sounds and occult-gothic atmospheres) to the progressive rock of the Seventies. House's electric violin is so razor-sharp it goes toe to toe with Hill's distorted guitars.

Third Ear Band

High Tide fail to break through and disband. Simon joins the Third Ear Band, recording with them “Music From Macbeth” (1972), the soundtrack to Roman Polanski's film.

The band's progressive folk, influenced by classical minimalism, Indian music, drones and various European folk traditions, couldn't be more different from High Tide's sound, but House's violin adapts effortlessly, revealing both its gentler side (as on “Inverness,” chosen for the playlist) and its more avant-garde, noise-oriented talents.

After Harvest refuses to release the follow-up album, “The Magus,” House leaves the band. The record, recorded in late 1972, would only be released in 2004.

Hawkwind

After roughly a year and a half of unclear activity, House joins Hawkwind, the standard-bearers of space rock, and with them his name starts circulating at a much higher level. What's more, while still playing violin, he also takes on keyboard duties in the band and quickly earns a reputation as an electronics wizard.

House brings about a profound change, introducing polished textures the band had never even come close to before.

The first album he takes part in is “Hall Of The Mountain Grill” (1974). Having just joined, he only manages to put his own stamp on the title track, a romantic ambient progression, but his touch is already felt everywhere, especially through his use of the Mellotron, with which he floods even the more hard-rock-leaning tracks, like “D-Rider” and “Paradox,” with celestial sounds.

The following record is the legendary “Warrior On The Edge Of Time” (1975). House's influence grows even further: for the first time in one of the band's albums, the guitars feel like they've taken a back seat.

Yet the power is undiminished — if anything, the opening is majestic, thanks to the pairing of “Assault And Battery”/“The Golden Void” (which flow into one another like a single ten-minute track). The first part, driven by a torrential rhythm, piles on Mellotron, VCS3 and organ, while the second part slows the pace and heightens the solemnity: it almost sounds like hard rock arranged by Tangerine Dream.

Having already proven himself a Mellotron master, with the instrumental “Spiral Galaxy 24968,” penned entirely by him, he also shows himself to be a master of synthesizers.

Other gems are “The Demented Man,” an acoustic ballad wrapped in a wall of Mellotron, and “Magnu,” space rock in which the violin once again slithers dissonantly as in the old days.

“Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music” (1976) is a transitional effort, with the band undergoing a major lineup shake-up, not least due to the departure of Lemmy Kilmister.

A largely hard rock album, with a few electronic outbursts here and there, seems to muzzle House's creativity, except perhaps for the Eastern-tinged "Kadu Flyer", co-written with Nik Turner, the band's horn player – and occasional vocalist.

In any case, the following "Quark, Strangeness And Charm" (1977) turns out to be an unexpectedly great finale, with House in top form.

"Spirit Of The Age" and "Damnation Alley" are two kraut-rock-style rides, the first dominated by angelic string synth, the second marked in turn by effected violin, electric organ and synthetic hisses; the esoteric hard rock of "Hassan i Sabbah" is defined by a tireless violin, split between ostinatos and whirling solos; "The Forge Of Vulcan" is a three-minute electronic instrumental, recorded by House alone and intense enough to rival the masterpieces of German cosmic music.

The playlist includes nine tracks from the four albums with Hawkwind, which – with the exception of the third – are still worth listening to in full.

David Bowie

In 1978 House joined David Bowie's band and accompanied him for the entire "Heroes" tour. Although he only played electric violin, he greatly enriched the arrangements, weaving textures that blended perfectly with the guitar inventions of Adrian Belew.

As a testament to his contribution, the version of "Hang On To Yourself" included on the double live album "Stage" (1978) has been selected.

He later took part in the "Lodger" sessions, playing violin on "Yassassin" (the track where he's most prominent, included in the playlist), "Repetition", "Boys Keep Swinging" and "Red Sails", as well as mandolin on "Fantastic Voyage".

Session musician for Japan, Thomas Dolby and Mike Oldfield

After the year and a half spent with Bowie, House would never again be a full-time member of high-profile projects, preferring instead to work on albums linked to the Hawkwind circle (also returning to the parent band on several occasions between 1989 and 2007) and making a few tentative solo attempts, none of which left much of a mark.

In any case, at least three prestigious guest appearances as a violinist deserve a mention.

In the early Eighties he played for Japan on the tracks "My New Career" (from "Gentlemen Take Polaroids", 1980), "Talking Drum", "Canton" (both from "Tin Drum", 1981) and "Some Kind Of Fool" (1980, shelved at the time and rescued in 2000 for David Sylvian's anthology "Everything And Nothing"), the latter chosen for the playlist given the ample space granted to House: once again displaying great versatility, his instrument fits perfectly with the band's sophisticated, seductive tone.

In 1982 he appears on Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science", an anthem of the most eccentric and cerebral synth-pop, which amazingly reached number 5 on the Billboard chart; finally, in 1983 he accompanied Mike Oldfield live: his contributions can be heard on "Live At Wembley Arena", released in 2013 as bonus material on a reissue of the album "Crises" (the playlist includes an excellent rendition of "Taurus I").

(28/5/2025)

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google