With regard to other matters, Mel Wright informs me that he managed to get Bernie Pallo’s obituary in the online Guardian and to read it, the link is as follows:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2012/jan/15/bernie-pallo-obituary

It’s a good tribute to Bernie’s life.

I’ve just received the contract for our gig in September for the Banbury blues festival “Blues Attic Revisited” on Saturday September 8^th  at 8p.m. until 9.20p.m. in the theatre at The Mill Arts Centre, Spiceball Park, Banbury, Oxon. OX16 5QE I am looking forward to it as I have fond memories of the Blues Attic days. As I’ll be 75 a month later perhaps I’d better start thinking of another Birthday Bash while I’m still in full charge of a my faculties. Or at least I think I am. Now how did I lose those emails?

Talking about medical matters, a week ago I went to Wimbledon to meet Chris Youlden for a pre-Christmas drink. It turned out that a bad foot infection and swollen leg had obliged him to go on a heavy antibiotic regime which meant definitely no drinking. This meant that I had to drink for both of us, which, naturally, I endeavoured to do. I’m sure my doctor would have approved of my good intentions. Chris and I reminisced, without too much maudlin, about the early days when we did a few gigs with the late Dave Peverett and his brother. This was before Dave’s days with Savoy Brown and Foghat. Yes, the mention of Savoy Brown brought up a few interesting memories too. It’s good to see that Kim Simmonds is still going strong with the band. I then went up to Sloane Square to meet Gigi and some of her friends who had just been left a million pounds each And so to bed.

The perambulations continued for the next few nights with assorted parties and celebrations, My final outing was a couple of days ago when I met up with drummer Dino Coccia and his protégé Dean. We were joined by a friend of Dean’s who’d been living on the streets but was now on the up and was in fact helping others who were living rough. This was illustrated when we were about to part at Holborn tube station and he saw a homeless woman. He immediately decided to stay and help her. I gave him my loose change to do as he thought best for her. Ah, the spirit of Christmas and me an atheist. Despite that, I wish you all the Best for the Fest.

Afterwards we went to the nearest pub for breakfast. This happened to be the William IV on Harrow Road where proceedings were interrupted from time to time by a very determined food-seeking Jack Russell terrier. My daughter Elinore decided that as it was pretty dirty and obviously hungry it was probably lost so she took it along to the nearest Mayhew animal centre where they told her that they would try to find the owner but that in the meantime, they would name the dog as they always did when animals were brought in. No surprise then to find that the dog had been named William the fourth.

The next day Jean and his wife and a few of Bernie’s friends, including Gordon Smith and I, gathered to scatter his ashes. The following evening, we  put on a musical wake for Bernie. The basic line-up was myself, Jim Mercer and Dino Coccia. We were joined by Jon T-bone Taylor, Todd Sharpville and Big Joe Louis, with other guests including bass players Pete Duke and Brian Diprose, who had all worked with Bernie over the years. It was very much a last minute  operation because for some reason I was reluctant to organise it, but I’m glad I got it together.

To turn to other matters, last Sunday I went along to The first fund-raising session for the newly formed National Blues Archive which aims to gather material on the early days of British blues among other things. It intends to do for British Blues what the National Jazz Archive does for Jazz. They will probably be doing more fundraising sessions in future at the Coach & Horses in High Road Leyton. What surprised me about it was the quality of music played there and also the fact that there were some great young guys. Considering that I was bemoaning the state of blues in London not too long ago, I was really pleased to get such a shot in the arm.

I have arranged a wake gig at the Elephant and Castle, Elgin Avenue W9 on Wednesday evening starting at 8.30. The pub is at the Harrow Road end of Elgin. The line-up is Gordon Smith on guitar and vocals, Jim Mercer bass and vocals, Dino Coccia on drums and myself on harp and vocals.

My next foray was to Paradise by way of Kensal Rise to catch Big Joe Louis and his band. Another good evening not too far from home. Jon T-bone Taylor joined us there and it’s good to see him out and about. Not quite such good news about my guitarist Bernie Pallo as he had to go back into hospital. He’s out again now but is taking a long time to recover.

Last week Gigi had a break from work so we took a couple of trips, one to Brighton and, last Friday, to Paris for the day She had some business to transact and I decided to go with her. We mooched about the capital and ended up in a restaurant, watching passers-by in the rain, before heading for home. She probably would have preferred that I had stayed at home as, on going through the departure check out, we found that I’d lost her passport  On reflection I realised that the only place  I could have lost it was on the train, so thanks to some very helpful liaison between the French and British Border controllers it was found at the lost property office at the Gare du Nord. I think I’m back in her good books now…I was very impressed with the Eurostar service, by the way.

The following Thursday I met with drummer Mel Wright at the Warwick Castle near Little Venice. This used to be one of my old haunts and it’s an easy place to meet as it‘s near a tube station. Mel and I discussed a few things from the past and he produced a disc copy of an old shellac we’d recorded in the early days. It had been at Ron Skinner’s flat which Mel had helped to clear after Ron’s death The two tracks were “Death Valley Blues” sung by me and “ Ain’t That The Truth” sung by Ron. Rod Price played the guitar and Mel played drums. It was recorded in 1966 I believe. Maybe it’ll be included on a future recording.

While we were talking about all this, guitarist Bernie Pallo walked into the bar. He had told me the day before that he might try to make it and was really good to see him given how much chemotherapy he has had. He’s been given the all clear but isn’t doing much at present because of the side effects. He will go back in six weeks for a follow up meeting. He has also been given a positive report on a possible heart problem so that is also good news.