Book finished: white bicycles
30/06/2014
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The other day my daughter sent me a link to the YouTube video at Left, saying "Awesome - it's like a music video too!" Believe it or not, I had only heard of this lady a few times, until I read this e-book last January. My daughter's email seemed a good prompt to blog about the book and the video. |
The author tells of shepherding American acts around Europe in his younger days, and I remembered Sister Rosetta was one of them. She is pretty good, I don't remember him mentioning she played guitar as well though.
He was tour manager of the 1964 American Folk, Blues and Gospel Caravan.
Courtesy of Wikipedia: British Rhythm and Blues (my emphases)
"From 1962 the American Folk Blues Festival, organised by German promoters Horst Lippmann and Fritz Rau, brought American blues stars including Waters, Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, and John Lee Hooker to the country. In 1964 the American Folk Blues and Gospel Caravan arrived in the UK for an 11-date tour, including in its line-up Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Blind Gary Davis, Sonny Terry, Muddy Waters and Otis Spann. The original dates sold out rapidly and six more had to be added."
This vid comes from a DVD called "The American Folk Blues Festival: The British Tours", and the "American Folk Blues and Gospel Caravan" is apparently different, but I think the vid is actually from the latter, see the ticket I found:
Lookit this! An actual autographed ticket to the very same show! I found it searching for the book before I thought of searching my browser history for pages fom the Library site.
The comments at the site linked are informative.
It is an interesting video, I wondered who thought of filming a show at a real railway station. Looks like they have done some set-dressing as well, like those corny American TV shows of the period.
Then I found on the same site, another pic at the same show with comments that deal with the set! One even mentions this very book!
She seems to have an early radio mike transmitter in her left pocket. You can see the cord going into the front of her coat. She's a big enough lady to carry what must have been a pretty hefty box in those days, LOL.
He was tour manager of the 1964 American Folk, Blues and Gospel Caravan.
Courtesy of Wikipedia: British Rhythm and Blues (my emphases)
"From 1962 the American Folk Blues Festival, organised by German promoters Horst Lippmann and Fritz Rau, brought American blues stars including Waters, Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, and John Lee Hooker to the country. In 1964 the American Folk Blues and Gospel Caravan arrived in the UK for an 11-date tour, including in its line-up Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Blind Gary Davis, Sonny Terry, Muddy Waters and Otis Spann. The original dates sold out rapidly and six more had to be added."
This vid comes from a DVD called "The American Folk Blues Festival: The British Tours", and the "American Folk Blues and Gospel Caravan" is apparently different, but I think the vid is actually from the latter, see the ticket I found:
Lookit this! An actual autographed ticket to the very same show! I found it searching for the book before I thought of searching my browser history for pages fom the Library site.
The comments at the site linked are informative.
It is an interesting video, I wondered who thought of filming a show at a real railway station. Looks like they have done some set-dressing as well, like those corny American TV shows of the period.
Then I found on the same site, another pic at the same show with comments that deal with the set! One even mentions this very book!
She seems to have an early radio mike transmitter in her left pocket. You can see the cord going into the front of her coat. She's a big enough lady to carry what must have been a pretty hefty box in those days, LOL.
The book itself covers much more than this though, I recommend it as a good read for anyone interested in British music of the Sixties, and the general scene at the time, with lots of anecdotes and insights concerning artists he dealt with.
Read as an e-book borrowed from Auckland Libraries via Overdrive, on my Kobo Touch e-reader back in January.