Chris Barber

[JT GRAY]

Might seem a long stretch to our John, but I recorded both episodes of the recent programmes about Chris Barber on Radio 2, and have just been listening to the first one.  Some familiar themes - an escape from post-war austerity; a schoolboy spending his bus fare to buy records; having to seek out shops that sold them because jazz was still an underground scene; enthusiasts wanting to play the music for themselves regardless of how well, or how badly they could actually play.  And Barber himself was a pioneer with far reaching influence - from his band came Lonnie Donegan, and so skiffle, and then Alexis Korner, and so the British blues scene, the Stones, the Yardbirds et al.

And so endeth the (history) lesson.

John Gray