The first LP I ever bought was a Howling Wolf budget album when I was about 9 years old. I'd been saving up for a full price Beatles album, but got impatient and saw this in a shop window so took a chance with my pocket money to see what the 33rom setting on my turntable was like. Hated it at first, but as it was the only album I owned, I grew into it through repeated plays and ended up loving it.
Was lucky enough to see all the American Folk Blues tours in the 1960s. One of my school pal's dad was a bank manager and for some reason he always got free tickets which he passed to us, even though we were way too young really to even be out at that time in Manchester,. 50+ years on I cant remember much of the performances, but I do remember being awe struck and this cemented my love of blues.
Since 1978 I've been fronting my own blues band Night Train which is still going albeit with me as the only original member. Our current drummer had a spell with The Nashville Teens and our current bassist was in a band called the Executives who supported the Rolling Stones in Blackpool when fans rioted and the Stones got banned from the town around 1964, a ban that was only rescinded about 5 years ago.
The radio show covers what I consider to be the golden age of the blues from around 1940 to 1980. I've no intention of making it a history lesson ie I won't play a track just because it is considered 'rare', but I just love the music and want to make it as entertaining as possible, with broad appeal
If I can turn half a dozen people on to the joyous music that is the blues (the way that Howling Wolf album turned me on( well...job done!
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