LATEST NEWS ( January 18, 2011)

In addition he was a Royal Academy trained artist and Rosemary is arranging a retrospective exhibition of his paintings at Crouch End Library in August. If the private view is anything like the funeral it will be heaving. He was a very popular man and so many people turned out to pay their respects.

Our sax player Jim Pitts has also had a long spell in hospital and will probably never play with the band again. Jim on form is a gifted humorist, great vocalist and harmonica player and multi instrumentalist. He was our front man that would have the audience in stitches with ad libs – none of it rehearsed, just an inspired genius for comedy.

Gibbo has also had a health scare but is fighting fit again and has the same boundless energy as he did when we first met in 1966/67. The rest of us are OK touch wood.

So how to continue has been the main topic of band phone calls. We now know that we are going to continue but in what form is still to be decided. We are considering a replacement pianist and also whether to go back to square one, before Jim joined the band and before Jona Lewie became our pianist for a more raw and stripped down sound. Our next gig  is at St Harmonica’s Blues Club on the 18th March and Richard Ansell will be joining us on piano and we will see how that works out. Richard is a professional pianist and works within the blues idiom – he reminds me of Jools Holland and I believe he gave Jools’ son piano lessons. So he is very good and it’s more of a question of does he want to stick around with us? We shall see.

We will be recording a new album in the UK in 2011 to be produced by Tom Newman with or without piano and a possible appearance from Jim if he doesn’t have to travel too far.