Hello, everyone - especially my dear old pal, Keith Sellers!

Keith was indeed instrumental in getting me involved in the 'This Is Your Life' taping. Kudos to Thames TV for feeling the need to provide Lonnie with the correct guitar for his big surprise, and Keith had a very striking Brazilian-bodied 000-28 in his inventory at 'Hank's' that he loaned to them for the day. The Thames limo picked us up (Keith was thoughtful enough to include me in the outing!) and we had an exciting day - me singing 'Rock Island Line' with Chris Barber and Beryl Bryden so they could sound-check the Martin ahead of the recording, and the show itself, with many Donegan alumni (including Denny Wright!) in attendance.

Mudcat:

As we recently got a new computer, I lost several of my 'favourites' - I'm happy to be reunited with you all!

CDs:

Sharon sent me the new 'Last Tour' CD (this was disappointing - Lon was too low in the mix for my taste) as well as the Adam Faith '70s production. This is all I remember it to be - over-produced and fails to recreate the Donegan magic. I am what's known in the collecting world as a 'completist', so I'm still glad to have them! Sharon also included Peter Donegan's CD. I have to agree with Keith - the kid's definitely got it! When he sang at his father's Memorial Service in May, '03, the resemblance was uncanny.....

Brian May surprised me (considering his relative youth!) by proving to be obsessive about Lonnie's work - his 'I'm Just A Rolling Stone' at the Service was a faithful replication of Lonnie's greatest-ever 'B' side!

I wish we could post pictures here. I have a terrific shot of all of us guitar-players gathered at that event, including Bert Weedon, Brian May, Albert, Joe Brown, Bill Wyman and others....

In summary.....

Re-reading my earlier posts, I can see that I laid into poor Les Bennetts pretty unmercifully! I can't retract anything, though - he had some very big shoes to fill, and he wasn't in that class. I do, however, think that his jaunty, almost comic approach probably suited Donegan's career-shift into more commercial, and less jazz-orientated, material better than Denny. Jimmy Currie falls somewhere in the middle for me, but he was really the coolest-looking band-member LD ever had! Check him out on the '6-5 Special' clips - the low-slung Gibson ES-175, and his Stanley Baker-like good looks (even if it WAS a wig....)

best,

Roger Rettig
PS: I'll check out that other thread now.