Bob's Chat
Well three months have passed since my wife and I left our home in Thailand and flew down to Perth to spend the autumn in my apartment there. The Australian winter has now started and it's time to return to the balmy tropics. So tomorrow we'll be flying back to Bangkok. We'll be spending the weekend in Bangkok, then traveling on to our home in Korat in Thailand's NE, and after we get back home I'll have a heap of things to do for a few days. Therefore there won't be another post for at least a week. In the meantime here are two fine compilations for your listening pleasure.
The very popular "Rockabilly & Early Rock & Roll" series, now up to Volume 124, continues another collection of those wild wild women. Among the rockin' gals presented here are Janis Martin, Brenda Lee, LaVern Baker, Ruth Brown, Connie Francis, Linda Gail Lewis, Wanda Jackson, and Rose Marie McCoy.
"Blues, R&B, Soul & Gospel Records" now up to Volume 274 brings you 21 tracks dating from 1929 to 2023. Among the artists in this collection are Earl King, Marie Adams, Dave Bartholomew, Wee Willie Wayne, Freddie Scott, Irma Thomas, Johnnie Bassett, and Alexis Korner.
I met Alexis Korner in March 1975 when he was on tour of Australia with the First Australian Blues/Rock Festival. Alexis, Duster Bennett, myself and a couple of musicians from one of the Aussie support bands spent the afternoon before the concert in a room at the rear of the Perth Entertainment Center passing around joints and swapping stories. Alexis Korner was a very friendly and very interesting person, and he told us some fun stories of the early days of the British R&B scene. Unfortunately Alexis got a bit too whacked which adversely affected his solo performance that evening. It was a shame he didn't have a band supporting him as that would have spiced up his set, but sadly, seated alone, seriously whacked, futilely trying to fill a huge venue like the Entertainment Center with just his acoustic guitar and vocals, Alexis Korner's Perth performance was very disappointing.
However, he wasn't the only disappointment that evening, for Hound Dog Taylor had got stuck into the free booze at the Perth Airport press reception earlier that morning. Later at the hotel he got my girlfriend to go out and buy him a bottle of Scotch, which he knocked off in his room before the show. By the time Hound Dog Taylor and the House Rockers got on stage that night Hound Dog was so drunk he was barely aware of where he was or what he was doing. They did a couple of songs, with a seated Hound Dog mumbling through the lyrics, before Brewer Phillips and Ted Harvey decided it had gone on long enough and fled the stage, shortly followed by a bewildered Hound Dog.
It was sad that within a year three of the main performers from the First Australian Blues/Rock Festival had died (Hound Dog Taylor in December 1975, Duster Bennett in March 1976, and Freddie King in December 1976)
Very old photograph taken backstage at the Perth Entertainment Center March 1975. Left to Right. Brewer Phillips, Bob Mac, Ted Harvey, Hound Dog Taylor.
Anyway my friends, dig in, enjoy the great music, and I'll have another serving for you sometime next week.
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