Tony (Anthony Stuart) Dangerfield, musician, born 31 August 1944; died 20 July 2007

If seen more frequently as bass player in Screaming Lord Sutch's backing Savages, Tony Dangerfield, who has died of heart failure aged 62, had been a recording artist in his own right since 1964. His is the latest in an uncanny number of relatively early deaths among entertainers whose careers left the runway at producer Joe Meek's London studio, including Sutch, Heinz and Kim Roberts. Dangerfield was particularly disquieted by what he called "the Joe Meek curse", destroying a photograph taken a a Meek memorial concert containing just Sutch, Heinz, Roberts - and himself. He may have taken comfort, however, in the visual evidence that, receding hairline apart, he had clung onto the good looks and slim physique that had prompted Meek to single him out for solo stardom.
     
This was not to be, and Dangerfield continued along the same erratic road he'd been travelling since leaving school in his native Wolverhampton at fifteen. He began his professional life as a guitarist, but transferred to bass in a local jazz band. . However, a Walsall pop outfit, The Mark Dean Combo, proved more lucrative, notably as accompanists to film actor-turned-vocalist Mike Sarne. Following a spell with Carter-Lewis and the Southerners - with Jimmy Page, later of Led Zeppelin - he was founder member of Gulliver's Travellers, in which he also sang, before pledging himself to Sutch and the Savages, a leopard-skin stage costume, epic vulgarity and disc releases evenly divided between horror spoofs and straightforward rock 'n' roll.
     
The Savages were scheduled to record without Sutch, but Joe Meek preferred to focus solely on Dangerfield as he had Heinz, plucked similarly from The Tornados. A debut single, "I've Seen Such Things", was mimed by Dangerfield on ITV's Thank Your Lucky Stars, but a slot on Ready Steady Go! was cancelled because his jet-black quiff, mohair suit and overall moody image  was deemed too retrogressive for the show.
     
Disagreements with Meek about a follow-up caused Dangerfield to seek work in Germany, but he soon returned to the Black Country for exploratory rehearsals with, among others, John Bonham (later of Led Zeppelin), Martin Barre (Jethro Tull), Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan (ELO). Yet, within months, he was thrumming bass with Circles, a London "power trio", who issued a 1966 single, "Take Your Time", prior to Dangerfield reuniting with Sutch in the short-lived Lord Caesar Sutch and his Roman Empire. With guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, he discussed forming a breakaway group, but, while Blackmore awaited a destiny with Deep Purple, Dangerfield was groomed fleetingly for solo fame again, this time by Robert Stigwood, who also had The Bee Gees and Cream on his books.
     
By 1967, Dangerfield had been enlisted into Rupert's People, a curious stylistic hybrid of |Gerry and the Pacemakers and Procol Harum, with future personnel of The Gun and Renaissance. While the group was popular in France, its ultimate failure prefaced a period as a journeyman musician in the employ of such disparate performers as Billy Fury and Bob-and-Earl.
     
A stint in Episode Six lasted four months before recruitment into Glass Menagerie, a "progressive" ensemble under the aegis of Chas Chandler, who also managed Slade. After its tour with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Dangerfield sang with trumpeter Alan Bown's band and, in 1974, was considered for the role of "Johnny Cameron" in the David Essex movie, Stardust. For the rest of the decade, however, he drifted from group to unsatisfactory group.
     
By the early 1980s, he was fronting The Shakers, but earning more backing the likes of Heinz, Wee Willie Harris and, principally, Lord Sutch. He was also venturing into artist management until a road accident poleaxed him for two years. A disco arrangement of Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love", attributed to "Danger", came out as a 1992 German single. Then ill health forced a long if temporary retirement.
     
After Sutch's suicide in 1999, Dangerfield assumed leadership of The Savages, though new records were infrequent. A self-penned 2005 album, The Rebel's Got Soul, extended to reggae and downbeat soul. Reviews were glowing, but sales were poor. Nonetheless, Dangerfield, a game and articulate interviewee, reflected, "I've never felt any angst about anything that's happened - or not happened - for me, and I'll probably go on playing, one way or another, until I drop."
     
He is survived by son Philip and daughters Nicola and Gretel. 
                                                                                       
Alan Clayson