Herbie Flowers - Definition and Overview

Herbie Flowers is an English musician specialising in bass guitar and tuba, who came to prominence as the bass player with David Bowie, and then later Lou Reed. It is his bass guitar that opens Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" and underpins Bowie's "Space Oddity". He also featured in a mid-1970s line-up of T. Rex.

In 1979 Flowers became a co-founder of the band Sky, which had considerable success in the United Kingdom. Since the band's demise in the early 1990's he has spent most of his time playing jazz.

Flowers is also known for having composed the novelty hit Grandad for Clive Dunn, a fact that has tended to overshadow his many other achievements.