Monday 20 February 2012

STAR BLUES on 19th February 2012 at 22:00

We don't do many interviews on STAR BLUES. Paul Jones has a birthday this week so we marked the celebration by repeating our conversation that we did on Christmas Day. Many folks asked for us to do the show again as they'd missed it first time around midst turkey and trimmings.

As he is my counterpart on BBC Radio2 he doesn't get much chance to talk about his own life and work, especially what he does at the helm of his very popular weekly show. While he gets some flak about having an easy time with the resources of Auntie Beeb behind him he still only gets 58 minutes to represent the blues scene in the UK - that's not much time to touch a wide range of styles or delve back into the archives. We talked about his move from Thursday mid evening to Monday early slot and how it raised his profile and audience. By implication that can't be anything else but good news for the rest of us who love blues.

He's been a working musician for about fifty years and is one of a dwindling generation on hand in the 60s to be in support bands when promoters would only pay to ship over the headline acts (like John Lee Hooker etc). All of which gives him a nice fund of road stories to give colour to the personalities who did so much to establish a platform for our music here. Someone should pick up the task of documenting all this stuff while we still have the chance.

There's a strong faith that has kept him young at heart with a genuine enthusiasm for the next generation of players and an appetite for a full diary this year and onwards. His role as ambassador for blues in Britain is worn with some humility but is almost completely overlooked in the mainstream despite a recent clutch of awards. A real nice guy and a pleasure.

Next Sunday we resume the usual tomfoolery at 10pm (GMT) I hope you'll want to come along, white tee shirt and all - until then take care of yourselves and take care of those that take care of you

1 comment:

  1. Awesome Gary!..Godbless!...Thanks for the shout out!

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