Sunday, February 17, 2013

Tony Sheridan RIP and more

One of the stars of the 2 Is show at the 100 Club in 2010, Tony Sheridan, has died aged 72. Originally from Norwich, Tony appeared regularly at the Soho coffee bar in the early days of rock and roll before appearing on Oh Boy! and backing the likes of Conway Twitty, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran on their UK tours. His real fame, though, grew in Hamburg where he fronted a young Liverpool band called The Beatles, with whom he recorded a number of tracks for Polydor, including My Bonnie and Ain't She Sweet. Mint original copies of My Bonnie go for big money today. Later he moved towards jazz and blues and continued to live in Germany until his death.
The Vinyl Word reported his performance at the 2010 2 Is show as follows: 'Strangest act of the night was Tony Sheridan, once associated with The Beatles in their Hamburg days. His set was an odd mixture of rock and roll (Skinny Minnie), R and B (What'd I Say), heavy-ish rock (It's All Right Now), country (Detroit City) and the Beatles (Yesterday). Probably not what the rock and roll fans were expecting, but interesting in its own way.'
Another recent death is that of George 'Shadow' Morton, (72), best known for writing and producing the Shangri-Las records for Red Bird records. Later he discovered the Vanilla Fudge and produced their first three albums and also worked with Iron Butterfly.
Brief final words too for a number of blues artists who have died recently:
Zydeco singer and guitarist Roscoe Chenier, a cousin of Clifton Chenier, who appeared regularly at the Blues Estafette in Utrecht, the North Sea Jazz Jazz Festival and the New Orleans Jazz Fest;
Blues singer, pianist and guitarist Ann Rabson, a member of Saffire - The Uppity Blues Women. She also recorded a solo album 'Music Makin' Mama', and an album of duets with Bob Margolin;
Harmonica player Chicago Bob Nelson, who played with bluesmen such as Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters and who formed the Heart Fixers with guitarist Tinsley Ellis in 1981.
Thanks to Dave Carroll for alerting me to the last three deaths.

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