Friends for more than five decades, Ralph McTell and Dave Pegg have independently influenced the development of English folk rock – the former as a singer-songwriter in his own right, the latter as part of FAIRPORT CONVENTION and JETHRO TULL – and even were bandmates in THE GPs, so there had been a lot of history involved in the two’s joint venture which hit the road in November 2024. The duo played eight concerts in the UK, and it’s there that their forthcoming live album originated.
Best remembered as a co-founder, together with Eric Clapton, of DEREK AND THE DOMINOS and a co-writer of such perennials as “Bell Bottom Blues” that became part of white blues narrative, Bobby Whitlock, who died today, aged 77, was an artist of much broader scope. In his case, “artist” meant not only a multi-instrumentalist – primarily known as a keyboard player, Whitlock handled guitar with an equal grace – but also a painter, and at later stages of his life Bobby spend more time in front of canvas than he did on a stage. A renaissance man, he seemed proud of going visual as well as being aural.
If there’s a need to acknowledge how distinctive was the bass delivery of Stuart McDonald, who passed away on August 4th at the age of 75, one has to remember that Paul Rodgers chose him for a trio called PEACE, when FREE had first broken up, to form a rhythm section with Mick Underwood, on the recommendation from Simon Kirke, his former bandmate in HEATWAVE. But of course, Mac, as friends called him, became better known as a member of another band.
Fifty-five years from the moment it was taken on the road, Joe Cocker’s “Mad Dogs & Englishmen” remains a memorable tour – even for those who weren’t there, because it was preserved for posterity not only as a concert longplay but also as a film. To make sure its legacy lived on after the English singer’s passing in 2014, Leon Russell, who was his co-conspirator in that guest-infested extravaganza, and teamed up with TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND to restore the classic show with another stellar array. The recordings of their performances, as delivered at the Lockn Festival in September 2015 – a testament of sorts to Leon, who died in 2016 – would have to wait for another decade, though, to see the light of day.
While WHITESNAKE‘s early albums, the expansions of which are so eagerly expected by fandom, remain unavailable to David Coverdale who would love to turn those into box set as he did with the band’s catalogue from “Slide It In” onwards, their latter-day records slowly but surely undergo the same treatment. And if some aficionados may have wondered why 2008’s “Good To Be Bad” deserved a deluxe version, no one was disillusioned upon hearing the final product, so it should come as no surprise that 2011’s “Forevermore” will make the equally impressive “Revisited, Remixed, Remastered” package.
