British rock band Free auditioned almost 20 bass players before hearing the then 15-year old Andy Fraser, the highly-rated bass-player and songwriter who died last week, aged 62.
Fraser had already played with various acts, including London blues leader Alexis Korner, by the time he joined singer Paul Rodgers, guitarist Paul Kossoff and drummer Simon Kirke to form Free, who went on to huge global success in the early 1970s.
“Although we were all teenagers, I was the youngest,“ Fraser said in a 2013 interview with Caribbean Intelligence.
“When they said, ‘Yes, you’re in,’ my reply was, ‘OK, I’m the leader.’ You should have seen the smoke coming out of Paul Rodgers’ ears and the other guys biting their lips.
"They were leaders in other areas, but I liaised with promoters and booking agencies, told them how it went, how much you should charge and collect the money.”
Between them, Fraser and Rodgers wrote hit songs such as Alright Now, My Brother Jake, Stealer, The Hunter and Little Bit of Love. Fraser also penned Every Kinda People which was a hit for Robert Palmer.
Before his death, Fraser had become a vociferous campaigner against people trafficking. In his last filmed interview, the musician discussed how the problem impacted on his adoptive home of California.
