I was unable to do the charity gig a week or so ago. I’d had a heavy cough with flu like symptoms, which continued for weeks despite My having had a flu jab and a session on antibiotics. My voice had gone completely but had started to return but on the day before the gig I still couldn’t manage to sing, so I had to call it off at the last minute, not something I enjoy doing at any time.
A few days later, I ran into Gordon Smith and he told me that his arthritis had really got bad again and was lasting much longer than usual. This meant he couldn’t play guitar for longer than a quarter of an hour. As a result he’s had to blow out a lot of gigs. I hope he can recover soon. He still manages to give guitar lessons to Jim Mercer, so perhaps I’ll have another guitar option soon.
I recently did an interview for a Greek site called Mixalis blues run by Mike in Athens I really liked the site when I visited it and there were some good photographs that I hadn’t seen before as well as some off my site. I really like the layout too which is no doubt down to Mike’s blues magazine work. Mike sent me a link:
Shakey Vick’s interview which is how I caught up with it. I hope it works on this site too but if not I’ll try to get another link for anyone who is interested.
Last Sunday Gigi and I went down to Streatham to Graeme Miall’s Speakeasy promotion at Hideaway which takes place every two weeks. It was good to see Graham again, the first time since he left the Oval Tavern gig. Another great pleasure was to hear Errol Linton and his band who were the act that evening. A great band and some brilliant playing from Errol and the guys, with even a touch of Kwela in one of their numbers. An enjoyable evening and I have no doubt I’ll be visiting Streatham again.
As the person who invited you to play (at John o’Leary’s invitation) I appreciated you volunteering in the first place. Really sorry you weren’t well. Nick Junior Moore stepped in from The Blues Corporation and we had Andy Twyman play, so musically it was great. But we are already talking about another event later in the year and if your health permits it would be a pleasure to feature you.