Former Saw Doctors musician Tony Lambert has died

Band member and guitarist Leo Moran paid tribute to his friend with this post:

“It is with deep sadness we learn of Tony’s passing a truly magnificent man of music.The Saw Doctors went to Loco Studios near Newport in Wales with producer, Phil Tennant, to record ‘It Won’t Be Tonight’, ‘Sing A Powerful Song’ and ‘I Useta Lover’, one of which would be released as their follow-up single to ‘N17”.

“Phil felt the tracks, in particular, ‘I Useta Lover’ needed an extra element, maybe an accordion. We got in touch with Gethin Scourfield and Geraint Jarman whom we’d met through their coming to Galway a few months previous to shoot a video for ‘N17’ for S4C. They highly recommended a local Welsh musician to us who could play both accordion and keyboards. Tony Lambert.”

“Tony arrived and gave the tracks even more than we had imagined or hoped for. The song released was ‘I Useta Lover’, which became a success and Tony joined the band and moved with his dog, Squirm, to Ireland.”

“Tony was a virtuoso musician on many instruments. He could play with great feel and hit so many right notes, as few or as many as were appropriate and he also had the expertise to squeeze every classic electric and mechanical trick out of the Hammond organ and its accompanying twirling Leslie speaker. His presence added warm, deep and dynamic textures to the songs of The Saw Doctors.”

“In 1993 he won the Irish lotto and not long after moved to Thailand, never again having to wait for a late-arriving minibus to shake him on bad roads to some end of the country or other.”

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