A little tribute

Donald "Duck" Dunn
Legendary bass player with Booker T and the MGs who were the session band at Stax Records playing on genre defining records by the likes of Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding. They also recorded one of my favorite and coolest records of all time, Green Onions.



Dunn later went on to play with some many great artists like Clapton, Dylan, Neil Young and of course the Blues Brothers!



Donna Summer
Whilst I don't know an awful lot about Donna Summer, I've always thought was an amazing record and hearing it on the radio the other day reminded me of dancing to it in a Junior School production, I guess because The Full Monty had been a recent hit...how inappropriate!




Robin Gibb
The Bee Gees are one of the greatest, end of. As singers, writers and record producers they have the be top five, don't they?

I don't want to start analysing it but it seems to me that they had the perfect knack of writing tunes that anyone could sing along to and marrying them to words everyone could relate to. Plus of course those harmonies!

Robin was the lead writer and/or singer of some of my favorites







Peter Jones
Drummer of the wonderful Crowded House. Passed away aged 45.

Last Minute Blues

On Thursday I went along to the first Songwriter's Cafe of 2012 and had a wonderful time listening to four very talented and eclectic acts; Boat To Row, Frankie Williams, Rod Demick and Little Sister.

It was also very nice to bump into various musical friends huddled together in the tree house in the garden of a suburban Birmingham home. Paul Murphy and the team have made some very attractive adaptions to the performance space, and 2012 looks set to be another exciting season. I'm due to be performing but as the line up of each evening isn't announced before hand, you won't get much warning!

On Saturday night I was asked to step in for my friend Chickenbone John and play at the British Legion in Balsall Common. A massive thanks to Alan Nicholls, drummer of Chickenbone Blues for joining Mick Jeynes, Simon Davies and I for an unrehearsed hour and a half of blues.

Christening our selves The Last Minute Blues Band we had a lot of fun playing this event organised by some Bikers (who were as lovely as anyone could be!) For some reason I didn't quite grasp many of the audience were dressed in Star Wars costumes...imagine the scene if you will...a mix of leather clad rockers, Wookies and Tusken Raiders dancing like mad to Elvis and Little Richard tunes. This gigging lark has it's rather unforgettable moments.