The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #132298   Message #2996170
Posted By: GUEST,Graham Bradshaw
29-Sep-10 - 12:37 PM
Thread Name: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)-funeral Oct 4
Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
Another one bites the dust. Very sad.

First met Don in about 1967 when I was working in a Bank in S. London near Wimbledon. He used to come in and change his takings, which used to amount to more in one day than I earned in a month! We all used to say we were in the wrong job.

This was before the hit records, and he used to busk around the tube stations, as well as outside the Wimbledon Tennis ground during the tournaments. In the evenings his pitch was at leicester Square I think.

I later got to know him quite well, mainly because he used to turn up at Surbiton Folk Club occasionally, although Derek Sarjeant would never book him for some reason (his fee was £8 at the time).

When I moved to the Midlands in 1970, me and the then wife spent a day in Warwick, and the first person I bumped into was Don busking in the Market Square. Of course, we repaired to the pub and spent a nice half hour comparing notes.

I later used to see him fairly often at Toni Savage's Barwell club, as mentioned on an earlier posting he was mates with Toni and Bill Maynard.

Unfortunately lost contact after that, although mutual friends used to say that he was still around and made occasional forays into the Midland haunts.

Another one of those colourful characters that seemed to be part of the music scene back then. There's not many left now.