BBC Goodies!

[Gerry C]

No, not the infamous comic trio, but two (Count 'em!!) blues programes on TV on the same night. Next Friday (May 1st) BBC 4 will broadcast a documentary called Blues Britannia, which looks at the British blues boom of the 50s and 60s. Expect a round-up of the usual suspects... Following this is another prog called Blues at The Beeb (or something similar) which will apparently include vintage clips of the likes of Son House, BB King, John Lee Hooker and, er, The Kinks! (Much as I love 'em, never thought of the Ks as a blues band!!) Might be worth setting your recording apparatus of choice or even not going out: call your mates, get some beers in, give the missus a fiver for a couple of sweet sherries with her mates down the pub, settle back, enjoy....

Cheerily,

Gerry C

[maxxengland]

In the words of the late, great Professor Stanley Unwin;

recordymost deeply manifold, and thankit for the thorcus which bringforth tidytidy of deepjoy. ;D

[Gerry C]

Having just looked through the Sunday paper's TV section, it seems that these two programmes are but the harbingers of a whole season called Blues Britannia on BBC 4. Rejoice and be glad, children of the slide!

Cheerily,

Gerry C

[ianz]

Synopsis from the BBC Website:-

BLUES BRITANNIA - CAN BLUE MEN PLAY THE WHITES?
Fri 1 May

Contributors including Keith Richard and Bill Wyman chart the rise of blues music in post-war Britain, and explore how the genre earned its place at the heart of pop and rock culture.

Narrated by Nigel Planer and structured in three parts, the first, Born Under a Bad Sign, focuses on the arrival of American blues in Britain in the late 50s and the first performances here by such legends as Muddy Waters, Sonnie Terry and Brownie McGhee.

Part two, Sittin' on Top of the World, charts the birth of the first British blues boom in the early 60s, spearheaded by the Rolling Stones and groups such as the Yardbirds, Manfred Mann, the Animals and the Pretty Things.

The final section, Crossroads, looks at the next, more hardcore British blues boom of the mid-to-late 60s, with guitarists Eric Clapton and Peter Green and the international dominance of their respective bands, Cream and Fleetwood Mac.

Featuring archive performances and interviews with Keith Richards, Paul Jones, Chris Dreja, Bill Wyman, Phil May, John Mayall, Jack Bruce, Mick Fleetwood, Ian Anderson, Tony McPhee, Mike Vernon, Tom McGuinness, Mick Abrahams, Dick Taylor, Val Wilmer, Chris Barber, Pete Brown, Bob Brunning, Dave Kelly and Phil Ryan.

Fri 1 May 2009 21:00BBC Four
Sat 2 May 2009 01:10BBC Four
Mon 4 May 2009 22:30BBC Four

That's my DVD recorder in over-drive!!

[rickS]

Be interesting to see what attention the acoustic blues boom gets - I recall reading that the beeb contacted Mike Cooper for an interview, but didn't follow up when they found out he lives in Italy..sad that acoustic blues always seems the poor relation in these docs, but I suppose we must be grateful for what we do get..

[Gerry C]

I think you must be a mind-reader, rickS! That was exactly what was going through my head: What, no mention of the likes of Mikes Chapman and Cooper, JoAnne Kelly, Sam Mitchell, Dave Peabody, Steve Phillips? Perhaps we ought to petition for a Blues Britannia Unplugged programme, narrated by Michael Messer! However, looking over the next week's progs there seems to be some good concert stuff coming up..

Cheerily,

Gerry C

[bod]

Extracts from interview with Keef for tonight's Blues Britannia at www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/may/01/keith-richards-blues

[leeophonic]

The blues at the BBC was interesting in that there were two Duolians in quick succession, Delaney & Bonnie featuring Clapton, where there was a sighting of a late 30,s paddle headstock silver Duco, and the next clip was of Son house playing a 34/35 14 fret green Duco duolian.
I had heard that everytime Son house would borrow a national the cone would crumple and looking at technique it may be true.
Great none the less.

[snakestretcher]

Son House was great; his guitar sounded like the strings were the originals and it hadn't been tuned since 1935! Wonderful stuff.
Long John Baldry looked very dapper in his tux and I was shocked to see how much Jack Bruce had aged. I guess, in my mind's eye, I still see Cream as the young guys who, along with the Bluesbreakers, inspired me back in 1966 when I was 15.

[andys]

I loved the story behind Champion Jack Dupree. Lived in an orphanage from the age of two, spent time as a heavyweight boxer, served in WW2 and was a POW for 2 years, played piano in obscurity, until he was brought over here to play. Then married over here, and lived in Halifax for the rest of his life.

Great telly last night. I just dont watch much stuff on the box, but I do really enjoy stuff like this. Its about the only thing that I watch.

BBC4 tonight theres more blues, including a Jools Holland thing as well.

[Gerry C]

My pal and former guitar teacher Roger Sutcliffe took piano lessons from Champion Jack when he was living in Ovenden. The little council house seen in the film apparently held two pianos: one for Jack and one for his pupils!. Roger is still very much an active player and even has a MySpace page now: he is one of my top friends, so if you go to www.myspace.com/gerrycooper you'll find him. Great singer and player of guitar, mandolin, piano, harp and resophonic ukelele, made by Beltona! (BTW, the photo on Roger's page is one I took at a recent gig.)

I enjoyed the programmes, though in the doc I would like to have heard more from Bill Wyman and less from the insufferably smug Chris Dreja. I was astonished that the word 'skiffle' was never mentioned, Lonnie Donegan received not a word of praise and an hour elapsed before Clapton was even mentioned! I was disappointed that there was so little on the acoustic side of things, or on the interconnections between the 50s/60s folk and blues scenes - Martin Carthy still insists that his two biggest influences on the guitar were Elizabeth Cotten and Big Bill Broonzy! Keef was brill as usual and it was mildly amusing to see Phil May and Dick Taylor still described in a caption as 'the pretty things'! Some great stuff in the clips prog, though I felt that some clips were there at the expense of other and better ones: we could easily have done without the Kinks, the Fleetwood Mac track was disappointing and the acoustic side was again woefully under-represented - though I thought Tony McPhee doing Write Me a few Short Lines was worth the price of admission! But I seem to recall OGWT appearances by Ry Cooder, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee and many others...

Still as is said in this part of the world, owt's better'n nowt!

Cheerily,

Gerry C

[snakestretcher]

There's a great youtube clip of Johnny Winter on the OGWT-another one of my heroes.

[Deleted]

anyone know who the guitarist backing Long John on Stormy Monday was?

regards

David

[Gerry C]

I wondered that too. He looked a little like Michael Bloomfield (never really got to see his face properly) but perhaps a bit too much of a jazzer? Hot chops, though!

Cheerily

Gerry C

[rickS]

Gerry, you must read minds too! - That absence of any mention of skiffle struck me right away, especially since they had Chris Barber, & Donegan was in his band - young J Page's first TV appearance was in a skiffle band, too - I'd bet that a lot of folks were pre-primed for liking blues thru Lonnie et al playing he likes of Leadbelly; I certainly was..Dick Taylor's a top guy - he & I were briefly in a blues band together some 20-odd years ago, & he was getting ribbed about being a 'pretty thing' then, bless'im..two of the acoustic guys that really should have been mentioned were Davy Graham & Gerry Lockran - there were easily enough acoustic blues-persons to merit another programme, IMO