History
First started playing professionally in 1968 as guitarist with a band called The Krisis, playing the UK club and ballroom circuit, after which he switched to bass guitar and joined Velvet Opera in 1970 with whom he made his first recordings for Spark Records.
In 1971 he joined an incarnation of the 60’s chart-topping group The Foundations and spent a year playing the cabaret clubs mostly in northern England.
In 1971 he met Ernie Graham, formerly of Eire Apparent and, together with guitarist Jonathan Glemser, they formed the band Clancy. The band became part of London’s growing Pub-Rock scene and briefly signed with Island Records but were dropped after differences with producer Muff Winwood.
Shortly afterwards the band signed with Warner Brothers and recorded two albums: “Seriously Speaking” (1974) and “Every Day” (1975). The line-up on both was: Bass (bass, vocals), Ernie Graham (guitar, vocals), Gasper Lawal (percussion), Dave Vasco (guitar), Dave Skinner (keyboards, vocals) and Barry Ford (drums, vocals).
Clancy split in 1976 and Colin joined Steve Hillage, who was putting together a band to promote the album “L” on a six-month tour of Europe and the USA. The line-up included ex-Jethro Tull drummer Clive Bunker.
In 1977 Colin was invited by American saxophonist and composer Jim Cuomo, who had occasionally played with Clancy, to participate in his musical “Woe Babylon” at the Edinburgh Festival. The band from the show included pianist Ollie Marland and drummer Miguel Olivares and this quartet became a project known as the Casual Band. Olivares was later replaced by ex-Back Door drummer Tony Hicks. Recordings were made with producer Tom Newman but were never released.
In 1979, Steve Hillage tour manager Laurie Small introduced Colin to British progressive-rock band Camel. The line-up at the time was Andrew Latimer (guitar, vocals), Andy Ward (drums) and Kit Watkins and Jan Schelhaas (keyboards). There followed two albums “I Can See Your House From Here” (1979) and “Nude” (1980) and respective international tours.
In 1981 at the end of the “Nude” tour, Andy Ward’s health problems led to Andrew Latimer’s dissolving of the band. Colin relocated to Paris where he recorded an album and performed live with old colleague Jim Cuomo.
Returning to the UK in 1983 he took up a teaching post, played sessions and club and pub gigs with various line-ups until Andrew Latimer invited him to rejoin Camel for the 1984 “Stationary Traveller” tour. In the same year he started to play with the Anglo-Ghanaian band Orchestra Jazira, which led to his induction in the pioneer world-music group 3 Mustaphas 3, who renamed him as Sabah Habas Mustapha.
Between 1985 and 1991 the 3 Mustaphas 3 recorded four full albums and sundry singles and EPs and established a cult following for their live performances, touring in the USA, Europe, Japan and also in the then Soviet-bloc countries of East Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria.
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