Farewell to the Frogman

It's very sad news that Clarence 'Frogman' Henry has died aged 87. Clarence was a regular in Bourbon Street and at New Orleans Jazzfest - indeed I saw him perform at last year's festival and he appeared to be having the time of his life. I wrote at the time: 'Next was a real highlight, Clarence 'Frogman' Henry, in a wheelchair and lacking quite a few teeth but still in fine voice and clearly enjoying himself. He was note perfect on 'But I Do' and 'You Always Hurt The One You Love' and showed he can still 'sing like a girl and sing like a frog' on 'Ain't Got No Home'.' He was often seated as he suffered back problems but always put on a marvellously entertaining show. His first hit 'Ain't Got No Home', way back in 1956, showed off his vocal range and his croak earned him his 'Frogman' name, but his biggest successes, especially in the UK, came in 1961 with 'But I Do' and 'You Always Hurt The One You Love'. I know that several Woodies experienced his hospitality when they visited his home in Algiers but I missed out on that particular New Orleans trip. But I did see him when he toured the UK in the early sixties with Bobby Vee and Tony Orlando. I saw him perform at Jazzfest on countless occasions and at the Ponderosa Stomp and he was without exception a joy to behold. I am reminded by Tony Burke that he also did a summer season at Scarborough in 1983 with Cannon and Ball! He was the epitome of good time New Orleans R and B - not subtle perhaps but highly enjoyable. I for one will miss him as in many ways he summed up just what it is that makes New Orleans such a great place to visit. The top picture shows Clarence with me at Jazzfest in 1989. The photo below shows him at Jazzfest in 2023. Bottom photo shows three of his albums: the 'Legendary' LP was recorded in Stockport in 1983. RIP the one and only 'Frogman'.

Freakbeat finds

I had a bit of luck at my regular car boot sale recently when I picked up several 'Freakbeat' singles by bands such as the Birds (with an I not a Y), the Creation and the Artwoods. They are all pretty collectable, as are many other original sixties 45s that fit into the Freakbeat genre. But what is Freakbeat exactly? According to Wikipedia it's 'a loosely defined subgenre of rock and roll music developed mainly by harder-driving British groups during the Swinging London period of the mid-to late 1960s. The genre bridges British Invasion R&B, beat and psychedelia.' The word was apparently invented by music journalist Phil Smee who compiled a series of 'Rubble' compilations in the eighties featuring the genre. Since then there have been other compilations but it seems quite hard to pin down. There are similarities to such bands as the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds but it seems that to really qualify as a Freakbeat band your records have to be quite obscure and not very successful at the time they were made. Apart from the bands mentioned above other leading Freakbeat bands include the Sorrows, the Pretty Things and Brinsley Schwarz. There's a Joe Meek compilation that includes tracks by the Syndicats, the Buzz and Jason Eddie and the Centremen, all of whose singles go for big prices. A couple of the Birds singles that I picked up are covers of Motown songs by Eddie Holland ('Leaving Here') and Marvin Gaye ('No Good Without You Baby'), although the style is a long way from that of its Detroit original. As for quality, there's probably a reason why they didn't make it big in the sixties in many cases, but for record collectors it would appear to be a niche area that is both expensive and exclusive.

Dave Kelly at the Crawdaddy

Alan Lloyd reports on a show by UK blues stalwart Dave Kelly.

THE DAVE KELLY BLUES BAND AT THE CRAWDADDY, RICHMOND MARCH 22, 2024

Dave Kelly is a veteran of the British blues scene, having started out as a teenager in the 1960s playing acoustic guitar in the folk clubs. He played his first professional gig at the Half Moon in Putney in 1964 and went on to perform in different settings – including as a duo with his late sister Jo Ann Kelly and in the John Dummer Blues Band, before becoming a founder member of The Blues Band with Paul Jones, Hughie Flint & Tom McGuinness in 1979.

Now, just 9 days after his 77th birthday, he appeared at the revived Crawdaddy Club in Richmond with his own band of Pete Emery on lead guitar, Kelly’s sons Sam Kelly and Homer Kelly-Tarrant on drums and bass guitar respectively, Rob Millis on keyboards, and Dave himself on vocals and slide guitar.

The band is promoting a new album “Sun On My Face”, and several of the songs were from that release. Most of their repertoire consists of covers of other artists songs interpreted in their own style and selected from a wider spectrum than just the standard blues fare. We got country (Hank Williams’ “I Can’t Help It” and Kris Kristofferson’s “Lovin Arms”), soul (Otis Redding’s “Dock Of The Bay” and Al Green’s “Tired Of Being Alone”), Motown (Smokey Robinson’s “My Girl”), rock’n’roll (Little Richard’s “Good Golly Miss Molly” and Chuck Berry’s “Nadine”) and pop (John Fogerty’s “110 In The Shade”). Ray Charles was represented by “Georgia On My Mind” and “Hallelujah I Just Love Her So”.

There was more traditional blues/R&B from the catalogues of Blind Willie McTell, Buddy Guy, Memphis Minnie, Titus Turner and Sonny Boy Williamson II. Original songs included “I Am The Blues”, a tribute to the early blues singers, first recorded with The Blues Band, and “Them Old Crossroads Blues” where Kelly contrasts Robert Johnson’s trip to the crossroads to be taught to play the blues by the devil to his own journey to Tooting Bec to learn from T.S. McPhee.

It was a night of excellent musicianship and an interesting choice of songs. Top class entertainment.

Steve Lawrence RIP

I've seen no coverage of the death of singer Steve Lawrence at the age of 88. Yet he was one of the founding fathers of pop music in many ways. He was perhaps best known as the husband of Eydie Gorme who recorded a series of duets including 'I Want To Stay Here'. a UK number three in 1963, 'I Can't Stop Talking About You' and 'The Honeymoon Is Over'. But in the 1950s and early sixties he was a major solo star. He had success with a cover of Buddy Knox's 'Party Doll', 'Pretty Blue Eyes' (covered in the UK by Craig Douglas), 'Footsteps', which made it to number four in the UK in 1959, 'Why Why Why', 'Portrait Of My Love' (a cover of Matt Munro's hit), and 'Go Away Little Girl', which was first recorded by Bobby Vee, sold a million for Steve and was later covered by Donny Osmond and Marlena Shaw. As well as releasing numerous albums Steve was also a TV star and actor and appeared as Maury Sline in 'Blues Brothers' and 'Blues Brothers 2000' as well as several other movies. Top photo shows a UK demo copy of 'Fabulous', which rather quaintly describes the backing group as 'Dick Jacobs and his Skiffle band'.

Johnny Knight RIP

Very sorry to hear of the death, at the age of 86, of 'Mr Rock and Roll Guitar' Johnny Knight. Born John Mangiagli, Johnny played with Johnny Otis in LA in the late 50s and recorded his best known record 'Rock and Roll Guitar', backed by 'Snake Shake', for the short lived Morocco label in 1958. The record did pretty well but the label folded and Johnny found himself label-less. Later he recorded under various other names, including Johnny Marlo, Johnny Donn and Johnny Mangelli before coming up with the comedy character Gamma Goochee. I saw Johnny on a couple of occasions. At Viva Las Vegas in 2016 he appeared wearing a glittery jacket and was pretty good on 'Snake Shake', 'Two Ton Annie' and 'What Happened Last Night'. I had a chat with him at the time (see photo above) and he was very friendly and enthusiastic. At the Rockin' Race in 2019 I wrote: 'The highlight on the first evening (was) 82 year old Mr 'Rock and Roll Guitar' Johnny Knight, backed by the Deke Dickerson band, with Johnny's son on keyboards. Dressed in a splendid sparkly black jacket, Johnny was good on his sole hit, 'Rock and Roll Guitar',and it's B side 'Snake Shake', plus 'Got My Mojo Working', 'What Happened Last Night', 'I'm Going To Buy Me A Dog', 'Two Ton Annie', 'Ooh Poo Pah Doo' and 'Shake A Hand'. He also reappeared as his alter ego, the comedy character Gamma Goochee. Only 30 minutes on stage but effective.' The photos below show him at the Rockin' Race, including one of him in his Gamma Goochee persona. RIP Johnny.

Another recent death is that of W C Clark, at the age of 84, who was known as the Godfather of Austin Blues. Wesley Curley Clark played around Austin in his youth before joining Joe Tex's band. Returning to Austin he helped develop the city's blues scene, forming several bands, with members at various times including Jimmie Vaughan and Angela Strehli. His W C Clark Blues Revue played with the likes of B B King, Albert King and Bobby Bland and he played alongside Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lou Ann Barton and Kim Wilson on the Austin City Limits TV show.

Another death, at the age of 79, is that of BB Seaton (Bibby) who was a Jamaican singer/ songwriter with the Gaylads, the Astronauts and the Messengers. He first recorded with the duo Winston and Bibby in 1960 and aafter leaving the Gaylads had a successful solo career. He was the first reggae artist to be signed by Virgin leading to the formation of Front Line records and was active in the UK from the 1970s onwards as a producer as well as performing with the Gaylads.

High Numbers indeed

As regular readers will know I spend a lot of time at car boot sales and charity shops chasing down records of interest. Many of those I buy have little value, but are at least of some interest to me. But now and again I come across one that is a collector's dream - a rarity that is in great demand. When that happens, and i decide to sell it, I choose not to use eBay, which is my usual choice, but go to a specialist record selling site such as John Manship. A few years back I picked up a one sided Pink Floyd demo ('It Would Be So Nice') which sold for over £800. That one set me back 50p at a car boot sale in Hampshire. Last week I sold a 45 that I bought for a mere 20p some time in the nineties at a car boot in North London, again through John Manship. It was the highly sought after single by the High Numbers, an early incarnation of the Who, comprising 'Zoot Suit', a rip off of the Dynamics' 'Misery', and 'I'm The Face', a copy of Slim Harpo's 'Got Love If You Want It'. The record was aimed at the Mod market but clearly sold very few copies. But the band went on to become the Who. Today it is highly collectable and my 20p copy sold for around £1400.

I've got quite a few records that I picked up for next to nothing over the years and I am considering selling a few more as I am moving house soon, getting older and hardly ever play my rare records. The days when bargains fell into my lap at car boot sakles are pretty well over, although I will continue to keep my eyes open. You never know, I might just find another crock of gold in the form of a rare record that makes 'High Numbers' when I sell it.

Jimmy Van Eaton RIP and others

It's time to catch up on a few significant music deaths in the last few days. The latest is that of drummer Jimmy Van Eaton, aged 86, one of the last of the original Sun artists. Born in Memphis, Jimmy, sometimes known as J M, formed a group called the Echoes and shortly after recording a demo for Sun he joined Billy Lee Riley's touring band. He went on to become Sun's session drummer, playing on a string of classic recordings. These included 'Whole Lotta Shakin' Going on'. recorded in a single take, 'High School Confidential', 'Down The Line', 'Raunchy', 'Lonely Weekends', 'Flying Saucers Rock and Roll', 'Uranium Rock', Ubangi Stomp', 'Great Balls of Fire' and 'Red Hot'. I saw Jimmy on several occasions. At the Ponderosa Stomp in 2015 he did an interview session about his time at Sun and played a set with Deke Dickerson on vocals. At Viva Las Vegas in 2018 he took part in a Stars of Sun segment, taking over from fellow drummer W S Holland to back Alton and Jimmy and Narvel Felts. The top photo shows him at the Stomp. Pictured below he is at Viva Las Vegas.

Another death is that of Tony Middleton (89), lead singer of doowop group the Willows who went on to be a signifant name on the Northern Soul scene. He joined a group called the Dovers (which also included famed New York Fury label owner Bobby Robinson) which changed its name to the Five Willows after Tony joined in 1952. Their first record was 'Please Baby' for the PeeDee label, followed by 'My Dear Dearest Darling' for Allen. Theit biggest success was 'Church Bells May Ring' after they had changed their name to the Willows. It was a hit in New York and would have been even bigger if it hadn't been covered by the Diamonds. The group made various other recordings before disbanding in 1965, but Tony moved into the soul scene, recording 'Paris Blues', recalling his time in France in the mid sixties. His recording of the Nat King Cole song 'To The Ends of the Earth' got a UK release on Polydor and is now highly collectable. He visited the UK on several occasions and I saw Tony with the Willows at the Long Island Doowop weekend in 2014 when he sang 'Church Bells May Ring' along with 'Only My heart' and 'Taste of Love' and again in 2016 and 2017 (pictured below).

One of the highlights of my trip to the Americana Fest in Nashville in 2019 was 'Mojo's Mayhem', an afternoon show at Roberts Western World bar where a host of acts gave brief performances, including the North Mississippi All Stars, Carlene Carter, Rosie Flores and the Mavericks. Hosting the event was Mojo Nixon, who has died aged 66. Mojo was a musician and actor best known for the novelty song 'Elvis is Everywhere', which became a regular on MTV. Mojo lampooned the music industry with 'Stuffin' Martha's Muffin' and 'Debbie Gibson is Pregnant with My Two Headed Love Child'. By a weird coincidence Mojo made his acting debut playing Jimmy Van Eaton in the 1989 Jerry Lee Lewis biopic 'Great Balls Of Fire'. Photo below shows Mojo at the Nashville event.

Fianlly the Vinyl Word pays tribute to Aston 'Family Man' Barrett(77) who played bass guitar with Bob Marley's band the Wailers and was the band's leader. Before joining the Wailers he had been with Lee 'Scratch' Perry's band the Upsetters. He was a key part of the Wailers' success throughout the seventies. His 'Family Man' name came about as a result of him seeing his band as a family, not because he was a father - although he went on to father 41 children, 23 daughters and 18 children, according to an interview he gave to the BBC in 2013. Also to Henry Fambrough, original member of the Spinners from its formation in 1954 until his retirement last year. RIP to them all.

Day 3 of the Rockin' Race

The sun came out in time for the car show at the Rockin' Race so we wandered down there and joined the crowds. Watched a bit of the Domestic Bumblebees from Sweden who seemed pretty good.

Day three of the festival itself was a decent one. First on were the Rimshots from Wales who played to a rather thin crowd (the place was heaving later). The singer has a strong voice and the material was a mix of country and fifties style pop.

On the small stage next were the Po' Rambling Boys, a very competent bluegrass band comprising four colourfully dressed guys and a gal.

I didnt stay long as the main stage then featured the amusing but very well performed hillbilly hokum of the Dave and Deke Combo who were accompanied on stage by a bunch of hillbilly extras. Dave Stuckey and Deke Dickerson played some decent country and hillbilly tunes amonst the mayhem including 'Corn Dog', 'Hillbilly Twist' and 'Hey Mae'. There was a tribute to Larry Collins with Deke assisting Kyle Eldridge on his double necked guitar and a wacky sequence with Deke and drummer Bobby Tribble doing a weird dance.

It was packed in the small stage area and I couldn't get in at first but I did eventually and I'm glad I did. Playing was double bass player Jimmy Sutton whose act ranges from jazz to wild rock and roll. I enjoyed his 'Don't Make Me Beg' and his encore of 'Don't You Just Know It' with a bit of 'Justine' was brilliant.

The high quality continued on the main stage with Big Sandy and the Fly Rite Boys who oozed class on some country flavoured rockabilly numbers including "It's A Mystery To Me", 'Spanish Style','Walk Me To The Door', 'Before The Last Teardrop Falls' and, as an encore 'Chalk It Up To The Blues'.

The next act, German band the Ray Collins Hot Club, went down a storm with the crowd. There were ten people on stage including three horns and together they produced an exciting show in the swing and jump blues genres. Very visual indeed. There was a genuine clamour for an encore at the end and they came back to perform 'Knockout Boogie'.

We stayed for the penultimate act the Reverend Horton Heat but we didn't stay long. Jim Heath's heavy guitar playing was not to our taste so we exited stage left quickly, thereby missing the final act Sonny George.

Linda Gail stars on day 2 of the Race

Linda Gail Lewis was the undoubted star of night two of the Rockin' Race. Assisted by daughter Annie Marie and guitarist Danny B Harvey she rocked her way through a selection of her own and brother Jerry Lee's numbers, pummelling the keyboard to within an inch of its life. Songs included 'Good Rocking Man', 'Wild Wild Wild', Down The Line', the excellent 'Kicking My Way Out Of Hell' from her new album, 'It's Been Seven Long Years' and 'Rocking My Life Away'. Other numbers included 'Roll Over Beethoven', 'High School Confidential' 'Whole Lotta Shakin' and 'Great Balls Of Fire" with 'Long Tall Sally as an encore. Annie Marie chipped in with 'Should I Ever Love Again'. It was high energy stuff throughout and very enjoyable.

It was also in contrast to the earlier acts, some of whom were somewhat disappointing. First act was veteran Spanish show band Los Sirex, formed in 1959, who did Spanish language versions of songs such 'Flying Saucers Rock and Roll' and 'Judy In Disguise'. Most of them are well into their seventies and they would not have been out of place on a budget cruise ship. But they tried hard and the locals enjoyed them.

First act on the second stage was of more interest. Theo Lawrence was born in France but is now based in Austin. He has a soft rock vocal style reminiscent of Ricky Nelson and his languid approach went down well. His version of Connie Francis's 'My Heart Has A Mind Of It's Own' was an unexpected treat.

Back on the mainstage The Country Side of Harmonica Slim stuck very much to old style country music with hints of Hank Williams but didn't do much for me. There was some high quality blues meanwhile from the UK's Big Joe Louis on the small stage.

An act that I had been looking forward to came next,Canadian instrumental surf guitar band the Surfrajettes. They looked good visually in matching pink dresses and it was great to have a female act after all the men, but the music got a bit boring after a while despite them being joined by the ubiquitous Deke Dickerson for one number. Deke also guested with Theo and Harmonica Sam. Despite that a rather average night overall, made special by the phenomenal Linda Gail. Long may she reign.

Rockin' Race day 1

Round this time of year I like to escape the English winter and head to Spain for a bit of sunshine and the ever entertaining Rockin' Race Jamboree. This year is no exception and although the weather in Torremolinos is rather cool this time the music at this sold out rock and roll festival is hot. The first evening saw a good mix of bands, although all of them were male, with several stand out acts. First up were the Barnshakers from Finland, a fairly bog standard rockabilly outfit, but they were followed on the smaller stage by US guitarist Kyle Eldridge (pictured above), who came highly recommended by Boston based friend Noah Shaffer, who it was good to see after a long time. Kyle didn't disappoint. He plays a double neck guitar with lightning speed, so much so that he blew his amp at one stage. His numbers have a bit of a bluegrass feel and included his forthcoming single 'Root Beer' and 'Washing Machine Boogie'. Back on the main stage it was the turn of a double headed act featuring Pike Cavallero and Charlie Hightone which, despite some classy vocal support from the Velvet Candles, was all a bit raucous.

I took a quick look at the Western Toneflyers on the second stage but things really took off with the next act Deke Dickerson and the Whippersnappers. Deke is a regular performer here and does not disappoint. The big crowd reacted enthusiastically to his top notch guitar work on a range of rockabilly and Country flavoured rockers. Stand outs included 'High Noon', 'Besame Mucho' and 'Honky Tonk Hardwood Floor' and he and his young band got two encores, culminating in 'Mule Skinner Blues'.

Next up was another popular act, James Intvelt, once of the Blasters, who put it an enjoyable and quite bluesy set which ranged from 'Brown Eyed Handsome Man' to an extended 'Polk Salad Annie'. By this time it was getting late but I decided to hang on to find out out who this year's 'surprise' band was. It turned out to be 70s favourites Matchbox, with Graham Fenton fronting, who launched straight into their hits including 'Rockabilly Rebel' and 'Buzz Buzz A Diddle It'. The audience, dwindling by this time, loved it and it was a great way to end the evening.