Robert Hardy (bassist)

Robert Bryon Hardy (born August 16, 1980) is the bassist of the Glaswegian band Franz Ferdinand.

Related Topics:
August 16 - 1980 - Bassist - Glaswegian - Franz Ferdinand

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Born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK, Hardy moved to Glasgow in his adult years to pursue a study of painting at the Glasgow School of Art. While earning his degree, he regularly visited Glasgow's hippest bars and clubs, including the famous 13th Note, where he met a bartender named Alex Kapranos Huntley. Hardy didn't make the best first impression: Kapranos later admitted he thought he seemed to be a "vulgar idiot". Hardy has been known to tell disturbing jokes about dead babies.

Related Topics:
Bradford - West Yorkshire - UK - Glasgow - Alex Kapranos Huntley

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They became good friends and Kapranos got him a job as a dishwasher and chef in the kitchen where he worked. Kapranos saw some glimmer of potential in Hardy and when he received a bass guitar from Mick Cooke of Belle and Sebastian who requested that he "do something useful with it," it was Hardy, with no musical experience whatsoever, that he took the time and effort to teach to play.

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Hardy was initially reluctant to play music, as he claimed he was an artist, not a musician. Upon realizing that they were both ways of expressing one's self, he eventually agreed to play, and together, he and Kapranos formed the basis of Franz Ferdinand, later recruiting Paul Thomson and Nick McCarthy.

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