1926 George Melly*
1939 Luther Allison*
1943 Dave „Snaker“ Ray*
1964 Colin James*
1969 Woodstock Festival 15.-18.08.1969
1972 Baby Tate - Charles Henry Tate+
1984 Hammie Nixon+
2017 Preston Hubbard+
1939 Luther Allison*
1943 Dave „Snaker“ Ray*
1964 Colin James*
1969 Woodstock Festival 15.-18.08.1969
1972 Baby Tate - Charles Henry Tate+
1984 Hammie Nixon+
2017 Preston Hubbard+
Happy Birthday
Woodstock Festival 15.-18.08.1969
Das Woodstock Music and Art Festival war ein Musikfestival, das als musikalischer Höhepunkt der US-amerikanischen Hippiebewegung gilt. Es fand offiziell vom 15. bis 17. August 1969 statt, endete jedoch erst am Morgen des 18. August. Der Veranstaltungsort war eine Farm in Bethel im US-amerikanischen Bundesstaat New York.
Auf dem Festival traten 32 Bands und Solisten der Musikrichtungen Folk, Rock, Soul und Blues vor mehr als 400.000 Besuchern für insgesamt rund 200.000 US-Dollar Gage auf. Auf dem Festivalgelände herrschten chaotische Zustände, da die erwarteten Besucherzahlen um ein Vielfaches übertroffen wurden. Trotzdem blieb die Stimmung bei den hunderttausenden Besuchern friedlich. Das Woodstock-Festival verkörpert bis heute den Mythos des „anderen Amerikas“, des künstlerischen und friedliebenden Amerikas, das sich damals im Vietnamkrieg befand.
Das Festival entsprang einer kommerziellen Idee: Der junge Musikproduzent Michael Lang wollte mit den Einnahmen des Festivals sein Aufnahmestudio Media Sounds finanzieren. Dieses Studio befand sich in Woodstock; dort und in der näheren Umgebung lebten gegen Ende der 1960er viele Stars wie The Band und Tim Hardin. Langs Nachbar Artie Kornfeld – früher Sänger und Songschreiber, inzwischen bei Laurie Records, einem Label, das damals zu Capitol gehörte – half ihm, zwei Unternehmer aus New York City für die Idee zu gewinnen und mit ihnen Woodstock Ventures zu gründen. Diese beiden Unternehmer waren John Roberts und Joel Rosenman (beide damals 24), die im Wall Street Journal inseriert hatten, dass sie eine Investitionsmöglichkeit suchten. Das Festival sollte zusätzlich zu den Kosten für das Aufnahmestudio noch Gewinn abwerfen.
Die Veranstaltung sollte ursprünglich nicht in Woodstock stattfinden, sondern in Wallkill, das 50 km südlich lag. Das Festival musste dann aber nach Protesten der Dorfbevölkerung auf ein 243 Hektar großes Gelände des Farmers Max Yasgur (1919–1973) in White Lake bei Bethel, ebenfalls im Bundesstaat New York gelegen, ausweichen. Bethel liegt ca. 150 km von New York entfernt, 70 km südwestlich von Woodstock und hatte damals weniger als 4000 Einwohner. Yasgur erhielt für die Dauer des Festivals 50.000 Dollar Miete. Er wurde aber am 7. Januar 1970 von seinen Nachbarn auf 35.000 Dollar Ersatz für Schäden verklagt, die Konzertbesucher an ihrem Eigentum verursacht hatten.
Dass das Festival als The Woodstock Music and Art Fair bezeichnet wurde, obwohl es nicht dort stattfand, wird von einigen Leuten auch als kleine Hommage an Bob Dylan verstanden, der damals in Bearsville bei Woodstock lebte und seine Teilnahme nicht zugesagt hatte.
Nun warb Woodstock Ventures in Zeitungen für das festival for peace and music und rechnete mit 60.000 Besuchern. Tatsächlich machten sich rund eine Million Menschen auf den Weg, die Hälfte von ihnen blieb in verstopften Zugangswegen stecken und wurde von der Polizei wieder nach Hause geschickt. Über 400.000 Besucher erreichten das Festival. Eine Eintrittskarte für alle drei Tage kostete 24 Dollar. Da mit dem Aufstellen der Kassenhäuschen bis zuletzt gewartet worden war und bald die Umzäunungen niedergetrampelt wurden, wurde das Festival von den Veranstaltern als kostenlos erklärt.
Das Festival selbst wurde für die Veranstalter zunächst zu einem finanziellen Misserfolg. Wegen der unerwartet hohen Besucherzahl war es schon bald nicht mehr möglich, Tickets zu verkaufen. Zusätzlich mussten Verpflegung und medizinische Betreuung für die Besucher sowie die Musiker selbst wegen der verstopften Zugangswege mit Hubschraubern eingeflogen werden. Erst mit der Vermarktung des Festivals durch den gleichnamigen Film und das Dreifachalbum stellte sich der kommerzielle Erfolg ein.
Auch wenn die meisten der ganz großen Namen, wie The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Doors sowie viele damals sehr bekannte schwarze Künstler fehlten, gelang es Woodstock Ventures, teilweise durch Überbezahlung der Künstler und zusätzliche Provisionen für einige Manager, folgende Interpreten zu engagieren:
Joan Baez, Country Joe McDonald, Blood, Sweat & Tears,
Butterfield Blues Band, Canned Heat, Mountain,
Country Joe and the Fish, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young,
Grateful Dead, Arlo Guthrie, Iron Butterfly (nicht aufgetreten),
Keef Hartley Band, Richie Havens, Jeff Beck Group (nicht aufgetreten),
Incredible String Band, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane,
Melanie Safka, Joe Cocker, Quill,
Santana Blues Band, John Sebastian, Sha Na Na,
Ravi Shankar, Sly & the Family Stone, Bert Sommer,
Sweetwater, Ten Years After, The Who,
Johnny Winter, The Band, Tim Hardin,
Jimi Hendrix,
Butterfield Blues Band, Canned Heat, Mountain,
Country Joe and the Fish, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young,
Grateful Dead, Arlo Guthrie, Iron Butterfly (nicht aufgetreten),
Keef Hartley Band, Richie Havens, Jeff Beck Group (nicht aufgetreten),
Incredible String Band, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane,
Melanie Safka, Joe Cocker, Quill,
Santana Blues Band, John Sebastian, Sha Na Na,
Ravi Shankar, Sly & the Family Stone, Bert Sommer,
Sweetwater, Ten Years After, The Who,
Johnny Winter, The Band, Tim Hardin,
Jimi Hendrix,
weiter: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock-Festival
The Woodstock Music & Art Fair—informally, the Woodstock Festival or simply Woodstock—was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre (240 ha; 0.94 sq mi) dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to 18, 1969. Bethel, in Sullivan County, is 43 miles (69 km) southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, in adjoining Ulster County.
During the sometimes rainy weekend, 32 acts performed outdoors before an audience of 400,000 young people.[2] It is widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history. Rolling Stone listed it as one of the 50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock and Roll.[3]
The festival is also widely considered to be the definitive nexus for the larger counterculture generation.[4][5]
The event was captured in the Academy Award winning 1970 documentary movie Woodstock, an accompanying soundtrack album, and Joni Mitchell's song "Woodstock", which commemorated the event and became a major hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
Planning and preparation
Woodstock was initiated through the efforts of Michael Lang, John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, and Artie Kornfeld. Roberts and Rosenman financed the project. Lang had some experience as a promoter, having co-organized a small festival on the East Coast the prior year, the Miami Pop Festival, where an estimated 25,000 people attended the two-day event. Early in 1969, Roberts and Rosenman were New York City entrepreneurs, in the process of building Media Sound, a large audio recording studio complex in Manhattan. Lang and Kornfeld's lawyer, Miles Lourie, who had done legal work on the Media Sound project, suggested that they contact Roberts and Rosenman about financing a similar, but much smaller, studio Kornfeld and Lang hoped to build in Woodstock, NY. Unpersuaded by this Studio-in-the-Woods proposal, Roberts and Rosenman counter-proposed a concert featuring the kind of artists known to frequent the Woodstock area (such as Bob Dylan and The Band). Kornfeld and Lang agreed to the new plan, and Woodstock Ventures was formed in January 1969.[6] The company offices were located in an oddly decorated floor of 47 West 57th Street in Manhattan. Burt Cohen, and his design group, Curtain Call Productions, oversaw the psychedelic transformation of the office.[7]
From the start, there were differences in approach among the four: Roberts was disciplined and knew what was needed for the venture to succeed, while the laid-back Lang saw Woodstock as a new, "relaxed" way of bringing entrepreneurs together.[8] When Lang was unable to find a site for the concert, Roberts and Rosenman, growing increasingly concerned, took to the road and eventually came up with a venue. Similar differences about financial discipline made Roberts and Rosenman wonder whether to pull the plug or to continue pumping money into the project.[8]
In April 1969, newly minted superstars Creedence Clearwater Revival became the first act to sign a contract for the event, agreeing to play for $10,000. The promoters had experienced difficulty landing big-name groups prior to Creedence committing to play. Creedence drummer Doug Clifford later commented, "Once Creedence signed, everyone else jumped in line and all the other big acts came on." Given their 3:00 a.m. start time and omission (at Creedence frontman John Fogerty's insistence) from the Woodstock film, Creedence members have expressed bitterness over their experiences at the famed festival.[9]
Woodstock was designed as a profit-making venture, aptly titled "Woodstock Ventures". It famously became a "free concert" only after the event drew hundreds of thousands more patrons than the organizers had prepared for. Tickets for the three-day event cost $18 in advance and $24 at the gate (equivalent to $120.00 and $150.00 in 2014[10]). Ticket sales were limited to record stores in the greater New York City area, or by mail via a post office box at the Radio City Station Post Office located in Midtown Manhattan. Around 186,000 advance tickets were sold, and the organizers anticipated approximately 200,000 festival-goers would turn up.[11]
Selection of the venue
The original venue plan was for the festival to take place in Woodstock, New York possibly near the proposed recording studio site owned by Alexander Tapooz. After local residents quickly shot down that idea, Lang and Kornfeld thought they had found another possible location in Saugerties, New York. But they had misunderstood, as the landowner's attorney made clear, in a brief meeting with Roberts and Rosenman.[6] Growing alarmed at the lack of progress, Roberts and Rosenman took over the search for a venue, and discovered the 300-acre (120 ha) Mills Industrial Park (41°28′39″N 74°21′49″W) in the town of Wallkill, New York, which Woodstock Ventures leased for $10,000 in the Spring of 1969.[1] Town officials were assured that no more than 50,000 would attend. Town residents immediately opposed the project. In early July, the Town Board passed a law requiring a permit for any gathering over 5,000 people. On July 15, 1969, the Wallkill Zoning Board of Appeals officially banned the concert on the basis that the planned portable toilets would not meet town code.[12] Reports of the ban, however, turned out to be a publicity bonanza for the festival.[13]
Max Yasgur's dairy farm in 1968.
In his 2007 book Taking Woodstock, Elliot Tiber relates that he offered to host the event on his 15 acres (6.1 ha) motel grounds, and had a permit for such an event. He claims to have introduced the promoters to dairy farmer Max Yasgur.[14] Lang, however, disputes Tiber's account and says that Tiber introduced him to a realtor, who drove him to Yasgur's farm without Tiber. Sam Yasgur, Max's son, agrees with Lang's account.[15] Yasgur's land formed a natural bowl sloping down to Filippini Pond on the land's north side. The stage would be set up at the bottom of the hill with Filippini Pond forming a backdrop. The pond would become a popular skinny dipping destination.
The organizers once again told Bethel authorities they expected no more than 50,000 people.
Despite resident opposition and signs proclaiming, "Buy No Milk. Stop Max's Hippy Music Festival",[16] Bethel Town Attorney Frederick W. V. Schadt and building inspector Donald Clark approved the permits, but the Bethel Town Board refused to issue them formally. Clark was ordered to post stop-work orders.
Free concert
The late change in venue did not give the festival organizers enough time to prepare. At a meeting three days before the event, organizers felt they had two options: one was to complete the fencing and ticket booths, without which the promoters were almost certain to lose their shirts; the other option involved putting their remaining available resources into building the stage, without which the promoters feared they would have a disappointed and disgruntled audience. When the audience began arriving by the tens of thousands, the next day, on Wednesday before the weekend, the decision had been made for them.[6] "The fences at Woodstock" became an oxymoron, while the stage at Woodstock gave birth to a legend.
The festival
The influx of attendees to the rural concert site in Bethel created a massive traffic jam. Fearing chaos as thousands began descending on the community, Bethel did not enforce its codes.[12] Eventually, announcements on radio stations as far away as WNEW-FM in Manhattan and descriptions of the traffic jams on television news discouraged people from setting off to the festival.[17][18] Arlo Guthrie made an announcement that was included in the film saying that the New York State Thruway was closed.[19] The director of the Woodstock museum discussed below said this never occurred.[20] To add to the problems and difficulty in dealing with the large crowds, recent rains had caused muddy roads and fields. The facilities were not equipped to provide sanitation or first aid for the number of people attending; hundreds of thousands found themselves in a struggle against bad weather, food shortages, and poor sanitation.[21]
On the morning of Sunday, August 17, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller called festival organizer John Roberts and told him he was thinking of ordering 10,000 New York State National Guard troops to the festival. Roberts was successful in persuading Rockefeller not to do this. Sullivan County declared a state of emergency.[17] During the festival, personnel from nearby Stewart Air Force Base assisted in helping to ensure order and airlifting performers in and out of the concert venue.[22]
Jimi Hendrix was the last act to perform at the festival. Because of the rain delays that Sunday, when Hendrix finally took the stage it was 8:30 Monday morning. The audience, which had peaked at an estimated 400,000 during the festival, was now reduced to about 30,000 by that point; many of them merely waited to catch a glimpse of Hendrix before leaving during his performance.[23]
Hendrix and his new band, Gypsy, Sun and Rainbows (Introduced as The Experience, but corrected by Jimi) [24] performed a two-hour set. His psychedelic rendition of the U.S. national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner" occurred about 3⁄4 into their set (after which he segued into "Purple Haze"). The song would become "part of the sixties Zeitgeist" as it was captured forever in the Woodstock film;[25] Hendrix's image performing this number wearing a blue-beaded white leather jacket with fringe and a red head scarf, has since been regarded as a defining moment of the 1960s.[23][26]
We were ready to rock out and we waited and waited and finally it was our turn ... there were a half million people asleep. These people were out. It was sort of like a painting of a Dante scene, just bodies from hell, all intertwined and asleep, covered with mud.
And this is the moment I will never forget as long as I live: A quarter mile away in the darkness, on the other edge of this bowl, there was some guy flicking his Bic, and in the night I hear, 'Don't worry about it, John. We're with you.' I played the rest of the show for that guy.
—John Fogerty recalling Creedence Clearwater Revival's 3:30 am start time at Woodstock[9]
“
”
Although the festival was remarkably peaceful given the number of people and the conditions involved, there were two recorded fatalities: one from what was believed to be a heroin overdose, and another caused in an accident when a tractor ran over an attendee sleeping in a nearby hayfield. There also were two births recorded at the event (one in a car caught in traffic and another in a hospital after an airlift by helicopter) and four miscarriages.[27] Oral testimony in the film supports the overdose and run-over deaths and at least one birth, along with many logistical headaches.
Yet, in tune with the idealistic hopes of the 1960s, Woodstock satisfied most attendees. There was a sense of social harmony, which, with the quality of music, and the overwhelming mass of people, many sporting bohemian dress, behavior, and attitudes helped to make it one of the enduring events of the century.[28]
After the concert, Max Yasgur, who owned the site of the event, saw it as a victory of peace and love. He spoke of how nearly half a million people filled with potential for disaster, riot, looting, and catastrophe spent the three days with music and peace on their minds. He stated, "If we join them, we can turn those adversities that are the problems of America today into a hope for a brighter and more peaceful future..."[8]
Sound
Sound for the concert was engineered by sound engineer Bill Hanley. "It worked very well," he says of the event. "I built special speaker columns on the hills and had 16 loudspeaker arrays in a square platform going up to the hill on 70 feet (21 m) towers. We set it up for 150,000 to 200,000 people. Of course, 500,000 showed up."[29] ALTEC designed marine plywood cabinets that weighed half a ton apiece and stood 6 feet (1.8 m) tall, almost 4 feet (1.2 m) deep, and 3 feet (0.91 m) wide. Each of these enclosures carried four 15-inch (380 mm) JBL D140 loudspeakers. The tweeters consisted of 4×2-Cell & 2×10-Cell Altec Horns. Behind the stage were three transformers providing 2,000 amperes of current to power the amplification setup.[30] For many years this system was collectively referred to as the Woodstock Bins.
The Woodstock Music & Art Fair—informally, the Woodstock Festival or simply Woodstock—was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre (240 ha; 0.94 sq mi) dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to 18, 1969. Bethel, in Sullivan County, is 43 miles (69 km) southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, in adjoining Ulster County.
During the sometimes rainy weekend, 32 acts performed outdoors before an audience of 400,000 young people.[2] It is widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history. Rolling Stone listed it as one of the 50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock and Roll.[3]
The festival is also widely considered to be the definitive nexus for the larger counterculture generation.[4][5]
The event was captured in the Academy Award winning 1970 documentary movie Woodstock, an accompanying soundtrack album, and Joni Mitchell's song "Woodstock", which commemorated the event and became a major hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
Planning and preparation
Woodstock was initiated through the efforts of Michael Lang, John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, and Artie Kornfeld. Roberts and Rosenman financed the project. Lang had some experience as a promoter, having co-organized a small festival on the East Coast the prior year, the Miami Pop Festival, where an estimated 25,000 people attended the two-day event. Early in 1969, Roberts and Rosenman were New York City entrepreneurs, in the process of building Media Sound, a large audio recording studio complex in Manhattan. Lang and Kornfeld's lawyer, Miles Lourie, who had done legal work on the Media Sound project, suggested that they contact Roberts and Rosenman about financing a similar, but much smaller, studio Kornfeld and Lang hoped to build in Woodstock, NY. Unpersuaded by this Studio-in-the-Woods proposal, Roberts and Rosenman counter-proposed a concert featuring the kind of artists known to frequent the Woodstock area (such as Bob Dylan and The Band). Kornfeld and Lang agreed to the new plan, and Woodstock Ventures was formed in January 1969.[6] The company offices were located in an oddly decorated floor of 47 West 57th Street in Manhattan. Burt Cohen, and his design group, Curtain Call Productions, oversaw the psychedelic transformation of the office.[7]
From the start, there were differences in approach among the four: Roberts was disciplined and knew what was needed for the venture to succeed, while the laid-back Lang saw Woodstock as a new, "relaxed" way of bringing entrepreneurs together.[8] When Lang was unable to find a site for the concert, Roberts and Rosenman, growing increasingly concerned, took to the road and eventually came up with a venue. Similar differences about financial discipline made Roberts and Rosenman wonder whether to pull the plug or to continue pumping money into the project.[8]
In April 1969, newly minted superstars Creedence Clearwater Revival became the first act to sign a contract for the event, agreeing to play for $10,000. The promoters had experienced difficulty landing big-name groups prior to Creedence committing to play. Creedence drummer Doug Clifford later commented, "Once Creedence signed, everyone else jumped in line and all the other big acts came on." Given their 3:00 a.m. start time and omission (at Creedence frontman John Fogerty's insistence) from the Woodstock film, Creedence members have expressed bitterness over their experiences at the famed festival.[9]
Woodstock was designed as a profit-making venture, aptly titled "Woodstock Ventures". It famously became a "free concert" only after the event drew hundreds of thousands more patrons than the organizers had prepared for. Tickets for the three-day event cost $18 in advance and $24 at the gate (equivalent to $120.00 and $150.00 in 2014[10]). Ticket sales were limited to record stores in the greater New York City area, or by mail via a post office box at the Radio City Station Post Office located in Midtown Manhattan. Around 186,000 advance tickets were sold, and the organizers anticipated approximately 200,000 festival-goers would turn up.[11]
Selection of the venue
The original venue plan was for the festival to take place in Woodstock, New York possibly near the proposed recording studio site owned by Alexander Tapooz. After local residents quickly shot down that idea, Lang and Kornfeld thought they had found another possible location in Saugerties, New York. But they had misunderstood, as the landowner's attorney made clear, in a brief meeting with Roberts and Rosenman.[6] Growing alarmed at the lack of progress, Roberts and Rosenman took over the search for a venue, and discovered the 300-acre (120 ha) Mills Industrial Park (41°28′39″N 74°21′49″W) in the town of Wallkill, New York, which Woodstock Ventures leased for $10,000 in the Spring of 1969.[1] Town officials were assured that no more than 50,000 would attend. Town residents immediately opposed the project. In early July, the Town Board passed a law requiring a permit for any gathering over 5,000 people. On July 15, 1969, the Wallkill Zoning Board of Appeals officially banned the concert on the basis that the planned portable toilets would not meet town code.[12] Reports of the ban, however, turned out to be a publicity bonanza for the festival.[13]
Max Yasgur's dairy farm in 1968.
In his 2007 book Taking Woodstock, Elliot Tiber relates that he offered to host the event on his 15 acres (6.1 ha) motel grounds, and had a permit for such an event. He claims to have introduced the promoters to dairy farmer Max Yasgur.[14] Lang, however, disputes Tiber's account and says that Tiber introduced him to a realtor, who drove him to Yasgur's farm without Tiber. Sam Yasgur, Max's son, agrees with Lang's account.[15] Yasgur's land formed a natural bowl sloping down to Filippini Pond on the land's north side. The stage would be set up at the bottom of the hill with Filippini Pond forming a backdrop. The pond would become a popular skinny dipping destination.
The organizers once again told Bethel authorities they expected no more than 50,000 people.
Despite resident opposition and signs proclaiming, "Buy No Milk. Stop Max's Hippy Music Festival",[16] Bethel Town Attorney Frederick W. V. Schadt and building inspector Donald Clark approved the permits, but the Bethel Town Board refused to issue them formally. Clark was ordered to post stop-work orders.
Free concert
The late change in venue did not give the festival organizers enough time to prepare. At a meeting three days before the event, organizers felt they had two options: one was to complete the fencing and ticket booths, without which the promoters were almost certain to lose their shirts; the other option involved putting their remaining available resources into building the stage, without which the promoters feared they would have a disappointed and disgruntled audience. When the audience began arriving by the tens of thousands, the next day, on Wednesday before the weekend, the decision had been made for them.[6] "The fences at Woodstock" became an oxymoron, while the stage at Woodstock gave birth to a legend.
The festival
The influx of attendees to the rural concert site in Bethel created a massive traffic jam. Fearing chaos as thousands began descending on the community, Bethel did not enforce its codes.[12] Eventually, announcements on radio stations as far away as WNEW-FM in Manhattan and descriptions of the traffic jams on television news discouraged people from setting off to the festival.[17][18] Arlo Guthrie made an announcement that was included in the film saying that the New York State Thruway was closed.[19] The director of the Woodstock museum discussed below said this never occurred.[20] To add to the problems and difficulty in dealing with the large crowds, recent rains had caused muddy roads and fields. The facilities were not equipped to provide sanitation or first aid for the number of people attending; hundreds of thousands found themselves in a struggle against bad weather, food shortages, and poor sanitation.[21]
On the morning of Sunday, August 17, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller called festival organizer John Roberts and told him he was thinking of ordering 10,000 New York State National Guard troops to the festival. Roberts was successful in persuading Rockefeller not to do this. Sullivan County declared a state of emergency.[17] During the festival, personnel from nearby Stewart Air Force Base assisted in helping to ensure order and airlifting performers in and out of the concert venue.[22]
Jimi Hendrix was the last act to perform at the festival. Because of the rain delays that Sunday, when Hendrix finally took the stage it was 8:30 Monday morning. The audience, which had peaked at an estimated 400,000 during the festival, was now reduced to about 30,000 by that point; many of them merely waited to catch a glimpse of Hendrix before leaving during his performance.[23]
Hendrix and his new band, Gypsy, Sun and Rainbows (Introduced as The Experience, but corrected by Jimi) [24] performed a two-hour set. His psychedelic rendition of the U.S. national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner" occurred about 3⁄4 into their set (after which he segued into "Purple Haze"). The song would become "part of the sixties Zeitgeist" as it was captured forever in the Woodstock film;[25] Hendrix's image performing this number wearing a blue-beaded white leather jacket with fringe and a red head scarf, has since been regarded as a defining moment of the 1960s.[23][26]
We were ready to rock out and we waited and waited and finally it was our turn ... there were a half million people asleep. These people were out. It was sort of like a painting of a Dante scene, just bodies from hell, all intertwined and asleep, covered with mud.
And this is the moment I will never forget as long as I live: A quarter mile away in the darkness, on the other edge of this bowl, there was some guy flicking his Bic, and in the night I hear, 'Don't worry about it, John. We're with you.' I played the rest of the show for that guy.
—John Fogerty recalling Creedence Clearwater Revival's 3:30 am start time at Woodstock[9]
“
”
Although the festival was remarkably peaceful given the number of people and the conditions involved, there were two recorded fatalities: one from what was believed to be a heroin overdose, and another caused in an accident when a tractor ran over an attendee sleeping in a nearby hayfield. There also were two births recorded at the event (one in a car caught in traffic and another in a hospital after an airlift by helicopter) and four miscarriages.[27] Oral testimony in the film supports the overdose and run-over deaths and at least one birth, along with many logistical headaches.
Yet, in tune with the idealistic hopes of the 1960s, Woodstock satisfied most attendees. There was a sense of social harmony, which, with the quality of music, and the overwhelming mass of people, many sporting bohemian dress, behavior, and attitudes helped to make it one of the enduring events of the century.[28]
After the concert, Max Yasgur, who owned the site of the event, saw it as a victory of peace and love. He spoke of how nearly half a million people filled with potential for disaster, riot, looting, and catastrophe spent the three days with music and peace on their minds. He stated, "If we join them, we can turn those adversities that are the problems of America today into a hope for a brighter and more peaceful future..."[8]
Sound
Sound for the concert was engineered by sound engineer Bill Hanley. "It worked very well," he says of the event. "I built special speaker columns on the hills and had 16 loudspeaker arrays in a square platform going up to the hill on 70 feet (21 m) towers. We set it up for 150,000 to 200,000 people. Of course, 500,000 showed up."[29] ALTEC designed marine plywood cabinets that weighed half a ton apiece and stood 6 feet (1.8 m) tall, almost 4 feet (1.2 m) deep, and 3 feet (0.91 m) wide. Each of these enclosures carried four 15-inch (380 mm) JBL D140 loudspeakers. The tweeters consisted of 4×2-Cell & 2×10-Cell Altec Horns. Behind the stage were three transformers providing 2,000 amperes of current to power the amplification setup.[30] For many years this system was collectively referred to as the Woodstock Bins.
Santana - Soul Sacrifice 1969 "Woodstock" Live Video HQ
Woodstock 1969 Canned Heat Woodstock Boogie -Part 1
Canned Heat Woodstock - Going Up The Country (rare version)
Johnny Winter Live at Woodstock playing Mean Town Blues - 1969. Johnny Winter Dies July 16th 2014.
Woodstock Joe Cocker sings With A Little Help From My Friends 1969
Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Morning Sunrise (Lost Treasures of WoodStock)
Jimi Hendrix Purple Haze Live at Woodstock
Woodstock-Splitter
Das In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida-Album hielt sich jedoch über zwei Jahre in den oberen Regionen der Bestseller-Liste, wurde bis 1993 fast 25millionenmal verkauft und war die erste Platin-Platte der Schallplatten-Historie.Hatte die Band, wie sie heute einräumt, mit In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida einen von ihr in diesem Rahmen nicht erwarteten Zufallestreffer gelandet, war ihr beim Woodstock-Festival von 1969 das Glück weniger hold. Iron Butterfly standen zwar auf dem Programm des Festivals. Aber bedingt durch einen Stau haben Iron Butterfly ihr Flugzeug und damit ihren Auftritt verpasst.
IRON BUTTERFLY - IN A GADDA DA VIDA - 1968 (ORIGINAL FULL VERSION) CD SOUND & 3D VIDEO
Die Jeff Beck Group war eine 1967 vom britischen Gitarristen Jeff Beck gegründete Rockband.
Beck hatte im Jahr zuvor die Yardbirds verlassen und meldete sich nun mit seiner eigenen Band auf der Rockbühne zurück, nachdem er zunächst eine Solokarriere angestrebt hatte. Mitglieder der Jeff Beck Group waren neben Beck Rod Stewart (Gesang), Ron Wood (Bass, später Gitarrist bei den Rolling Stones), Micky Waller (Schlagzeug) und Nicky Hopkins (Keyboards). Die Besetzung wechselte einige Male, u. a. übernahm Aynsley Dunbar das Schlagzeug von Micky Waller bei der Band.
Die Jeff Beck Group brachte zwei Alben heraus, Truth (1968) und Beck-Ola (1969). Ebenfalls 1969 produzierte die Band das Album Barabajagal mit Donovan, löste sich jedoch wenig später – noch vor dem geplanten Auftritt beim Woodstock-Festival – auf.
1970 hatte Beck einen schweren Autounfall, von dem er sich nur langsam erholte. 1971 stellte er mit Bob Tench (Gesang), Clive Chaman (Bass), Cozy Powell (Schlagzeug) und Max Middleton (Klavier) eine Neuauflage der Jeff Beck Group auf die Beine, die aber nur kurze Zeit bestand. Aus dieser Phase stammen die Alben Rough and Ready (1971) und Jeff Beck Group (1972).
Siehe auch: Upp - die Band, die bisweilen fälschlicherweise als Jeff Beck Band bezeichnet wird.
The Jeff Beck Group - Rice Pudding - 1969
The Jeff Beck Group - Rice Pudding - 1969
Line Up:
Jeff Beck -- guitar
Rod Stewart -- vocals
Nicky Hopkins -- piano and organ
Ronnie Wood -- bass
Tony Newman -- drums
Line Up:
Jeff Beck -- guitar
Rod Stewart -- vocals
Nicky Hopkins -- piano and organ
Ronnie Wood -- bass
Tony Newman -- drums
Dave „Snaker“ Ray *17.08.1943
Dave „Snaker“ Ray (* 17. August 1943, St. Paul, Minnesota; † 28. November 2002 in Minneapolis) war ein US-amerikanischer Bluessänger und -Gitarrist, der vor allem durch seine Zusammenarbeit mit „Spider“ John Koerner und Tony „Little Sun“ Glover bekannt geworden ist.
In den 1960er Jahren sind die drei zunächst gemeinsam unter dem Namen Koerner, Ray & Glover aufgetreten und haben Schallplatten veröffentlicht, sind dann seit Anfang der 1970er Jahre z. T. eigene musikalische Wege gegangen.
Dave "Snaker" Ray (August 17, 1943 – November 28, 2002) was an American blues singer and guitarist from St. Paul, Minnesota who was most notably associated with Spider John Koerner and Tony "Little Sun" Glover in the early Sixties Folk Revival. Together, the three released albums under the name Koerner, Ray & Glover. The group gained notoriety with Blues, Rags and Hollers originally released by Audiophile in 1963 and then re-released by Elektra Records.
Biography
Born James David Ray, he was the eldest child of James and Nellie Ray. In this teens, inspired by a Segovia concert, his parents gave him a gut string guitar. He and his brother, Tom, took classical guitar lessons for about a year. Ray's youngest brother Max started on the clarinet and then moved on to the saxophone; his mother Nellie played the organ well into her eighties. On occasion Tom would play piano and Max saxophone in various iterations of Ray's local bands. Max Ray went on to have a successful musical career with The Wallets and Gondwana.
In 1967, Ray was in a motorcycle accident and broke his wrist. While in a cast, he re-learned how to play the guitar with a flat pick. The years from 1963 to 1971 were prolific for Koerner, Ray, and Glover. Either solo or in some combination of the trio, they released at least one album a year.[1] The group never rehearsed together or did much at all together. Ray liked to call the group, "Koerner and/or Ray and/or Glover".[2]
In 1969, Ray teamed up with Will Donicht as the band, Bamboo, to record an electric folk-rock album in New York for Elektra Records. While this album featured some very different and creative lyrics and instrumentals, Ray became disillusioned with Elektra and the commercial recording industry in general and was determined to set up his own recording studio and become a record producer. With funding from his first wife's aunt, Jane Westley, Ray built a recording studio "Sweet Jane Ltd." in Cushing, Minnesota, in the early 1970s. Sweet Jane became a meeting spot for well and lesser known blues musicians. Junior Wells and Bonnie Raitt both recorded work here. The Minneapolis based Willie and the Bees recorded an album with Ray.[2] At this point, Ray had already released a number of albums both solo and with Koerner and Glover. Ray released his own solo album, Kidman, at SJL in 1977.
In the late 1970s, playing and recording music became a less viable option for Ray. As a stop-gap measure, he bought into his father's insurance business, James Ray Associates. Determined to continue playing music, Ray lined up steady gigs at local bars and restaurants for after hours. Tony Glover joined him on many of these jobs. For almost a decade, Ray led this double life of insurance agent and blues musician. He released a few live recordings and studio albums during this time.[2]
In the late 1980s Ray sold the insurance business to a large underwriter. Ray played gigs and festivals around the country. Willie Murphy (musician) said after Ray's death, "It's too bad he had to die when he did, he was kind of getting the hang of it."[3] Ray devoted many hours to diligent practice, running through the paces of guitar greats like Charlie Christian and Freddie Green.
In 1998, Ray and Glover joined with Camile Baudoin and Reggie Scanlan of The Radiators to form a short-lived band, The Back Porch Rockers, which released the album By The Water in 2000.[4]
Ray's last album, which he sold on his website, was A Hollowbody Experience by the 6L6 Band, which featured Ray on guitar and vocals and his friends Jeff Dagenhardt on guitar and Dave Kasik on bass. Dagenhardt and Kasik both reside in Milwaukee, WI. The 6L6 CD was released in 2002, the year Dave Ray died. Fittingly, the last track was "It's All Over Now."
Ray was diagnosed with lung cancer in May 2002. He died on Thanksgiving day, November 28, at his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[5] He had chosen not to take any aggressive treatment for his cancer. He continued playing until shortly before his death, most notably a blues folk conference in Princeton, New Jersey.
Biography
Born James David Ray, he was the eldest child of James and Nellie Ray. In this teens, inspired by a Segovia concert, his parents gave him a gut string guitar. He and his brother, Tom, took classical guitar lessons for about a year. Ray's youngest brother Max started on the clarinet and then moved on to the saxophone; his mother Nellie played the organ well into her eighties. On occasion Tom would play piano and Max saxophone in various iterations of Ray's local bands. Max Ray went on to have a successful musical career with The Wallets and Gondwana.
In 1967, Ray was in a motorcycle accident and broke his wrist. While in a cast, he re-learned how to play the guitar with a flat pick. The years from 1963 to 1971 were prolific for Koerner, Ray, and Glover. Either solo or in some combination of the trio, they released at least one album a year.[1] The group never rehearsed together or did much at all together. Ray liked to call the group, "Koerner and/or Ray and/or Glover".[2]
In 1969, Ray teamed up with Will Donicht as the band, Bamboo, to record an electric folk-rock album in New York for Elektra Records. While this album featured some very different and creative lyrics and instrumentals, Ray became disillusioned with Elektra and the commercial recording industry in general and was determined to set up his own recording studio and become a record producer. With funding from his first wife's aunt, Jane Westley, Ray built a recording studio "Sweet Jane Ltd." in Cushing, Minnesota, in the early 1970s. Sweet Jane became a meeting spot for well and lesser known blues musicians. Junior Wells and Bonnie Raitt both recorded work here. The Minneapolis based Willie and the Bees recorded an album with Ray.[2] At this point, Ray had already released a number of albums both solo and with Koerner and Glover. Ray released his own solo album, Kidman, at SJL in 1977.
In the late 1970s, playing and recording music became a less viable option for Ray. As a stop-gap measure, he bought into his father's insurance business, James Ray Associates. Determined to continue playing music, Ray lined up steady gigs at local bars and restaurants for after hours. Tony Glover joined him on many of these jobs. For almost a decade, Ray led this double life of insurance agent and blues musician. He released a few live recordings and studio albums during this time.[2]
In the late 1980s Ray sold the insurance business to a large underwriter. Ray played gigs and festivals around the country. Willie Murphy (musician) said after Ray's death, "It's too bad he had to die when he did, he was kind of getting the hang of it."[3] Ray devoted many hours to diligent practice, running through the paces of guitar greats like Charlie Christian and Freddie Green.
In 1998, Ray and Glover joined with Camile Baudoin and Reggie Scanlan of The Radiators to form a short-lived band, The Back Porch Rockers, which released the album By The Water in 2000.[4]
Ray's last album, which he sold on his website, was A Hollowbody Experience by the 6L6 Band, which featured Ray on guitar and vocals and his friends Jeff Dagenhardt on guitar and Dave Kasik on bass. Dagenhardt and Kasik both reside in Milwaukee, WI. The 6L6 CD was released in 2002, the year Dave Ray died. Fittingly, the last track was "It's All Over Now."
Ray was diagnosed with lung cancer in May 2002. He died on Thanksgiving day, November 28, at his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[5] He had chosen not to take any aggressive treatment for his cancer. He continued playing until shortly before his death, most notably a blues folk conference in Princeton, New Jersey.
Luther Allison *17.8.1939
Luther Allison (* 17. August 1939 in Widener, Arkansas; † 12. August 1997 in Madison, Wisconsin) war ein US-amerikanischer Blues-Gitarrist.
In seiner Kindheit wuchs er mit Gospelmusik auf. 1951 zog Allisons Familie nach Chicago, wo er sich der Gospelgruppe Southern Travellers anschloss. Durch den Einfluss seines Bruders Ollie Lee verschob sich sein Interesse zunehmend zum Blues und von 1954 an spielte er in der Bluesband seines Bruders. 1957 verließ er sie und gründete eine Band mit seinem Bruder Grant, die zuerst The Rolling Stones hieß und später in Four Jivers umbenannt wurde. Bereits zuvor hatte er in den Chicagoer Clubs als Sideman für Musiker wie Magic Sam, Otis Rush und Freddie King gearbeitet.
1965 nahm er seine erste Single auf, gefolgt von seinem ersten Album Love Me Mama 1967. 1969 hatte er einen umjubelten Auftritt auf dem "Ann Arbor Blues Festival". Zugleich wurde sein Stil rocklastiger, wodurch seine Karriere einen Popularitätsschub erhielt.
Nach etlichen Tourneen in den Staaten ging Allison Mitte der 1970er auch in Europa auf Tour. 1977 zog er nach Frankreich, wo er 15 Jahre lang lebte. 1994 hatte Allison mit dem Album Soul Fixin' Man ein bemerkenswertes Comeback in Amerika. Sowohl er selbst als auch das Album gewannen je vier Handy Awards. Auch in den folgenden Jahren wurde Allison vielfach ausgezeichnet, so z. B. mit dem Living Blues Award 1995 als bester Liveact. 1996 erhielt er den Award in fünf Kategorien, darunter als bester männlicher Blueskünstler und wieder als bester Liveperformer. 1997 wurde er in drei Kategorien mit dem Preis ausgezeichnet und 1998 erhielt er ihn als bester Gitarrist und Bluessänger.
Während einer Tour im Sommer 1997 wurde bei Luther Allison Lungenkrebs diagnostiziert. Er starb am 12. August 1997, fünf Tage vor seinem 58. Geburtstag. Posthum wurde er 1998 in die Blues Hall of Fame aufgenommen.
Sein Sohn Bernard Allison ist ebenfalls ein begabter Blues-Gitarrist.
Luther Allison (August 17, 1939 – August 12, 1997)[1] was an American blues guitarist. He was born in Widener, Arkansas, and moved with his family, at the age of twelve, to Chicago in 1951.[2] He taught himself guitar and began listening to blues extensively. Three years later he began hanging outside blues nightclubs with the hopes of being invited to perform. He played with Howlin' Wolf's band and backed James Cotton.
Career
His big break came in 1957 when Howlin' Wolf invited Allison to the stage. Freddie King took him under his wing and after King got his big record deal, Allison took over King's house-band gig on Chicago's west side. He worked the club circuit throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s and recorded his first single in 1965. He was signed to the Delmark Records label in 1967 and released his debut album, Love Me Mama, the following year. A well-received set at the 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival resulted in his being asked to perform there each of the next three years.[2] He also toured nationwide and, in 1972, was signed to Motown Records, one of the few blues artists to do so.[3] By the mid 1970s he began touring Europe and moved to France in 1977.[3] Allison was known for his powerful concert performances, lengthy soulful guitar solos and crowd walking with his Gibson Les Paul. Allison lived briefly during this period in Peoria, Illinois, where he signed briefly with Rumble Records, resulting in two live recordings, "Gonna Be a Live One in Here Tonight", produced by Bill Knight, and "Power Wire Blues", produced by George Faber and Jeffrey P. Hess. Allison played the "bar circuit" in the USA during this period, spending eight months per year in Europe at high-profile venues, including the Montreux Jazz Festival. In 1992, he played as a duo with legendary French rock'n'roll star Johnny Hallyday for 18 shows in Paris, also playing during the intermission.
Allison's manager, and European agent, Thomas Ruf, founded the label Ruf Records in 1994. Signing with Ruf Records, Allison launched a comeback in association with Alligator Records. Alligator founder Bruce Iglauer convinced Allison to return to the United States. The album Soul Fixin' Man was recorded and released in 1994, and Allison toured the U.S. and Canada. He won four W.C. Handy Awards in 1994. With the James Solberg Band backing him, non-stop touring and the release of Blue Streak (featuring song "Cherry Red Wine"), Allison continued to earn more Handys and gain wider recognition. He scored a host of Living Blues Awards and was featured on the cover pages of major blues publications.
In the middle of his summer of 1997 tour, Allison checked into a hospital for dizziness and loss of coordination. It was discovered that he had a tumor on his lung that had metastasized to his brain.[4] In and out of a coma, Allison died on August 12, 1997, five days before his 58th birthday, in Madison, Wisconsin.[2] His album Reckless had just been released. His son Bernard Allison, at one time a member of his band, is now a solo recording artist.
He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2000, the Chicago Sun-Times called him "The Bruce Springsteen of the blues".[5] He was a chief influence on many young Blues guitarists such as Chris Beard[6] and Reggie Sears.[7]
Allison is buried at Washington Memory Gardens Cemetery in Homewood, Illinois.
Career
His big break came in 1957 when Howlin' Wolf invited Allison to the stage. Freddie King took him under his wing and after King got his big record deal, Allison took over King's house-band gig on Chicago's west side. He worked the club circuit throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s and recorded his first single in 1965. He was signed to the Delmark Records label in 1967 and released his debut album, Love Me Mama, the following year. A well-received set at the 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival resulted in his being asked to perform there each of the next three years.[2] He also toured nationwide and, in 1972, was signed to Motown Records, one of the few blues artists to do so.[3] By the mid 1970s he began touring Europe and moved to France in 1977.[3] Allison was known for his powerful concert performances, lengthy soulful guitar solos and crowd walking with his Gibson Les Paul. Allison lived briefly during this period in Peoria, Illinois, where he signed briefly with Rumble Records, resulting in two live recordings, "Gonna Be a Live One in Here Tonight", produced by Bill Knight, and "Power Wire Blues", produced by George Faber and Jeffrey P. Hess. Allison played the "bar circuit" in the USA during this period, spending eight months per year in Europe at high-profile venues, including the Montreux Jazz Festival. In 1992, he played as a duo with legendary French rock'n'roll star Johnny Hallyday for 18 shows in Paris, also playing during the intermission.
Allison's manager, and European agent, Thomas Ruf, founded the label Ruf Records in 1994. Signing with Ruf Records, Allison launched a comeback in association with Alligator Records. Alligator founder Bruce Iglauer convinced Allison to return to the United States. The album Soul Fixin' Man was recorded and released in 1994, and Allison toured the U.S. and Canada. He won four W.C. Handy Awards in 1994. With the James Solberg Band backing him, non-stop touring and the release of Blue Streak (featuring song "Cherry Red Wine"), Allison continued to earn more Handys and gain wider recognition. He scored a host of Living Blues Awards and was featured on the cover pages of major blues publications.
In the middle of his summer of 1997 tour, Allison checked into a hospital for dizziness and loss of coordination. It was discovered that he had a tumor on his lung that had metastasized to his brain.[4] In and out of a coma, Allison died on August 12, 1997, five days before his 58th birthday, in Madison, Wisconsin.[2] His album Reckless had just been released. His son Bernard Allison, at one time a member of his band, is now a solo recording artist.
He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2000, the Chicago Sun-Times called him "The Bruce Springsteen of the blues".[5] He was a chief influence on many young Blues guitarists such as Chris Beard[6] and Reggie Sears.[7]
Allison is buried at Washington Memory Gardens Cemetery in Homewood, Illinois.
George Melly *17.08.1926
Alan George Heywood Melly (* 17. August 1926 in Liverpool; † 5. Juli 2007 in London) war ein britischer Autor und Jazz-Sänger.
Leben und Wirken
Von 1965 bis 1973 war er Fernseh- und Filmkritiker für The Observer. Er hielt ferner Lesungen über Kunstgeschichte mit einem Schwerpunkt auf dem Surrealismus. Später schrieb er eine Kolumne – Mellymobile – für die satirische Zeitschrift Punch.
Als Sänger war er im Vortrag von klassischen Bluessängern wie Bessie Smith beeinflusst. Während der Zeit des Trad-Jazz-Revivals (in den 1950er Jahren) arbeitete er mit Mick Mulligans Magnolia Jazz Band (mit dem Posaunisten Frank Parr). In den frühen 1970er Jahren sang er bei John Chiltons Feetwarmers und später auch mit der Band von Digby Fairweather. 1978 nahm er mit The Stranglers den eigens für ihn geschriebenen Titel 'Old Codger' auf.
Melly starb im Alter von 80 Jahren an Lungenkrebs. Er hinterlässt seine Ehefrau Diana und drei Kinder.
Alan George Heywood Melly (17 August 1926 – 5 July 2007) was an English jazz and blues singer, critic, writer and lecturer. From 1965 to 1973 he was a film and television critic for The Observer and lectured on art history, with an emphasis on surrealism.[1]
Early life and career
He was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, and was educated at Stowe School, where he discovered his interest in modern art, jazz and blues, and started coming to terms with his sexuality.
Interest in surrealist art
Melly once stated that he may have been drawn to surrealism by a particular experience he had during his teenage years. A frequent visitor to Liverpool's Sefton Park near his home, he often entered its tropical Palm House and there chatted to wounded soldiers from a nearby military hospital. It was the incongruity of this sight, men smoking among the exotic plants, dressed in their hospital uniforms and usually deficient a limb, that he felt he later recognised in the work of the Surrealists.
He joined the Royal Navy at the end of the Second World War because, as he quipped to the recruiting officer, the uniforms were "so much nicer". As he related in his autobiography Rum, Bum and Concertina, he was crestfallen to discover that he would not be sent to a ship and was thus denied the "bell-bottom" uniform he desired.[2] Instead he received desk duty and wore the other Navy uniform, described as "the dreaded fore-and-aft". Later, however, he did see ship duty. He never saw active combat, but was almost court-martialled for distributing anarchist literature.[3]
Post-war life and career
After the war, Melly found work in a London Surrealist gallery, working with E. L. T. Mesens and eventually drifted into the world of jazz, finding work with Mick Mulligan's Magnolia Jazz Band. This was a time (1948 onwards) when New Orleans and "New Orleans Revival" style jazz were very popular in Britain. In January 1963, the British music magazine NME reported that the biggest trad jazz event to be staged in Britain had taken place at Alexandra Palace. The event included Alex Welsh, Diz Disley, Acker Bilk, Chris Barber, Kenny Ball, Ken Colyer, Monty Sunshine, Bob Wallis, Bruce Turner, Mick Mulligan and Melly.[4]
He retired from jazz in the early 1960s when he became a film critic for The Observer and a writer on the Daily Mail's satirical newspaper strip Flook, illustrated by Trog. He was also scriptwriter on the 1967 satirical film Smashing Time. This period of his life is described in Owning Up.
He returned to jazz in the early 1970s with John Chilton's Feetwarmers, a partnership that ended only in 2003. He later sang with Digby Fairweather's band. He released six albums in the 1970s including Nuts in 1972 and Son of Nuts the next year.[5] He wrote a light column, Mellymobile, in Punch magazine describing their tours.
He was an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association. George Melly was President of the BHA 1972-4, and was also an Honorary Associate of the Rationalist Association. He was also a member of the Max Miller Appreciation Society and on 1 May 2005 joined Roy Hudd, Sir Norman Wisdom and others in unveiling a statue of Miller in Brighton.
His singing style, particularly for the blues, was strongly influenced by his idol, Bessie Smith. While many British musicians of the time treated jazz and blues with almost religious solemnity, Melly rejoiced in their more bawdy side, and this was reflected in his choice of songs and exuberant stage performances. He recorded a track called "Old Codger" with the Stranglers in 1978 specially written for him by the band.
Melly, who was bisexual, moved from strictly homosexual relationships in his teens and twenties to largely heterosexual relationships from his thirties onwards.[6] He married twice and had a child from each marriage, though his first child Pandora was not known to be his until she was much older. He married his second wife, Diana Moynihan (née Dawson), in 1963.[1] She brought with her two children (Candy and Patrick) from two previous marriages, though Patrick later died from heroin overdose in his twenties. Their own son, Tom, was born two days after the wedding. Diana published an autobiography in 2005 of their life and (open) marriage together, which is included in the bibliography. The two participated in a televised celebrity couples quiz in the 1970s. Asked separately what made them decide to marry, Diana announced "I was pregnant!" and George, in his turn, merely said, "The less said about that, the better."
Brecon
George and Diana Melly had a country retreat, The Tower, at Scethrog in the Brecon Beacons, between 1971 and 1999. This was somewhere Melly could escape the jazz world and indulge his love of fishing on the River Usk. However, jazz followed him to Wales and this led to a series of celebrated performances in the area and in the South Wales valleys.
In 1984 the Brecon Jazz Festival was conceived by a group of jazz enthusiasts who gained widespread support from the local community. George Melly was the first musician to be contracted for the opening festival and remained a supporter until his death. He was a factor in the festival's success and served as its President in 1991.
As well as being the President of the Contemporary Arts Society for Wales, Melly was a contemporary art collector. His passion for surrealist art continued throughout his life and he lectured and wrote extensively on the subject.
His passion for fly-fishing never dwindled and in later life he sold several important paintings (by Magritte and Picasso) to enable him to buy a mile of the River Usk. In 2000 he published Hooked!, a book on fly-fishing.
Later years
He was still active in music, journalism and lecturing on surrealism and other aspects of modern art until his death, despite worsening health problems such as vascular dementia,[7] incipient emphysema and lung cancer.[8] His encouragement and support to gallery owner Michael Budd led to a posthumous exhibition for the modern abstract artist François Lanzi.[9]
In addition to age-related health problems, Melly suffered from environmental hearing loss because of long-term exposure to on-stage sound systems, and his hearing in both ears became increasingly poor. Despite these problems, however, Melly would often joke that he found some parts of his ailing health to be enjoyable. He often equated his dementia to a quite amusing LSD trip, and took a lot of pleasure from his deafness, which he said made many boring conversations more interesting.
On Sunday 10 June 2007, Melly made an appearance, announced as his last ever performance, at the 100 Club in London. This was on the occasion of a fund-raising event to benefit the charity supporting his carers.
He died at his London home of lung cancer and emphysema (which he had for the last two years of his life) aged 80 on 5 July 2007.[1] His Humanist funeral was held at the West London Crematorium, in Kensal Green. The hearse was led by a jazz band, including Kenny Ball on trumpet, playing a New Orleans funeral march. His cardboard coffin was covered with old snapshots and cartoons of Melly by his friends, as well as hand-drawn decorations.[10]
On 17 February 2008 BBC Two broadcast George Melly's Last Stand (produced by Walker George Films), an intimate portrayal of Melly's last months.
His sister Andrée Melly is an actress,[11] living in Ibiza with her husband, Oscar Quitak. His widow, Diana Melly, is an author. In the Channel 4 documentary Stoned in Suburbia Melly compared a joint of cannabis to a fine port after dinner, and said "it should be passed round to the right, you swines".
Early life and career
He was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, and was educated at Stowe School, where he discovered his interest in modern art, jazz and blues, and started coming to terms with his sexuality.
Interest in surrealist art
Melly once stated that he may have been drawn to surrealism by a particular experience he had during his teenage years. A frequent visitor to Liverpool's Sefton Park near his home, he often entered its tropical Palm House and there chatted to wounded soldiers from a nearby military hospital. It was the incongruity of this sight, men smoking among the exotic plants, dressed in their hospital uniforms and usually deficient a limb, that he felt he later recognised in the work of the Surrealists.
He joined the Royal Navy at the end of the Second World War because, as he quipped to the recruiting officer, the uniforms were "so much nicer". As he related in his autobiography Rum, Bum and Concertina, he was crestfallen to discover that he would not be sent to a ship and was thus denied the "bell-bottom" uniform he desired.[2] Instead he received desk duty and wore the other Navy uniform, described as "the dreaded fore-and-aft". Later, however, he did see ship duty. He never saw active combat, but was almost court-martialled for distributing anarchist literature.[3]
Post-war life and career
After the war, Melly found work in a London Surrealist gallery, working with E. L. T. Mesens and eventually drifted into the world of jazz, finding work with Mick Mulligan's Magnolia Jazz Band. This was a time (1948 onwards) when New Orleans and "New Orleans Revival" style jazz were very popular in Britain. In January 1963, the British music magazine NME reported that the biggest trad jazz event to be staged in Britain had taken place at Alexandra Palace. The event included Alex Welsh, Diz Disley, Acker Bilk, Chris Barber, Kenny Ball, Ken Colyer, Monty Sunshine, Bob Wallis, Bruce Turner, Mick Mulligan and Melly.[4]
He retired from jazz in the early 1960s when he became a film critic for The Observer and a writer on the Daily Mail's satirical newspaper strip Flook, illustrated by Trog. He was also scriptwriter on the 1967 satirical film Smashing Time. This period of his life is described in Owning Up.
He returned to jazz in the early 1970s with John Chilton's Feetwarmers, a partnership that ended only in 2003. He later sang with Digby Fairweather's band. He released six albums in the 1970s including Nuts in 1972 and Son of Nuts the next year.[5] He wrote a light column, Mellymobile, in Punch magazine describing their tours.
He was an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association. George Melly was President of the BHA 1972-4, and was also an Honorary Associate of the Rationalist Association. He was also a member of the Max Miller Appreciation Society and on 1 May 2005 joined Roy Hudd, Sir Norman Wisdom and others in unveiling a statue of Miller in Brighton.
His singing style, particularly for the blues, was strongly influenced by his idol, Bessie Smith. While many British musicians of the time treated jazz and blues with almost religious solemnity, Melly rejoiced in their more bawdy side, and this was reflected in his choice of songs and exuberant stage performances. He recorded a track called "Old Codger" with the Stranglers in 1978 specially written for him by the band.
Melly, who was bisexual, moved from strictly homosexual relationships in his teens and twenties to largely heterosexual relationships from his thirties onwards.[6] He married twice and had a child from each marriage, though his first child Pandora was not known to be his until she was much older. He married his second wife, Diana Moynihan (née Dawson), in 1963.[1] She brought with her two children (Candy and Patrick) from two previous marriages, though Patrick later died from heroin overdose in his twenties. Their own son, Tom, was born two days after the wedding. Diana published an autobiography in 2005 of their life and (open) marriage together, which is included in the bibliography. The two participated in a televised celebrity couples quiz in the 1970s. Asked separately what made them decide to marry, Diana announced "I was pregnant!" and George, in his turn, merely said, "The less said about that, the better."
Brecon
George and Diana Melly had a country retreat, The Tower, at Scethrog in the Brecon Beacons, between 1971 and 1999. This was somewhere Melly could escape the jazz world and indulge his love of fishing on the River Usk. However, jazz followed him to Wales and this led to a series of celebrated performances in the area and in the South Wales valleys.
In 1984 the Brecon Jazz Festival was conceived by a group of jazz enthusiasts who gained widespread support from the local community. George Melly was the first musician to be contracted for the opening festival and remained a supporter until his death. He was a factor in the festival's success and served as its President in 1991.
As well as being the President of the Contemporary Arts Society for Wales, Melly was a contemporary art collector. His passion for surrealist art continued throughout his life and he lectured and wrote extensively on the subject.
His passion for fly-fishing never dwindled and in later life he sold several important paintings (by Magritte and Picasso) to enable him to buy a mile of the River Usk. In 2000 he published Hooked!, a book on fly-fishing.
Later years
He was still active in music, journalism and lecturing on surrealism and other aspects of modern art until his death, despite worsening health problems such as vascular dementia,[7] incipient emphysema and lung cancer.[8] His encouragement and support to gallery owner Michael Budd led to a posthumous exhibition for the modern abstract artist François Lanzi.[9]
In addition to age-related health problems, Melly suffered from environmental hearing loss because of long-term exposure to on-stage sound systems, and his hearing in both ears became increasingly poor. Despite these problems, however, Melly would often joke that he found some parts of his ailing health to be enjoyable. He often equated his dementia to a quite amusing LSD trip, and took a lot of pleasure from his deafness, which he said made many boring conversations more interesting.
On Sunday 10 June 2007, Melly made an appearance, announced as his last ever performance, at the 100 Club in London. This was on the occasion of a fund-raising event to benefit the charity supporting his carers.
He died at his London home of lung cancer and emphysema (which he had for the last two years of his life) aged 80 on 5 July 2007.[1] His Humanist funeral was held at the West London Crematorium, in Kensal Green. The hearse was led by a jazz band, including Kenny Ball on trumpet, playing a New Orleans funeral march. His cardboard coffin was covered with old snapshots and cartoons of Melly by his friends, as well as hand-drawn decorations.[10]
On 17 February 2008 BBC Two broadcast George Melly's Last Stand (produced by Walker George Films), an intimate portrayal of Melly's last months.
His sister Andrée Melly is an actress,[11] living in Ibiza with her husband, Oscar Quitak. His widow, Diana Melly, is an author. In the Channel 4 documentary Stoned in Suburbia Melly compared a joint of cannabis to a fine port after dinner, and said "it should be passed round to the right, you swines".
GEORGE MELLY
Colin James *17.08.1964
Colin James (born Colin James Munn, August 17, 1964) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, who plays in the blues, rock, and neo-swing genres.
Biography
Early years
James was born in Regina, Saskatchewan. He and his band The Hoodoo Men opened for Stevie Ray Vaughan for several tour dates in the United States. According to legend, Vaughan himself suggested the stage name "Colin James", because when announced over arena P.A. systems, "Munn" sounded like "Mud". James also played guitar on Richard Marx's song "Thunder and Lightning".
Rock and swing band careers
In 1988, following his association with Vaughan, James released his self-titled debut album, which yielded several international hit singles, as did the followup Sudden Stop. He presaged the mid-1990s swing music revival with his Colin James and the Little Big Band project, which released a successful first CD in 1993, followed by two others in 1998 and 2006, as well as a Christmas album in 2007.
James's worldwide popularity waned somewhat in the late 1990s, but he continued to release albums in rock, blues, and acoustic styles, in addition to his Little Big Band. In 2005, he gave a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to his home province of Saskatchewan.
James' backing band frequently includes members of the Vancouver-based band Odds, and he has co-written songs with Odds singer-guitarist Craig Northey. In February 2005, James guest-starred in an episode of the television program Corner Gas, a Canadian sitcom based in rural Saskatchewan.
In 2007, James' album Limelight received a Gold record for sales in Canada. In January 2008, James received three Toronto Blues Society Maple Blues Awards: "Entertainer of the Year", "Electric Act of the Year" and "Recording of the Year" for Colin James & The Little Big Band 3.[1]
In 2009, James recorded an album, and amongst the collaborators were Tom Wilson, once of Junkhouse. The album, Rooftops and Satellites, was co-produced, engineered and mixed by Mike Fraser, at the Warehouse studios in Vancouver.
colin james- blues
R.I.P.
Hammie Nixon +17.08.1984
Hammie Nixon (* 22. Januar 1908 in Brownsville, Tennessee; † 17. August 1984 in Jackson, Tennessee) war ein US-amerikanischer Blues-Musiker, einer der frühen Virtuosen auf der Mundharmonika.
Neben der Blues Harp spielte Nixon Kazoo, Gitarre und den Jug (siehe Jug-Band). Über 50 Jahre lang trat er immer wieder mit Sleepy John Estes auf. Ihre ersten gemeinsamen Aufnahmen machten sie 1929. Nixon machte auch Aufnahmen mit Little Buddy Doyle, Lee Green, Charlie Pickett und Son Bonds.
Hammie Nixon etablierte die Mundharmonika, die zuvor ein Soloinstrument war, als Begleit- und Rhythmusinstrument für Bands. Er selbst spielte bei zahlreichen Jug-Bands, z. B. in seinen späten Jahren bei der Beale Street Jug Band. Seine letzte Aufnahme machte er 1984 kurz vor seinem Tod.
Hammie Nixon (January 22, 1908 – August 17, 1984)[1] was an American harmonica player.
Life and career
Born Hammie Nickerson in Brownsville, Tennessee,[2] he began his music career with jug bands in the 1920s and is best known as a country blues harmonica player, but also played the kazoo, guitar and jug. He played with guitarist Sleepy John Estes for half a century, first recording with Estes in 1929 for the Victor Records label.[1] He also recorded with Little Buddy Doyle, Lee Green, Clayton T. Driver, Charlie Pickett and Son Bonds.[1]
During the 1920s Nixon helped to pioneer the use of the harmonica as a rhythm instrument in a band setting, rather than as a novelty solo instrument. After Estes died in 1979, Nixon played with the Beale Street Jug Band (also called the Memphis Jug Band). Nixon's last recording, "Tappin' That Thing" (Hmg Records), was recorded shortly before his death in 1984, in Jackson, Tennessee.[2]
Life and career
Born Hammie Nickerson in Brownsville, Tennessee,[2] he began his music career with jug bands in the 1920s and is best known as a country blues harmonica player, but also played the kazoo, guitar and jug. He played with guitarist Sleepy John Estes for half a century, first recording with Estes in 1929 for the Victor Records label.[1] He also recorded with Little Buddy Doyle, Lee Green, Clayton T. Driver, Charlie Pickett and Son Bonds.[1]
During the 1920s Nixon helped to pioneer the use of the harmonica as a rhythm instrument in a band setting, rather than as a novelty solo instrument. After Estes died in 1979, Nixon played with the Beale Street Jug Band (also called the Memphis Jug Band). Nixon's last recording, "Tappin' That Thing" (Hmg Records), was recorded shortly before his death in 1984, in Jackson, Tennessee.[2]
The
Blues - Hammie Nixon, Sleepy John Estes
Baby Tate - Charles Henry Tate +17.08.1972
Born Charles Henry Tate in Elberton, Georgia,[2] he was raised in Greenville, South Carolina. In his adolescence, Tate started performing locally, after seeing Blind Blake in Elberton. Tate later formed a trio with Joe Walker (the brother of Willie Walker) and Roosevelt "Baby" Brooks and, up to 1932, played in the local area. As The Carolina Blackbirds, they appeared on the radio station, WFBC, broadcasting from The Jack Tar Hotel,[4] but for the rest of the 1930s worked for a living, mainly as a mason.[1]
Baby Tate served in the United States Army infantry during World War II in the south of England, and did not return to the Spartanburg/Greenville club circuit until 1946. Nevertheless, in 1950 Tate claimed to have recorded several (unreleased) tracks for the Kapp label. Relocating to Spartanburg, South Carolina, he performed solo before forming an occasional duo with Pink Anderson; a working relationship that endured through to the 1970s when Anderson suffered from stroke.[1]
Tate released his only album, Blues of Baby Tate: See What You Done Done, in 1962, and twelve months later appeared in Sam Charters' documentary film The Blues. Throughout the 1960s Tate performed irregularly across the US.[1] Utilising harmonica player, Peg Leg Sam, or guitarists Baby Brooks or McKinley Ellis, Tate recorded nearly sixty tracks in 1970 and 1971 for Peter B. Lowry, but the proposed album remained unreleased once Tate unexpectedly died in the summer of 1972.[5] He appeared at a concert at the State University of New York at New Paltz, New York as a result of Lowry's efforts in the Spring of 1972.
Tate died from the effects of a heart attack, in the VA Hospital in Columbia, South Carolina, in August 1972, at the age of 56.[1]
In January 2011, Baby Tate was nominated for The 10th Annual Independent Music Awards in the Blues Song category for "See What You Done Done".[6]
Smithsonian Folkways released a compilation album on February 16, 2010, titled Classic Appalachian Blues. It featured the Baby Tate number, "See What You Done Done."
Preston Hubbard +17.08.2016
The Fabulous Thunderbirds
Die Fabulous Thunderbirds wurden 1977 von Stevie Ray Vaughans älterem Bruder Jimmie Vaughan gegründet. Dieser konnte für sein Projekt außerdem Kim Wilson Keith Ferguson und Mick Buck gewinnen.
1979 nahm die Band ihr Debütalbum auf, das auf traditionell gespielte Art Rock’n’Roll, Countryrock und Rhythm & Blues vereinte. Während der Aufnahmen zu What’s the Word verließ Buck die Band, für ihn kam Fran Christina. 1981 erschien dann das Blues-Album Butt Rockin’. 1982 kam das von Nick Lowe produzierte Album T-Bird Rhythm auf den Markt, das ebenfalls einen starken Blues bot.
Kurze Zeit später verlor die Band ihren Plattenvertrag, worauf hin Ferguson die Band verließ. Er wurde durch Preston Hubbard ersetzt. Dave Edmunds war im Jahre 1986 dann der Produzent des Albums Tuff Enuff, das die Single-Auskoppelungen Tuff Enuff und Wrap It Up hervorbrachte. Es wurde der größte Erfolg der Band. Auf dem Album sind unter anderem auch der Pianist Chuck Leavell von den Allman Brothers und David Hidalgo und Cesar Rosas von Los Lobos zu hören.
Das Album Hot Number (1987) und die dazu gehörige Single Stand Back hatten nicht so viel Erfolg wie der Vorgänger; auch wenn die Platte von der Kritik gelobt wurde, ähnelten die Songs zu sehr denen von Tuff Enuff. Das gleiche galt auch für Powerful Stuff (1989) und die gleichnamige Single.
1990 stieg Vaughan dann offiziell aus, an seine Stelle trat Duke Robillard. Das in dieser Zeit aufgenommene Album Walk That Walk, Talk That Talk floppte. Jimmy Vaughan ist auf diesem Album neben Duke Robillard zwar zu hören, wird allerdings nicht erwähnt. Die Aufnahmesessions beschreibt er aufgrund der Auseinandersetzungen mit Wilson als „hellish“. Bald darauf trennten sich die Fabulous Thunderbirds.
1993 arrangierte Wilson eine Reunion, wofür er Doyle Bramhall gewinnen konnte. Sie nahmen das Album Wrap It Up auf, das zwar auch floppte, aber immerhin sehr gute Kritiken bekam. Das folgende Album Roll the Dice, das ebenfalls von der Kritik gelobt wurde, wurde in der Besetzung Wilson, Christina, Gene Taylor, Danny Kortchmar, Kid Ramos und Harvey Brooks eingespielt.
Auf der 1997er Produktion High Water wurde Wilson von Kortchmar und Steve Jordan begleitet. Nun sind die Thunderbirds wieder auf großer Welttournee und zur Gast in der Scala!
My name is Preston Hubbard. I was a rock star, appropriate to both meanings of the word, if you catch my meaning. For 10 years, from 1984-1994, I was the bass player for the platinum selling, multi-Grammy award nominated Fabulous Thunderbirds. Before that, I was with Island recording artists Roomful of Blues, also Grammy nominated and the prototype first backup band for the Blues Brothers. I recorded on Bonnie Raitt's monstrous comeback record "Nick of Time", Stevie's final record while alive "Family Style" with brother Jimmie, Big Joe Turner's final record, Toni Price's "Swim Away", Duke Robillard's "Swing Time", and a host of others. And, of course, five of the T-Birds CBS records, including "Tuff Enuff" and most of Roomful's recordings. Having been a bass player since I was 14, there were many other bands and records, but the aforementioned made the biggest mark.
I was also a junkie, a heroin addict, for 18 years. Which is not to say that I was a drug addict for only that amount of time. Far from it! I had been drinking and doing drugs of some kind since I was 15 years old. Weed, reds, acid, coke, what have you. I came to heroin late, at age 28, for some reason. But when I did, I took to it with a purpose! I had no traumatic childhood, no injuries, nothing that I can directly blame my addiction on. I just always loved drugs, loved getting high on something. Also, I came of age in the 60s, was 17 during the Summer of Love, and was always in an environment of artists and musicians which embraced the drug lifestyle wholeheartedly. Remember, this was when it wasn't politically incorrect to get fucked up, or not hide your substance abuse. All my friends and contemporaries were, at one time, drug addicts and alcoholics. And lastly, many of my idols, whether jazz, blues, or rock `n' roll artists, were junkies-Bird, Billie Holiday, Coltrane, Hendrix, Ray Charles, Keith Richards, Paul Chambers, Lenny Bruce, on and on. It was part and parcel with the life.
Music was always my first love, with women and drugs a close second and my biggest weaknesses. I took from music, women and drugs took from me, ultimately putting me on the proverbial roller coaster ride. I went from 5 star hotels to living on the run in cheap motels, from king sized beds in suites to palettes on the floor in junkie pads, from hanging with rock and movie stars to running with street whores, junkies, tittie dancers, crackheads, the whole gamut. I was a "playa", and the game was rough.
My big brother gave me my first shot of opiates, a quarter of a #4 Dilaudid. I promptly fell down on the floor, probably from the rush, and scared the shit out of him. But I came right up, thinking, "This is it! This is the feeling!". It was like coming home, the best feeling I could ever have imagined. A girlfriend recently told me that, neither of us being religious, she envied people who found peace and tranquility through religion. That's what heroin became for me-my religion, my peace and tranquility, my veil between me and the world. But that, unfortunately, never lasts. With that first shot, I entered a new world that I would inhabit for the next 18 years, one that would see me go through numerous relationships, a marriage, three bands, rock `n' roll stardom and a descent into losing everything, including my freedom in a Texas penitentiary. What a long, strange trip it's been!
I'm here to neither condone nor condemn drug, especially heroin, use. I don't believe in the "war on drugs". It is an extremely expensive sham, costing billions, and doesn't accomplish anything beyond keeping the gangs and drug lords in business. And , of course, the police departments, courts, legions of lawyers, rehabs, methadone clinics, prisons, and the rest of the industries which benefit from drugs being illegal. Prison is big business now, especially in George W's Texas, where we have 150,000 people locked up, mostly for drug charges, with thousands more waiting in the county jails. The United States last year far surpassed the old universally reviled Soviet Gulag system, with over two million people in prisons now, not counting county or city jails. Prison originally was a safeguard, a place for sociopaths who were a danger to society. Not any more.
It is human nature to want to alter our consciousness, but I think more so with artists, writers, and especially musicians, who are thrown into an environment that lends itself toward excess. Sex, drugs, and rock `n' roll ain't just a cute saying! Over the years, I sold to doctors, whores, dealers, street junkies, rich kids, the whole gamut. But a large percentage of my customers were always musicians, local and touring, rock stars and unknowns, running the entire musical spectrum from punk to country. Drugs make no distinction.
I have no regrets except for hurting the ones I love and who love me. Fortunes can come and go. I have definitely put well over a million dollars in my arms and up my nose over the years, lost everything I owned, but came out alive with my health and my loved ones intact. I've been very lucky and know it. As we junkies say "I got out alive". I do know that I can never do another shot, another hit, ever again. Next time, I'm dead. But I never was one for denial. I was a junkie and knew it. There was a time when I thought that heroin was it, the way to nirvana, and I would expound on it's virtues and gladly introduce anyone into the life. That particular way of thinking changed a full 180 over the years to where I refused, and still would refuse , to turn someone on to the drug. I have no regret or guilt about my dealing days, either. People always came to me, and I gave them a good, safe product for a good price. I took care of my own, truly, and was never a hustler, a pusher, just making enough to support two or more habits, and day to day living expenses. My fortune quickly disappeared.
"Dope game ain't no joke" was written above my bunk in Del Valle county jail complex. Truer words were never spoken. But, as I said, no guilt, few regrets. I've written all this with very broad strokes because of the obvious space limitations, but here is my story...
St. Louis, MO – Preston Hubbard, who played bass with the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and Room Full of Blues was found dead at home earlier today; he was 63 years young.
Hubbard was well known in the music community, as much for his struggles with drugs and alcohol as for his stellar bass lines. Born and raised by his mother in Providence, Rhode Island, Hubbard began playing bass at 14. He left home at 17 and continued to learn the bass. Eventually, Hubbard had an opportunity to join the Room Full of Blues. After a time, the band wound up becoming the first backup band for the Blues Brothers, including their first live gigs at The Bottom Line in New York City.
Hubbard first heard about The Fabulous Thunderbirds from Muddy Waters himself, and eventually met the band in Boston. he would turn down a spot in Stevie ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble, and instead tour with The Alley Cats, who broke up when their guitar player, Tinsley Ellis, left for law school. After some gigging, Hubbard again wound up playing with Room Full of Blues. In 1985, Hubbard got the call he had been waiting for from Jimmie Vaughan and The Fabulous Thunderbirds. He would play with the group until he left in 1995.
After leaving the T-Birds, Hubbard descended into a world of drugs, dealing, arrests, and finally jail. Upon release, Hubbard was clean for the first time in 18 years.
In 2014, Hubbard was admitted to Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis near death. While he was still clean, his body was completely ravaged by the effects of almost 20 years of hard living and hard drugging. According to reports he was stabilized only after 30 hours that included three blood transfusions, and insulin treatments.
Since then, Hubbard has been living, keeping clean and straight, and playing with artists that traveled through St. Louis. He will be remembered for far more than just his time with The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and Room Full of Blues. He lent his incredible bass lines to a multitude of artist’s including Bonnie Raitt’s, The Vaughan Brothers, Duke Robillard, Etta James, Professor Longhair, Albert King, Albert Collins, Nick Curran, The Blues Brothers, and played with Tinsley Ellis in the Alley Cats. Hubbard will live on through the amazing legacy he left us in his music.
August 17 19:16 2016
Hubbard was well known in the music community, as much for his struggles with drugs and alcohol as for his stellar bass lines. Born and raised by his mother in Providence, Rhode Island, Hubbard began playing bass at 14. He left home at 17 and continued to learn the bass. Eventually, Hubbard had an opportunity to join the Room Full of Blues. After a time, the band wound up becoming the first backup band for the Blues Brothers, including their first live gigs at The Bottom Line in New York City.
Hubbard first heard about The Fabulous Thunderbirds from Muddy Waters himself, and eventually met the band in Boston. he would turn down a spot in Stevie ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble, and instead tour with The Alley Cats, who broke up when their guitar player, Tinsley Ellis, left for law school. After some gigging, Hubbard again wound up playing with Room Full of Blues. In 1985, Hubbard got the call he had been waiting for from Jimmie Vaughan and The Fabulous Thunderbirds. He would play with the group until he left in 1995.
After leaving the T-Birds, Hubbard descended into a world of drugs, dealing, arrests, and finally jail. Upon release, Hubbard was clean for the first time in 18 years.
In 2014, Hubbard was admitted to Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis near death. While he was still clean, his body was completely ravaged by the effects of almost 20 years of hard living and hard drugging. According to reports he was stabilized only after 30 hours that included three blood transfusions, and insulin treatments.
Since then, Hubbard has been living, keeping clean and straight, and playing with artists that traveled through St. Louis. He will be remembered for far more than just his time with The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and Room Full of Blues. He lent his incredible bass lines to a multitude of artist’s including Bonnie Raitt’s, The Vaughan Brothers, Duke Robillard, Etta James, Professor Longhair, Albert King, Albert Collins, Nick Curran, The Blues Brothers, and played with Tinsley Ellis in the Alley Cats. Hubbard will live on through the amazing legacy he left us in his music.
August 17 19:16 2016
Former Fabulous Thunderbirds and Room Full Of Blues bassist Preston Hubbard found dead at his St Louis home
Preston Hubbard has died aged 63.
The former Fabulous Thunderbirds and Room Full Of Blues bassist was found dead at his home in St Louis, Missouri yesterday.
He was well-known in the blues community for his other work with Bonnie Raitt, The Vaughan Brothers, Duke Robillard, Etta James, Professor Longhair and The Blues Brothers.
Hubbard suffered a long battle with drug and alcohol addiction in the years since his exit from The Fabulous Thunderbirds in 1995, though he later adopted a cleaner lifestyle.
Guitarist Joanne Shaw Taylor led tributes to the late blues bassist, describing him as "A true hero of mine, supporter and friend."
She adds: "I grew up watching him play with the T-Birds. When I was 19 a demo of mine fell into his hands and he made the effort to get in touch with me personally. He offered a lot of praise, guidance and support and only because he wanted to.
"He came out when he could if I was playing in St Louis to support me. I'm not quite sure what's happened, but I know that my world is not the same place moving forward."
Fabulous Thunderbirds launch their album Strong Like That on August 26. They'll commence their US tour this week.
Preston Hubbard has died aged 63.
The former Fabulous Thunderbirds and Room Full Of Blues bassist was found dead at his home in St Louis, Missouri yesterday.
He was well-known in the blues community for his other work with Bonnie Raitt, The Vaughan Brothers, Duke Robillard, Etta James, Professor Longhair and The Blues Brothers.
Hubbard suffered a long battle with drug and alcohol addiction in the years since his exit from The Fabulous Thunderbirds in 1995, though he later adopted a cleaner lifestyle.
Guitarist Joanne Shaw Taylor led tributes to the late blues bassist, describing him as "A true hero of mine, supporter and friend."
She adds: "I grew up watching him play with the T-Birds. When I was 19 a demo of mine fell into his hands and he made the effort to get in touch with me personally. He offered a lot of praise, guidance and support and only because he wanted to.
"He came out when he could if I was playing in St Louis to support me. I'm not quite sure what's happened, but I know that my world is not the same place moving forward."
Fabulous Thunderbirds launch their album Strong Like That on August 26. They'll commence their US tour this week.
http://teamrock.com/news/2016-08-18/preston-hubbard-dies-aged-63
Stevie Ray Vaughan,Jimmie Vaughan,Guitar Junior,Preston Hubbard -Thunderbird,Athens 86
Delbert McClinton and The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Fine and Healthy Thing (Live 1992)
Kim Wilson - Vocals / Harmonica
Duke Robillard (white Strat) - Guitar
Kid Bangham - Guitar
Fran Christina - Drums
Preston Hubbard - Bass
Duke Robillard (white Strat) - Guitar
Kid Bangham - Guitar
Fran Christina - Drums
Preston Hubbard - Bass
Roomful of Blues - "Its Later Than You Think"
From the June 11, 2009, 40th year anniversary show at the Garde Theater,
New London, CT, most of the original members of Roomful of Blues
perform "Its Later Than You Think".
My apologies for the quality of this video ... its the best my camera will produce from that distance.
Duke Robillard - vocals and guitar, Greg Piccolo - tenor saxophone, Doug James - baritone saxophone, Rich Latille - alto saxophone, Al Copley - piano, Preston Hubbard - bass, Mark Teixeira - drums
My apologies for the quality of this video ... its the best my camera will produce from that distance.
Duke Robillard - vocals and guitar, Greg Piccolo - tenor saxophone, Doug James - baritone saxophone, Rich Latille - alto saxophone, Al Copley - piano, Preston Hubbard - bass, Mark Teixeira - drums
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