Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)-funeral Oct 4

Subject: Obit: Don Partridge 22/09/10
From: Vic Smith
Date: 22 Sep 10 - 06:05 PM

I've just heard from Stuart Reed that Don Partridge has died. He was busking in Cliffe High Street in Lewes, one of his favourite haunts, only a few days ago.

I will try to remember him for the powerful performances he used to give in concert and folk club around about the time when Rosie was in the hit parade.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge 22/09/10
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 22 Sep 10 - 06:20 PM

RIP Don. Enjoyed your songs.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge 22/09/10
From: Morticia
Date: 22 Sep 10 - 06:23 PM

when I went drinking with Rosie....., rest in peace Don

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge 22/09/10
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Sep 10 - 06:27 PM

More info about him at WIKI. Sounds as though he was a good man, friend, and musician.

RIP,


kat

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge 22/09/10
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 22 Sep 10 - 06:36 PM

Ahhhh...yesss....

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge 22/09/10
From: Brakn
Date: 22 Sep 10 - 06:54 PM

Sad news, still have the singles.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge 22/09/10
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 22 Sep 10 - 07:13 PM

Oh dear, a real trouper. When Rosie was at No. 3 in the UK hit parade, I had Don booked at my club, and I made more on the door that night, than ever before.
He was an old mate, and I am sorry to hear of his passing.
RIP mate

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge 22/09/10
From: Leadfingers
Date: 22 Sep 10 - 07:27 PM

Don used to drop in to The Brewery Tap back in the Steve Benbow days ! Always worth a listen ! Another Good Lad gone to the Great Jam Session Up there !

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge 22/09/10
From: Bugsy
Date: 22 Sep 10 - 07:52 PM

Well that Is sad news. Don's music always brings back fond memories of the 60's though sadly I never met him. and yes Kat. he did sound like a nice man.

Rest in peace Don

Bugsy

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge 22/09/10
From: Richie Black (misused acct, bad email)
Date: 22 Sep 10 - 08:14 PM

Saw him play twice, though never met him. Loved "Rosie" still one of my all time favorites.

Thank you for making our lives richer. Memories never die.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge 22/09/10
From: Leadfingers
Date: 22 Sep 10 - 08:14 PM

Morti - Don's song (The HIT) was JUST 'Rosie' - 'Drinking with Rosie' was a Richard Digance song !

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 02:22 AM

Previous thread on Don and Rosie, here - RIP Don...

Kitty

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: John J
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 02:30 AM

Sorry to hear this sad news.

His song 'Rosie' is running around my head - and I'm sure the heads of others, a tribute he may have appreciated.

JJ

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 03:14 AM

I loved ' Rosie ' but I liked his follow up ' Blue Eyes ' even more.

So sorry to see him go, another good man gone.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 03:14 AM

Sad news indeed!
Did Don used to busk at Sidmouth?

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 03:32 AM

Saw him at Birtley folk club in 1967; he divided the audience but I fell off my chair laughing. We thought we had him booked at The Royal Turf, Felling a year later just before "Rosie" hit the charts but our organiser had forgotten to confirm the booking with the chap who was arranging the tour so he took the opportunity and booked him into Morpeth Town Hall which was a sell out; we had to explain this to a capacity audience who had turned out to see him.
Sorry to hear the news. RIP Don.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 04:02 AM

There's a fair bit of Don Partridge on Youtube, including a street performance from 1993.

Here's Blue Eyes (which I remember liking at the time but had completely forgotten).

And here's Rosie, which still sounds great.

RIP Don.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: Will Fly
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 04:23 AM

I often saw Don busking in Lewes and Seaford. He never seemed to change - always great fun, and always up for a quick chat if you dropped some coins into his case. RIP.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: Leadfingers
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 04:44 AM

Don DID Busk at Sidmouth a few times - No problem with Don , despite the 'No Commercial Busking' rule , but some of his 'Hangers On' were a bit dubious

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 04:45 AM

Rosie.. OH Rosie, I'd like to paint your portrait in the sky!!
Perhaps now you can Don... fond memories!

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 04:47 AM

Very sad news. RIP Don.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: fat B****rd
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 05:17 AM

I saw him busking outside a cinema in London in 1967. He wore a "Pythonskin" jacket and played 'Salty Dog Blues'. Only last Saturday I sang 'Rosie' to a little friend of my grandaughter who has that name.
RIP Mr. Partridge

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: Fidjit
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 05:18 AM

The queue is getting shorter.

Chas

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: Old Vermin
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 05:39 AM

Discovered him playing on the bit of the Swanage seafront with the old stone-carrying railway-lines still inset. Had the stone building behind, which improved the acoustic. Chatted a bit. Getting on for ten years ago?

Ah, well. Comes to us all.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: The Sandman
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 07:38 AM

I met him a few times when I was guesting at Ampersand folk club, I think he was living in Barwell or Hinckley at the time.
a fellow busker, one of my heroes from the sixties who didnt tolerate fools gladly.RIP Don

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: jacqui.c
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 07:46 AM

RIP Don - never met him or saw him perform, but Rosie and Blue Eyes are going around my head right now.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: CheshireCat
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 07:57 AM

Very sad news. I only saw him once, in the early 80s when alanabit had the inspired notion to bring him to the small college folk club we used to run. I remember his performance well even now.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: alanabit
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 08:27 AM

Oddly enough, I only met him on that one occasion and that was because Pete Morton put me in touch with him. We had lots of friends in common, in particular Phil Free, who will be devastated by his passing. Seeing Don busk a street in the UK you would find it hard to imagine the young man, who used to pull huge crowds all over the continent. His hero was Jessie Fuller, whose one man band ideas he modified to his own needs. Among buskers he was a legend. He saw himself as just one part of a very old tradition, but there can be little doubt that for a man of his generation, he represented a whole new way of looking at life. He was well equipped for it too. He was funny, cheerful, tough and a very much better musician than you realised at first. He was one of the guys I most looked up to when I started out and I am very sorry to hear of his passing.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 08:28 AM

Gosh, I remember that jacket, thanks for reminding me FB.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: evansakes
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 12:34 PM

Sad news indeed.

Don Partridge was at the Sunday night open mic at the Brewery Tap, Brentford only a few weeks ago (sometime in August anyway). I think he got up to do a couple of songs with Mac McGann. The next morning he was spotted on the platform at a local station with all his gear (presumably to go busking in London). He looked in good shape.

I never met him but as a kid I well remember him on Top of The Pops singing 'Rosie'.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 02:08 PM

As I said on the earlier thread, John Heydon booked Don for Herga in the late 1960s. IIRC, he'd been boating and somehow managed to split his trousers at the back, so was trying not to turn his back to the audience. And also, IIRC, he was the first person I heard sing "All I want is a proper cup of coffee". It was a great night. Sorry I didn't manage to hear him again.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: GUEST,tertopp
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 02:55 PM

For some strange reason I was singing "Rosie" to a girl called Rosie only yesterday. RIP Don.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: GUEST,RickS
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 03:52 PM

Oh yeah, the Coffee Pot Song - saw him a couple of times in the Reading folk clubs c.'66, always great, seem to recall him having a mate along, Big Pat Keene? Sad to hear this news..

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: JHW
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 04:20 PM

I think I saw him play at the Nursery, Hartlepool?
RIP

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 06:51 PM

I met Don a few times when I was running a pub session in Brentford with his old mate Alan Young. Don was sitting behind his bass drum by then and when I first met him, refused to sing Rosie because "it reminded him of when he was rich". Luckily he got over it. Sorry to see him go.

PS. Great to hear Mac McGann's still around. Is he still doing the Skip song?

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: Richard Atkins
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 09:59 PM

Sad news for me seeing this.
Don and his late wife invited myself to their camper with Woody at Sidmouth years ago,
That was a special late night to remember.
Woddy The Brighton Busker was a good freind of Don.
I dont think he is on the Cat but I trust he knows of this loss

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: GUEST,Will Aslett
Date: 24 Sep 10 - 12:41 PM

Sad indeed; just heard the news of his passing. I first saw Don performing outside the Odeon Leicester Square in the late 1950s after which I frequently encountered him in various corners of London, particularly in the 2Gs (The Gyre & Gymble) in John Adam Street by Charing cross Station, also frequented by Long John Baldry and Rod Stewart. Years later, (late 70s/early 80s) he lived just round the corner from me in Hindover Crescent, Seaford, where he was often found busking in the High Street and getting together with friends in the Wellington Hotel in Steyne Road. He was quite a sight getting the train to London with all his gear, always seeming to travel by public transport.I too remmember the snakeskin jacket which earned him the soubriquet 'Snakehips' Partridge. Fond memories, R.I.P. Don.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 24 Sep 10 - 12:49 PM

.. and for a younger audience who'd never heard of him

"Breakfast on Pluto" was featured quite prominently

in Neil Jordans excellent entertaining movie



"Breakfast on Pluto" (2005)

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 24 Sep 10 - 03:18 PM

Thanks Will for explaining about the snakeskin jacket - I thought it was just the way Don moved!

Kitty

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: alanabit
Date: 24 Sep 10 - 04:56 PM

It is not unlikely that Neil Jordan knew Don directly from the busking scene.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: buddhuu
Date: 24 Sep 10 - 07:59 PM

Never met him, never saw him live, but thanks to Jimmy Saville's double top-ten radio show I grew up with 'Rosie' as part of the soundtrack to my life. Later I introduced it into The Ploughmen's set, and I still play it on 'ukulele at our Tuesday Plough session.

Sad news, but all I can say is: Well played, Don. Thanks for the great song. I'll raise a glass to you tomorrow eve.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: evansakes
Date: 25 Sep 10 - 03:49 AM

Don Partridge's Guardian obituary

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: Smedley
Date: 25 Sep 10 - 04:49 AM

Often saw him busking in Seaford as it's the town my parents lived in. He used to be outside Woolworth's mostly. RIP.

(And RIP Woolworth's for that matter.)

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: alanabit
Date: 25 Sep 10 - 05:12 AM

It is quite a good obituary, although it does repeat the common myth that the drum of a one man band is played with the elbow. It is actually played by the heel of the foot, as is the cymbal. Virtually all one man bands who stand up play this way - as did Don. It gives you a better sound and a more regular beat, but it also completely screws up your posture. In his later years Don Partridge wisely sat down and played the drums with the balls of the feet.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: GUEST,Fast Eddy Wilkinson
Date: 25 Sep 10 - 12:29 PM

A very sad loss. I knew Don a bit and being an old busker myself met him in varíous places from London to Copenhagen. Shared a few pints.I learned a great deal from the master ,the "King" of "The one man band". I eventually put a one man band together myself. What a life. It was hard work with the drum and all on the back but the "edge" we could get was fantastic. Don used to pull a massive crowd. The money in the bottle was always full. I hadn't seen him in a long time. Yes, I've still got the memory of Don outside the Odeon in Leicester Sq on a cold winter night. With all the traffic flying by-Taxis, Busses ,the crowd,the cinema neon lights ,the noise, the smells and of course the unmistaken sound of Dons drum hitting the beat and his whole show resounding above the whole fanfare around. Rest In Peace my old friend. Save me a place at the bar.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: GUEST,RWJ
Date: 26 Sep 10 - 12:17 PM

Never got the chance to see him perform but loved his songs, like many so he will still be here

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: Little Robyn
Date: 26 Sep 10 - 02:20 PM

We played 'Rosie' on our radio show Folk on Sunday in memory of Don. It was on the LP of the Buskers concert held at the Royal Albert in 1969.
Farewell Don.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: GUEST,Stuart Reed
Date: 26 Sep 10 - 07:55 PM

Richard Atkins wrote: Don and his late wife invited myself to their camper with Woody at Sidmouth years ago. That was a special late night to remember.
Woddy The Brighton Busker was a good freind of Don. I dont think he is on the Cat but I trust he knows of this loss

Rest assured, Richard, Woody is across the situation and is in touch with Don's family. He was the probably the last person to have talked to him as they had met up for a couple of drinks a few hours earlier.

Don was a really lovely man, with a broad and enquiring mind and a most engaging conversationalist.

He pitched up to the club I help to run a couple of weeks ago, borrowed my guitar and regaled us with Spanish Ladies.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: vectis
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 09:42 AM

He was a common sight in Broad Street , Seaford (my home town) for as long as I can remember and sat outside the newsagents (now WH Smiths) and adjourned to the pub once he had earned enough to slake the thirst he had worked up.
He was a real character and looked after Pam devotedly when she became ill.
He will be missed by many of us down here in Sussex.

Subject: RE: Obit: Don Partridge (22 Sept 2010)
From: GUEST,freespiritceol
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 08:55 PM

saw don busking down in cornwall,playing all the old songs 'rosie' 'cottonfields' etc absolute magic! sadly missed. god bless