Mont Campbell, British rock music artist, member of the progressive rock band Egg. Born Hugo Martin Montgomery Campbell, on 30th December 1950 in Ismalia, Egypt, to Mary Elizabeth Shaw (Jackie) and Lt Col. HAL Montgomery Campbell RTR (Archie). Mont was named Martin for his grandfather, the composer Martin Shaw. The family moved to Kenya in 1951, and lived there until their return to the UK in 1962. Mont attended City of London Boys School where he met Steve Hillage and Dave Stewart, and with them formed the band Uriel, later to become Egg. Mont played bass guitar, and was the main composer for the band. The music was mainly instrumental, employing complex rhythms (13/14 for example) and generally breaking tradition with the formulaic pop/rock music of the time. Igor Stravinsky was a main influence, and Jimi Hendrix.

In 1973 Mont became interested in Eastern Mysticism, joining an Indonesian sect called Subud. He left Egg and attended the Royal College of Music, studying the french horn and compostition – re-joining Egg for their last album in 1975. In 1977 he changed his name to Dirk Campbell, and finally left the rock music scene.

His music was never ‘easy’, and is of course lost on an audience that requires instant accessibility. In its way, it is more closely aligned to the music of classical composers rather than rock music per se. So Mont has, like the French poet Rimbaud left us a body of work created in his teens and early twenties that is of considerable artistic merit, but of which he himself has no particular regard.