Category: Music

Goodbye Donald


Donald “Duck” Dunn, bass guitarist with Booker T and the MGs, has died in Tokyo aged 70.

Although he is best known for his work with the “MGs” his playing style was much sought after and in later years he worked with the likes of Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Stevie Nicks and Rod Stewart.

Dunn, still working,  was in Japan for a series of concerts.

News of his death was posted on the Facebook site of his friend and fellow musician Steve Cropper, who was on the same tour. Cropper said Dunn died in his sleep.

“Today I lost my best friend, the World has lost the best guy and bass player to ever live,” Cropper wrote on Twitter.

The “MGs” were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and Dunn received a lifetime achievement Grammy award in 2007.

The Duck will be sadly missed.

It’s A Beautiful Day


Radio Paradise just turned a dull afternoon into a beautiful one by playing Don & Dewey by It’s A Beautiful Day.

I know it’s 60’s rock but so, so good. The title refers to Rock & Roll duo Don “Sugarcane” Harris & Dewey Terry

What a blast.

Flying Burrito Brothers Bassist Dies


Yet another artist from the late  60’s has passed away.

Chris Ethridge, bass guitarist with The Flying Burrito Brothers, died following complications from pancreatic cancer at the age of 65.

During a long career Ethridge, in addition to playing with the Flying Burrito Brothers, worked as a session musician. During those stints he worked with such names as Judy Collins, Leon Russell, Johnny Winter, Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Linda Ronstadt, The Byrds, Jackson Browne and Willie Nelson with whom he toured for many years.

It seems appropriate to play this at this time

And take a look at the full band here

Chris Ethridge obituary: Bassist in Flying Burrito Brothers dies – latimes.com.

Keith Moon To Play Olympics ???


According to this Planet Rock article, the organisers of this summers olympics approached Who manager Bill Curbishley to see if drummer Keith Moon would like to play at one of the musical events.
Keith Moon Asked To Play Olympics | Rock News | News | Planet Rock.

I emailed back saying Keith now resides in Golders Green crematorium, having lived up to the Who’s anthemic line “I hope I die before I get old”,

said Curbishley

If they have a round table, some glasses and candles, we might contact him

RIP Levon Helm


Grammy award winner, Levon Helm died yesterday afternoon aged 71 after battling with cancer.

In a career spanning over 60 years Helm is probably best know as the drummer and lead singer of The Band who performed both as support to Bob Dylan and in their own right.

He also appeared as a solo artist playing with artists such as Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Albert Lee, Joe Walsh, Dr. John and many many more. Although best known as a drummer Helm was a multi-instrumentalist, playing mandolin, guitar, harmonica and banjo as well as drums and various percussion instruments. In addition Helm had a steady acting career, appearing in around a dozen movies.

The music world is today mourning the loss of a major talent.

Bloody Red Baron – Killed


Yes, on this day in history the “Bloody Red Baron” of Germany, Baron Manfred von Richthofen was shot down in France.

Richthofen was shot down and killed near Amiens on 21 April 1918. There has been considerable discussion and debate regarding aspects of his career, especially the circumstances of his death.

A Canadian captain, Arthur Roy Brown was officially credited with the kill but we all know different.

Don’t we !!!

Father Of Modern British Guitar Playing Dies – RIP Bert Weedon


Bert Weedon has died at the age of 91.

Weedon is the guy that most British musicians refer to when asked who influenced and inspired them to take up the guitar. He is well known as the author of the famous “Play In A Day” book and is cited by McCartney, May & Clapton as the source for their learning the guitar.

Bert began his show business career playing with names such as Ted Heath, Mantovani and The Squadronnaires, before becoming a featured soloist with the BBC Show Band. He also accompanied singing stars Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Nat King Cole and Judy Garland.

I have included the YouTube clips as a tribute for those who, like me, were brought up with the master on TV.

Dr Jim Marshall RIP – ‘the Father of Loud’


At the age of 88, Jim Marshall, the pioneering creator of Marshall Amplification has passed on.

In his early career, Marshall used to sing and play drums. He became so proficient that he began teaching others. These were to include Mitch Mitchell, who became drummer to Jim Hendrix, and also Mick Underwood who would go on, via The Herd, to play for Ritchie Blackmore.

Marshall ran a music store and it was comments from customers such as Pete Townshend, “Big” Jim Sullivan and Richie Blackmore that spurred him into making amplifiers and ultimately the creation of the iconic Marshall Amp. I have lost count of the number of concerts I attended where the whole of the back stage area was a wall of Marshall amps and speakers. What a legacy.

Jim Marshalls name is and will forever be synonymous with rock music.

http://www.jimmarshall.co.uk/.

Did Chas Hodges Pull A Rabbit Out Of His Hat ?


On Saturday evening my wife and I, along with my sister, visited the White Rock Theatre in Hastings.  The entertainment for the evening was to be Chas Hodges, he of Chas & Dave fame.

The theatre was nowhere near full. The potential capacity is 1066 people but there were probably only around 60 folks putting bums on seats.

At around 19:30 our bizarre evening began.

If anyone made an announcement I missed it but a bunch of guys walked out onto the stage and took up positions. The band started playing but I had no idea who we were watching. All I could tell was that they were apparently doing cover versions of Lonnie Donegans songs. After a couple of numbers, the lead singer started regaling us with anecdotes liberally sprinkled with “my dad did …” and “when my father…” and so on. Suddenly the penny dropped, we were being entertained by Son of Donegan.

Well of course he did all the standards and we had a sing along and tapped our feet but, even back in the day, Lonnie Donegans voice was a bit of a trial. I wouldn’t, by choice, listen to one Donegan record followed by another. Peter Donegans voice is very similar to his dads. I liked the instrumental breaks best of all as they are all very competent musicians.

Apart from the vocals the other big detractor for me during there performance was the two dickheads in the row behind ours. They paid good money to see a show,  then proceeded to talk all the time. Strange thing was that they shut up when the music stopped. Anyway, I couldn’t put up with their incessant chatting (note I avoided using the term” rabitting”) and asked them if they were planning to carry on through the whole show. After being asked twice, one of them said that yes he probably would. After a long glare from me they quietened down a little but they never did totally shut up.

So Son of Donegan finished their set and the lights came up. The chatterbox and his friends went out, presumably for some lubricant because his throat was dry. We all had an ice cream.

As I said earlier there were only about 60 people in the theatre. We were 8 rows back from the stage and there were only 17 people in front of us so we decided to move away from the noise. We moved two rows forward. Apparently the people to our right had also gotten fed up with the talking and they had moved to the right.

It transpired that we didn’t need to move as the chatterboxes never returned.

And so, on to Chas.

Well he and his band came on and it was just like Chas & Dave. He did their whole repertoire along with some tracks from his new CD. My view is that he can’t sing for a toffee. It was like being in a pub listening to a bar room singer. Just like with Son of Donegan the best bits were the instrumental breaks. Even some of them left a lot to be desired. One piano break prompted me to mutter to my wife “Come back Les Dawson, all is forgiven”. Where the Donegan anecdotes were all surrounding “my dad”, the Hodges anecdotes were liberally sprinkled with “when I was playing with Jerry Lee Lewis”. Where Donegan was quite eloquent Hodges was not, tending to mumble and stumble through his stories.

Maybe I’m being hypercritical and, just maybe, he would have been better had there been a bigger audience for him to feed on. I was entertained and it really was better than spending an evening watching TV.

But only just. The highlight for me was that I was out with my wife and my sister.

So in answer to the title question…..No !!!