Henry Badowski

Henry Badowski (born October 1958) is a British multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and composer, who was a member of several punk rock bands in the 1970s before embarking on a solo career.

Badowskijoined his friend, guitarist James Stevenson (they were at Chiswick Community School together), in Gene October's Chelsea as bassist in March 1977 despite having "barely picked up a bass guitar in [his] life". He then moved on to play Vox Continental organ in Wreckless Eric's band, before forming King as vocalist and keyboard player along with Captain Sensible, who described Badowski as "a genius". Badowski was invited by Sensible to join a short-lived incarnation of The Damned to replace Lemmy, at which time they went by the name The Doomed. He then drummed for Mark Perry's post-Alternative TV band The Good Missionaries, playing on the Fire From Heaven album in 1979, and also got some studio time to work on his first solo release, the "Baby Sign Here With Me / Making Love With My Wife" single, released by Deptford Fun City Records, one of Miles Copeland III's labels, and packaged in a gold foil sleeve. He signed to A&M Records/I.R.S. Records for subsequent solo releases, including the album Life is a Grand..., from which the single "Henry's in Love" was drawn. Badowski played most of the instruments on the album himself, but with contributions from Stevenson, violinist Aleksander Kolkowski, and drummer Dave Berk (of Johnny Moped). Although the album met with a favourable response from critics, it proved to be his final solo release.

Albums

• Life is a Grand... (1981), A&M

Singles

• "Making Love With My Wife"/"Baby Sign Here With Me" (1979), Deptford Fun City
• "Baby Sign Here With Me"/"Making Love With My Wife" (1979), A&M
• "My Face"/"Four More Seasons" (1980), A&M
• "My Face"/"Making Love With My Wife" (1980), IRS
• "Henry's in Love"/"Lamb to the Slaughter" (1981), A&M