Guy Adam Pratt (born 3 January 1962) is an English bassist. He has worked with artists including Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, Gary Moore, Madonna, Peter Cetera, Michael Jackson, the Smiths, Robert Palmer, Echo & the Bunnymen, Tears for Fears, Icehouse, Bananarama, Iggy Pop, Tom Jones, Debbie Harry, Whitesnake, Womack & Womack, Kirsty MacColl, Coverdale–Page, Lemon Jelly, the Orb, All Saints, Stephen Duffy, Robbie Robertson and A. R. Rahman.
Pratt was a member of the Australian rock band Icehouse, a founding member of the American rock band Toy Matinee, and is currently a member of the band Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets.
Pratt has also worked on TV and film soundtracks, including Dick Tracy (1990), Last Action Hero (1993), Hackers (1995), Still Crazy (1998) and Johnny English Reborn (2011). In 2005 he debuted a one-man music and comedy show.
Since 2020 Pratt has co-hosted the podcast Rockonteurs alongside Gary Kemp, which features famous musicians discussing their lives and careers and often ranks at #1 on Apple Music podcast charts.
Pratt has been nominated for two Ivor Novello Awards and was awarded an ARIA Award for his work with Icehouse.
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Early life, family and education
Pratt was born on 3 January 1962, in a flat above a shop on the Cut, London. His father, Mike Pratt, was an actor (co-starring as Randall in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), songwriter and screenwriter who died when Guy was 14 years old.
Career
Pratt initially worked as a graphic designer, but he decided to concentrate on a music career. In 1981, at age 19, Pratt was asked to tour with the Australian band Icehouse. Icehouse supported David Bowie on his Serious Moonlight Tour, which was Bowie's longest, largest and most successful concert tour.
In 1986, the Smiths bassist Andy Rourke was arrested on drug possession charges shortly before the Smiths were scheduled to leave for a North American tour in support of The Queen Is Dead. Expecting that Rourke would be denied work visas for the US and Canada, the guitarist, Johnny Marr, asked Pratt to step in. Pratt spent nearly two weeks with the band, learning basslines and rehearsing. Shortly before the band was to leave Britain, Rourke received his visas and Pratt was not required.
While Pratt was playing with the Dream Academy in the 1980s, he met the Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, who was producing them. Gilmour invited him to play on Pink Floyd's Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour after the departure of the Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters. Pratt, a Pink Floyd fan, later said it was "the defining gig of my life". He said he did not see himself as replacing Waters, who he viewed more as Pink Floyd's "grand conceptualist" than their bassist. Pratt also played on Pink Floyd's 1994 Division Bell album and tour, and the 2014 album The Endless River. He also played on Gilmour's solo albums and is a member of Gilmour's touring band. Pratt's father in law was the Pink Floyd keyboardist, Richard Wright.
Producer and keyboardist Patrick Leonard approached Pratt in 1988 about forming a band, and helping him recruit members of what would become Toy Matinee. Pratt co-wrote many of the songs and played bass on all of the tracks on Toy Matinee's only studio album, released in 1990. Pratt played bass on Gary Moore's Dark Days in Paradise tour in 1997. Pratt played on the 1989 Madonna single "Like a Prayer" and the 1995 Michael Jackson single "Earth Song".
Pratt is a songwriter and composes music for TV and film. As a songwriter, Pratt co-wrote the UK number-one hit "Ain't No Doubt" by Jimmy Nail. He produced, co-wrote and played bass, guitar and keyboards on the music for the 1998 Channel 4 drama series The Young Person's Guide to Becoming a Rock Star. With regular collaborator Dom Beken, he provided the theme music to Spaced, where he also appeared as the character Minty. Pratt also acted in Linda Green and appeared in an episode of the remake of Randall & Hopkirk, starring Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer. Pratt's father Mike had played the part of Jeff Randall in the original 1960s series. Pratt also played as a regular in the backing band for the BBC Radio 2 musical comedy show Jammin' with Rowland Rivron.
Personal life
Pratt married furniture designer Gala Wright, daughter of the Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright, in 1996 in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. The couple have a son. They later divorced.
In 2013, Pratt moved to Brighton. In 2019, he was announced as the general election candidate for the Renew Party in Brighton Kemptown. That March, he became engaged to the children's author Georgia Byng. Pratt now lives near Alfriston, where he rings church bells at St Andrew's Church.