We welcome our oldest, and perhaps most experienced, guest to Radio Elton John this month, a session musician who has spanned some of the most famous songs in history, and played on three Elton classics from the Black Album, including the seminal Your Song.

Dave Richmond offers a frank view about the music industry that he joined and how it has changed. What muscial instrument he would recommend your child masters – and it isn’t the Hawaiian guitar!

Military service armed him with the bass and KPM’s Keith Mansfield gave him the most important lesson of a successful session musician – be yourself and bring something to the song.

Here’s The BOBCATS ” Big Noise From Winnetka ” from the 1940s which inspired Dave to take up the double bass. Stick with it at 02:00 to understand why this helped Dave make up his mind:

You can hear a preview on Silver from 5 September 2026 at 1800 BST here:

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Full Episode is released later this month.

And while you wait, here’s that seminal track:

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