Watch Suger Pie DeSanto perform ‘Rock Me Baby’ in the UK in 1964:
Born Umpeylia Balinton in Brooklyn, New York, in 1935, Sugar Pie DeSanto was nicknamed ‘Little Miss Sugar Pie’ by bandleader Johnny Otis when she made her first recording with him in 1955. An amazing R’n’B singer, her single ‘I Want To Know’ was [...]
When I became a professional musician in 1963, there was no real recording industry at the time, but all of a sudden, the recording industry started to buck up and this wave of English music cut across the world. It was absolutely amazing to eventually go to places in Japan and have kids come up [...]
Watch Sonny Boy Williamson performing in Europe in 1963 here:
Sonny Boy Williamson II’s life story is convoluted and full of contradictions - even his real name and date of birth are debatable! - but he became one of the world’s most influential blues artists. A songwriter, vocalist and harmonica player, his career break came through [...]
1964/5 was an amazing time and Soho was a great place to be. There was a little Italian café just off Wardour Street where they did a mushroom omelette for 3 shillings and 9 pence [approximately 19p] and we were all broke, so you could go in there on a lunchtime and you’d see Rod [...]