Everyone responds to some genre of music which makes the hair on the back of the neck stand up and for me the blues is it.
My first experience of anything bluesy was hearing Ray Charles and the Raelets singing "Tell the Truth" and an LP called "Penitentiary Blues" with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Big Joe Williams and Lightnin' Hopkins in about 1959. Soon after, the R&B boom of the 60s was under way and one of the artists who most inspired me was Cyril Davies who had a regular gig playing blues harp at the Railway Hotel in Wealdstone (where the Who were discovered). Cyril Davies had a minor R&B hit with "Countryline Special" in about 1962 and this and the Sonny Terry LP both inspired me to try and learn the blues harp. In those days, obtaining source material was difficult but fortunately I worked in London and was able to spend many happy lunch hours in Dobells Jazz and Blues shop in Leicester Square.
n 1963, the television show, Ready Steady Go, which showcased a lot of US R&B stars, had a competition to draw a portrait of Manfred Mann.
At that time, I was frequently mistaken for him and a friend of mine rang the programme and enquired whether he could enter " a living statue". This sufficiently intrigued the Editor, Bob Bickford, for him to invite my friend to bring his entry (me) to the studio at 5.00 pm the following Friday.
This he did but, as is often the case in the world of TV, they ran out of time for the planned competition judging. However, in the process of apologising, Bob Bickford introduced me to a girl who turned out to be a dance teacher and invited us to enjoy the show. All I did was to mirror my partners' moves but the Producer, Elkan Allan, was sufficiently impressed by what he saw to give us Audience Season Tickets for subsequent shows.
Since the studio was only 20 minutes from where I worked, dancing on Ready Steady Go became a regular Friday night event for the next year and a half. On the first occasion, we saw Tom Jones performing "Its Not Unusual" and as the weeks went by we saw The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Beatles, Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore, Donovan, The Yardbirds (with Eric Clapton), Them (with Van Morrison), Chris Farlow, T-Bone Walker, Adam Faith, Peter Noone, Millie, Petula Clarke, the Dave Clarke Five, John Mayall, the Moody Blues, The Animals, The Soul Sisters and er...Manfred Mann.
I was learning to play the blues harp and not being the shy retiring type, took every opportunity to talk to people who played - with the result that I picked up tips from Van Morrison, who played harp on Them's big hit "Baby Please Don't Go" as well as Keith Relf of the Yardbirds and Jack Bruce who at the time played harp and bass for the Graham Bond Organisation.
Many years later, Channel 4 ran a selection of tapes from Ready Steady Go over a period of 30 weeks. Each week we taped them in the hope of seeing yours truly and each week... nothing. Finally, on the last week, there was a familiar chord and there I was in front of the Who playing "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere". A second series was much better populated with snippets.
Eighteen months later, we were watching the film"Quadrophenia" on TV and there is a scene where the "hero" slumps down in front of the TV to watch Ready Steady Go. The television is turned on and a familar chord is heard and the same elusive snatch of tape appears! Now that was a spooky feeling!!