Obit: Long John Baldry (21 July 2005)

Subject: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 12:30 PM

JOHN WILLIAM BALDRY - 1941 to 2005 - Long John Baldry passed away at the
Vancouver General Hospital, July 21 at 10:30 pm after fighting a severe
chest infection for the passed 4 months. He was surrounded by friends and loved ones and is now at peace. John Baldry will be remembered by his music and the love he generously gave to all those who came in contact with him. Our world is a lesser place without him, for John was a person that enhanced this world with his enormous presence and talent. John Baldry walks with God.

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: open mike
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 12:53 PM

was he the one who did everything stops for tea?
Vancouver B.C.? He was British, correct?

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: M.Ted
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 01:08 PM

Long John Baldry was a key performer in that very peculiar process by which the American rock audience of the Sixties learned about Blues from British musicians. His name was like a secret handshake among music fans, and his records were prizes beyond value--He opened the door for an awful lot of kids who never played the blues before they'd heard him, and never played anything else after--

We loved him, and we'll miss him.

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: Judge Mental
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 01:25 PM

Long John Baldry was originally from England, but lived in Canada for the last 25 or 30 years.

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: fat B****rd
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 01:40 PM

He was a one-off was LJB. I'm sorry to hear he's gone. He was a pioneering Bluesman in the Uk and I'm pleased I sawhim with one of his many line-ups. In 1968 I saw him with Reg Dwight on piano ,Marsha Hunt and Stuart A Brown on vocals and a sterling rhythm section. I may dig out my battered copy of "R'n'B at the Marquee" with Korner, Davies and LJB.
His Leadbelly tribute cd is well worth a listen IMHO.
RIP LJB

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: Leadfingers
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 01:41 PM

I still have fond memories of LJB roadying for Gary Davis when he did a UK tour !! He was a fine muso !!

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: PoppaGator
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 02:01 PM

"...Reg Dwight on piano..."

Wouldn't that be the artist later to be known as Elton John?

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: Charmion
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 02:05 PM

Elton was one of at least a dozen major stars who got their start with Long John Baldry.

I'm not ready for Long John to be dead. Tell me about this about 20 years from now when I'm deaf.

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 02:09 PM

Exactly. He introduced so many British kids (I include myself) to the Blues and he always had fine musicians around him. My copy of "Long John's Blues" is a prized posession. I first saw him with his Hoochie Coochie Men suporting Chuck Berry along with The Moody Blues and the Graham Bond Organisation back in 1965. I can remember little of Mr Berry and less of the Moody Blues but memories of Bladry and Bond are as clear as yesterday.
May he rest in peace.

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: Tradsinger
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 02:39 PM

Long John was the first guest I heard in a folk club in England, in Portsmouth in 1964. He came in, borrowed a guitar, and did a brilliant gig. RIP, John.

Gwilym

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: Janie
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 03:07 PM

I saw him perform once---more than 30 years ago--- at a theater in Akron, Ohio. It still stands out in my mind. RIP.

Janie

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: gnu
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 03:10 PM

RIP Long John. You will be missed.

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: open mike
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 04:28 PM

still no obit to be found online
any one see one??

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 04:28 PM

He used to be a regular at both the Student Prince in Wardour Street, and Les Cousins in Greek Street. He was very tall, which of course accounts for his Nom de Chanson, he tried to chat me up one night, so he must have liked ugly blokes!!
Slide on Over to the Promised Land Big John.
Giok

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: woodsie
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 04:35 PM

In the late sixties Reg Dwight took his new name "Elton John" from two of his favourite musicians - Elton Dean and John Baldry.

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 04:38 PM

I've searched the local papers over here (Victoria & Vancouver) but no mention. Perhaps tomorrow. I met him severl times and he was a nice bloke. He lived on Salt Spring Island, a small community with lots of artists and people , well, like Long John.

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 05:16 PM

Man had taste: is widely reputed to have refused to let Rod Stewart sing with his band on many occasions....

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 05:20 PM

Cheap jibe in an obit thread,anyway I'm pretty sure RS did sing with LJB

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 05:32 PM

Open Mike - check his website

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: GUEST,Bardford
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 05:57 PM

Here's a link to a CBC Long John Baldry Obit

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 06:18 PM

Even the Righteous Brothers Bill Medley has been quoted as saying that the version of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" LJB recorded with Kathi MacDonald should be considered the definitive one.

The "Baldry's Out" LP will always be one of my treasures.

Safe home, Long John.

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: GUEST,quigs
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 06:29 PM

I worked on a stage crew at a summer classic rock fest a couple of years ago when LJB was on the bill. All done up like a dandy, I've got a great pic of one of my crew mates down shining his shoes minutes before he went on. And he had Kathy McDonald (anyone remember her?) singing with him. Put on a brilliant show. RIP John

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: SlimChance
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 07:07 PM

He'll be missed, but it was a great ride.
Here's a CBC obit...

SlimChance.



Long John Baldry dies in Vancouver

Last Updated Fri, 22 Jul 2005 15:08:11 EDT
CBC Arts

Blues legend Long John Baldry has died at age 64 after a four-month battle with a severe chest infection.

Baldry's agent posted an announcement on the musician's website that Baldry had passed away Thursday night in Vancouver, where he had been living.


Long John Baldry in May 1966. (Getty Images/Keystone Features/John Pratt)
"Our world is a lesser place without him, for John was a person that enhanced this world with his enormous presence and talent," said the statement posted on the website.

The musician was admitted to the intensive care unit of a Vancouver hospital in April after returning from a trip to his native Britain.

Baldry was nicknamed "Long John" because of his height – six foot seven –and had been living in Canada for the past 25 years.

The bluesman named Leadbelly, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry as his musical influences.

Baldry, born in London in 1941, is recognized as one of the chief influences in British blues and rock music in the 1960s. His seminal 1962 album, R&B From The Marquee is considered the first British blues album. Baldry hit the top of the singles charts there in 1967 with Let the Heartaches Begin. He also performed in the Beatles' first worldwide television special in April 1964.

During the last half of the 1960s, he led a band called Bluesology that included Reginald Dwight, who went on to become Elton John. His other bands included Blues Inc., Cyril Davis and the All Stars and the Hoochie Coochie Men.

Baldry has released more than 40 albums, performing with a string of other famous musicians including Rod Stewart, Jimmy Page and Mick Jagger. The Rolling Stones opened for Baldry in London in the early 1960s before the Stones hit it big.

Stewart considered Baldry a mentor and was at his bedside when he was admitted to hospital in March.

In 1979, he teamed up with Seattle singer Kathi MacDonald to record a very successful version of You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'.

After spending time in New York City and Los Angeles in the late '70s, Baldry chose to settle permanently in Vancouver, B.C. and became a Canadian citizen in 1980.

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: number 6
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 07:08 PM

The last time I saw LJB was 4 years ago here in Saint John. He was a class act.

May he rest in peace.

sIx

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 09:42 PM

Saw Long John in '72 on a triple bill with Savoy Brown and Fleetwood Mac. It was just a month or so after Mahalia Jackson had passed away and he did a couple of spirituals in her honor. Blew everybody away.

He was a class act.

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: GUEST,Bill the Collie
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 11:41 PM

Great singer.
Saw him in the mid-60's at the Elizabethan Club in Glasgow. His beautiful fingernails caused a minor stir in Morrisin's Bar, I recall.
In Glasgow at that time, everybody seemed to be called "wee" or "big"
hence the question adressed that night to a Hoochie Coochie Man - Ur ye wi' big Long John Baldry?

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: Bugsy
Date: 23 Jul 05 - 01:22 AM

Subject: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: Bugsy - PM
Date: 23 Jul 05 - 01:10 AM

A friend of mine just sent me this obit for Long John in the Telegraph. click here A great loss for music.

Bugsy

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 23 Jul 05 - 04:32 AM

Yes Rod Stewart did sing with John. After the demise of the Hoochie Coochie Men (the old Cyril Davies Allstars) John's manager and agent at the time George Webb, he of Dixielanders fame put together a group called The Steampacket. This comprised of Long John Baldry, Julie Driscoll (now Tippet) and Rod Stewart as front singers backed by Brian Auger's Trinity. All three singers of course went on to top the charts and although I don't have much info on Brian Auger I believe that he went on to have a lot of success.
I believe that John's first group was the Thameside Four, it was in that guise that I first saw him, and he later became a regular at the Ballads and Blues Club in London. He also sang with the Ken Sims band during the "Trad" jazz era and was offered a job with Acker Bilk's Band when Acker was riding high. He came back from Germany to take up the offer but for some reason decided against it at the last minute.

Although George Webb himself was/is a died in the wool revivalist jazzman and still playing he certainly should be given credit for spotting that group of musicians, seeing their potential in a field outside his own and putting them all together under the Steampacket label.

As for John road managing Gary Davis, that raised a smile. With all due respect and not to speak ill of the recently departed, at that time John could barely road manage himself. R.I.P John.

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: Lanfranc
Date: 23 Jul 05 - 05:48 AM

My abiding memory of LJB was at the London Troubadour in '68 (I think - usual caveats about 60s memories!) when he turned up guitarless, borrowed Martin Winsor's guitar and blew the place away. Not a hint of "Let the Heartaches Begin", although Redd Sullivan (another former member of the Thameside Four) introduced him by mentioning his "Number One Hit".

I have a vague memory of hearing him with Brian Auger, but it was a long time ago.

Hadn't heard of him for ages, though I have Redd Sullivan's obituary from the Independent in which he features.

Another one gone - the rate of attrition is getting depressing.

RIP LJB

Alan

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: Tam the man
Date: 23 Jul 05 - 06:31 AM

So sad when a fellow singer dies, I didn't really know Long John Baldry.

RIP

Let the heartaches begin

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: ragdall
Date: 23 Jul 05 - 06:54 AM

Vancouver Sun

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 23 Jul 05 - 07:00 AM

He did an interview & session on Paul Jones BBC blues programme earlier this year. Still had his plummy English upper class accent.Like fB I have and regularly listen to his "Remembereing Leadbelly" CD.

RtS
"Another man done gone"

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: GUEST,MikeOfNorthumbria(at home)
Date: 23 Jul 05 - 07:41 AM

Another sad loss.

Back in the early '60s, in London's folk clubs Long John was THE MAN where blues was concerned. An astonishing singer, and a more than competent guitarist, he had the power to grab the imagination of audiences, and transport them to times long ago and places far away. I never saw him give less than everything to any audience. One night at the old Student Prince club in Soho, he sang "No more, my Lord" (from the Lomax "Murderers' Home" album) with such intensity that there was an extended pause between his last note and the start of the thunderous applause.

I was never personally acquainted with him, but I gathered from one or two who did that he had a fairly troubled private life (not unsusual in the music biz). But it didn't seem to affect his music. Now he's at rest, but his music will live on.

Wassail!

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: GUEST,Jim Ward
Date: 23 Jul 05 - 08:05 AM

I worked in the music business in the 60's and would like to correct a few discrepancies in Hootenanny's post above. Steampacket was actually put together in 1965 not by George Webb but by the ubiquitous Giorgio Gomelsky of Rolling Stones and Yardbirds fame. Rod Stewart was already singing with John Baldry in the Hoochie Coochie Men billed as Long John Baldry and the Hoochie Coochie Men with "Rod the Mod" Stewart, which had just broke up.
George Webb (strongly featured on last nights BBC2 "Jazz Britannia") ran the Malcolm Nixon Agency (who remembers Malcolm Nixon) at the time, with Scots singer, Fiona Duncan (ex.Clyde Valley Stompers). They specialised in managing and booking out R&B groups such as Downliner's Sect, Alex Harvey, Soul Agents, Sheffields, etc. and of course LJB and the Hoochie Coochie Men.
George Webb still runs a lunchtime jazz session (last Sunday in month) at the Erith and Belvedere F.C. H.Q. at Welling, Kent, where if asked, he will regale you with stories of how he discovered Elton John and possibly, how he formed Steampacket, but he does get carried away!
He is still playing remarkably well and it has been known for Long John's old employer, Ken Sims, to be playing trumpet with the band at Welling. The band when Long John sang with them was actually known as the Sims-Wheeler Jazzmen.

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 23 Jul 05 - 12:28 PM

Sorry Jim but I remember Malcolm Nixon and George did NOT run the Malcolm Nixon Agency. Malcolm Nixon ran the Agency and started it out with Pete Turner. Next on board was John Martin ex editor of Jazz News Harold Pendleton's magazine. Other people came in as it grew including Paddy Malynn, Dave Turner, Dave Monroe, Frank Weston, Charlie Coutts taking a sabbatical from his radio job in Budapest and Bill Loughran. Fionna (two nn's) was singing with Forrie Cairns and the Clansmen during this period and often used to come in and work around the office as did Pat Halcox's wife Shirley. George came into the agency around the beginning of 1964. I was there from 1962 until it's demise and have known George and his family very well for many many years and have no reason to doubt the story having been there and would agree that possibly Gomelsky was involved. George was handling the bookings for John' Band as he had done previously when it was under Cyril Davies's leadership. Was Julie managed by Gomelski at that time? Possibly.
I would have to say though that it was all a long time ago.

Hoot

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: GUEST,Jim Ward
Date: 23 Jul 05 - 02:24 PM

It certainly was a long time ago Hoot.
Giorgio did manage both Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger. I've just consulted a former collegue with a better memory than me and he remembers that Steampacket actually had three managers, Giorgio looking after Brian and Julie,others looking after Long John and Rod. This probably hastened their demise.
My business with the Malcolm Nixon Agency only started in 1964 and my dealings were always with George or Fionna, never met Malcolm. Of course as you worked there I may well have have run in to you when I called round to Conduit Street to pick up contracts or negotiate lower fees for groups who'd turned up late!
Jim

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry
From: fat B****rd
Date: 25 Jul 05 - 05:08 PM

Excellent obituary in the Guardian (UK) for Saturday last 23.7.05

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry (21 July 2005)
From: Janie
Date: 25 Jul 05 - 11:08 PM

Bee-dubya-ell,

That is the same line-up as when I saw him, and the year probably was around 1972. Were we at the same show? A whole gang of us drove up from Charleston, WV. I said it was Akron, and I think it was, but it might have been Dayton. As I recall, the whole show was marvelous, and the venue--an old movie theater, was down right cozy. (Must have been real good, or at least really fun, for me to still remember it;').

Janie

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry (21 July 2005)
From: JJ
Date: 27 Jul 05 - 08:44 AM

I was surprised to discover that Long John was gay. The NY Times obit states, "He is survived by his partner, Felix Rexach..."

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry (21 July 2005)
From: Janie
Date: 27 Jul 05 - 08:50 AM

I did not give any thought to his sexual orientation, but did find myself wondering if he died of AIDS from the vague description of cause of death. Thoughts and prayers for comfort for his partner.

Janie

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry (21 July 2005)
From: GUEST,BILLY
Date: 27 Jul 05 - 07:08 PM

Steam Packet were the best band around in their time, I saw them at the Manor House, Finsbury Park. L.B.J. with that deep fruity voice, Julie Driscoll - I fell in love with ( she sang Shotgun ), and even Rod was great in those early days, doing the r&b standards, Midnight Hour etc. They did some great duets and threesomes backed by Brian Augers formidable 4 ( I think ) piece. It's sad he has gone so soon.

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry (21 July 2005)
From: GUEST,Dr Price
Date: 27 Jul 05 - 08:46 PM

Saw LJB just once in 1964 at the Edmonton Regal, when the line-up was LJB and the Hoochie-Coochie Men, Winston G, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, the Brian Auger Trinity, the Moody Blues, the Graham Bond Organisation, the Rolling Stones and Chuck Berry. Among the musos were Dick Heckstall-Smith, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton, and the Rolling Stones played second fiddle to Chuck Berry -I mean, Berry was the Man.

I saw Steam Packet live on TV, and Baldry, Driscoll and Stewart whipped so much energy around themselves that it fired my excitement and my imagination. Happy days!

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry (21 July 2005)
From: Mr Red
Date: 28 Jul 05 - 10:30 AM

I seem to remember a spiky haired geezer singing on telly from one of the Blues clubs, the only name I recall on stage was LBJ. But it looked like RS from what I remember.

Forgetting LBJ would be unforgivable, but not RS.

Subject: RE: Obit: Long John Baldry (21 July 2005)
From: fat B****rd
Date: 28 Jul 05 - 04:59 PM

I recall now seeing him on a pop/folk/blues show called "Hullabaloo" but I can't remember much else about the show.This would be mid sixties.