On Wednesday, 19th November, I took Big Joe Louis to Mike Russell's Mouse In The House studio for a photo session, then back to Blues In Britain for the interview. Joe has had an interesting life and lots to say. It should make a good article.

Then we went on to the 100 Club to see Charlie Musselwhite and Dave Peabody. It was a well attended evening. Peter Golding introduced me to Chris Jagger, whom I had not met before; Chris's band is called Atcha! Dave and Charlie each did a set and then they did a third set together. Dave wondered if I was reviewing it but one of our reviewers has turned in a piece before I could get down to it.

Thursday: Mike Russell sent me a link to some of the photos he had taken of Joe. They were excellent but I asked for something looking straight to camera for the front cover. Mike emailed over some more and we settled on the ones I would use.

Friday, 21st November: I went to Brooks Blues Bar, at The Telegraph on Putney Heath, to see Paul Oscher. He sings, plays harmonica, guitar and piano, and tells witty stories. His performance was outstanding. I really like his voice. I will be reviewing the gig for the Blues In Britain. Unusually, all the tables had been taken out of the upstairs room to accommodate the larger than usual audience. I was surrounded by harmonica players, including Lawrie Garman (ex-Yardbirds), Pete G (of the Magnitones) and Peter Golding. I also spotted Colin Wills the promoter of the Banbury Blues Festival. Dave Peabody, who had just finished the tour with Charlie Musselwhite, was taking photos. Dave will be playing at Brooks with harmonica player Brendan Power on Friday 28th November.

Sadly, I didn't get to see Son Maxwell, at The Tabard in Chiswick, on Sunday. The weather was foul and I couldn't persuade anyone else to go.

Monday 24th: Chicago Red rang to say that he did not have time to come for lunch and had gone straight to Westcliff-on-Sea. He told me that he had met a man who had taken him, by car, to Tipperaray, why, he did not say. I hope to catch him before his tour end.

Guitarist, singer and songwriter Guy Tortora called to pick my brains; sadly my brains were of no use. We discussed the session he had done for the Paul Jones show two weeks ago; it was very good. He said that Paul Jones has recruited his band to do a charity event at Cranleigh Arts Centre on 22nd & 23rd December. This is billed as Paul Jones & Friends but Guy says he doesn't know who else is on the bill. Paul Jones has some prestigious friends. I notice that the Monday night is sold out.

On Monday evening, Dave 'Munch' Moore came into Blues In Britain to help master the next Blues In Britain CD. The tracks for this one have been selected by Mike Hellier of Movin' Music from the works of the artists the agency represents. We hope to have the CD finished to send out with the January issue, but it is possible we won't be able to do that in time.

Tuesday 25th: I had a call from a subscriber, Chris, who had read the news item in the magazine about the price rise starting in January. We had said that anyone wishing to extend their subscription could do so at the old rate up to 20th December. He is going to do that.

Wednesday 26th: Work continues on the January issue of Blues In Britain. Several reviews and photographs came in by email plus an article about the Bronte Blues Club for our Blues Venues series.  Magazine Printing Company, which does the printing and mailing to our subscribers, dropped off the remaining copies of issue 84. 

Dave returned with the master. I will have to do the artwork now. 

When Dave had gone, I took the shop copies up to Parcelforce. I find it more reliable to go there myself than to rely on their driver to pick them up; sometime I get forgotten. I also send voucher copies to Don Cleary who sells our advertising space. This evening, I had a call from Byron Banks, another harmonica player. It seems to be my week for harmonica players.

Since my last post we have gone to press for December. This was easy enough apart from not having a suitable photograph for the front cover. The main article is about John Steel, the drummer of The Animals. I searched on the internet and contacted his management company; Peter sent me a striking image which looks good.

Since my last post, I have done interviews with all the women guitarists  on Ruf Records Blues Caravan tour, on Sunday 9th November at The Stables in Wavendon. They are Deborah Coleman, Sue Foley, Dani Wilde, Joanne Shaw Taylor and Laura. They are travelling with a UK rhythm section. At the gig at The Stables in Wavendon, they had Dani's brother Will 'Harmonica' Wilde and his band opening up for them. I did an interview with him too; he is very good but, being young, has not done much yet. 

The Stables is a lovely venue created by John Dankworth and Cleo Laine. Michael, the house manager, showed me round the facilities in the interval. They are excellent and all the staff are helpful and friendly. It was a long journey on a wet day but well worth the effort.

On Tuesday 11th, I did a phone interview with Mick Fleetwood. He still tours with Fleetwood Mac and has a band called Island Rumours Band, which is based where he lives in Hawaii. He has a new album out called Blue Again, with The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band featuring, Rick Vito.

On Thursday night, I drove the copy to Magazine Printing Company, so I could be free on Friday. I went to see Sheila Riley. Sheila's husband Jim Riley died shortly before this year's Beer Festival. Sheila and Jim have been the organisers of this successful event for some years. She said that it all ran well, as she and Jim had set it up to run itself, with participating pubs handling their own events. A highlight was a fly past by a Spitfire, which dropped Jim's ashes into the sea. The festival goers obviously enjoyed this as they donated half the cost in a whip round. Sheila says that there will be another Beer Festival, in October next year, and several friends and musicians will be aiding and abetting her.

It was good to get out after being stuck in the office for the past ten days.  Over the weekend we entertained some friends to dinner on Saturday night and on Sunday, I went to the Westfield Shopping Centre at Shepherd's Bush. It was a bit of a scrum and not as delightful as the one at Bondi Beach in Sydney. I bought a calendar and a diary for next year and a notebook, nothing exciting.

This week, the ordinary tasks of answering emails, processing cheques for subscriptions, paying bills and so on occupy my time. I have managed to pin down Big Joe Louis to do an interview on Wednesday at 6pm and photographer Mike Russell to take photographs. Big Joe Louis is a striking looking person as well as being a great blues singer and player with a fountain of knowledge on the blues. I want to feature him in the January issue and have him on the front cover; this is long over due!

On Wednesday evening, Charlie Musselwhite and Dave Peabody are playing at the 100 Club in London's Oxford Street. I will be going on to that. On Friday, Paul Oscher is playing solo at Brooks Blue Bar, so I will go to that too and I might go to see Son Maxwell at The Tabard in Bath Road, Chiswick, near Turnham Green Station. He is also the front man for Storm Warning and very good at his job. On Monday 24th, I am meeting Chicago Red for lunch; he will be in transit from Bristol to Westcliff-on-Sea. Life is just one thing after another.

Thursday wasn't my one of my better days as I was still suffering from sleep deprivation and a cold. I worked on copy and photographs for Blues In Britain issue 84, for December. I tried, several times, to call the publicist for the Blues Caravan tour as I am supposed to interviewing Deborah Coleman and Sue Foley, at The Stables, Wavendon, on Sunday. He was engaged. I also tried to contact Big Joe Louis, about an article we want to do on him, to no avail.
Dave Peabody, acoustic musician and photographer, called. He was able to identify the bass player in John Mooney's band when they played at Festival New Orleans. Dave had sent me some great pictures of Dr John, earlier. Dave will be on tour with harmonica player, singer and guitarist Charle Musselwhite from next week.
The highlight of the day was seeing The Reverend Al Green at Hammersmith Apollo, with our reviews editor Jon Taylor, his lady Andrie and my American friend Kate. He was on good form. The band was great. The crowd was enthusiastic, the people just behind us too much so; the girls had smuggled in bottles of beer and were very chatty. I thought about hitting them with a rolled up copy of Blues In Britain but thought better of it.
I had to process emails after I got home. Lots of gigs were coming in for the Gig Guide in the December issue and several live reviews and more photographs.
I sent an email to the Blues Caravan publicist but in my weariness got the date wrong.
On Friday morning, I found he had replied in the night asking me to call him, so I did at 8 a.m. He gave me the name and number of the tour manager so I can fix a time for the interviews and said he would arrange two tickets for the show on Sunday as well.
I had to pick up my son James, who flew in from North Carolina, where he was working on the Obama campaign. One of his jobs was to check the legitimacy of the Republican lawyers who were challenging people' elligibilty to vote. Under North Carolina election regulations, anyone doing this has to be a resident of the area where they challenge the voter. As James had checked the local directories and found that none of the people did have the residential qualification, the Democrat lawyers appealed to a judge who told them they couldn't do what they had set out to do, prevent people, mostly black, from voting. This so messed up the Republicans that they abandoned their attempt so stop people voting. The Democrats policy is not challenge voters' elligibility. The North Carolina election was a very close call for Obama so this made a difference.
I spent most of Friday at the Barbican Hall, where my cousin's oldest daughter was receiving her MA in animation from the University of Westminster. Barack Obama was mentioned by the vice-chancellor and got a big cheer; Lewis Hamilton's name got a bigger cheer. I had lunch with Mwara, her sister and brother and my aunt. Neither of their parents could be there as they live in Nairobi.
Getting home, I had to field a few more email before supper. One was a message from Kevin Hillier of Ain't Nothing But, the blues bar in Kingly Street London W1. Kingly Street is a one way street, but, as of Monday 10th November, the traffic flow will be reversed and access will be from Great Marlborough Street at the north end.
I had phone messages from Sam Kelly, blues drummer, and Tom Doughty who has a new album coming out. I managed to call Sam Kelly back. He will be working with new people next year. I also got a call from Dave 'Munch' Moore who, I hope, will master the next CD we will be putting out with the magazine.

Blues In Britain

Today is the day we have to start putting together issue 84 of Blues In Britain magazine, for December 2008. Some articles have arrived already and some have to be written.
Yesterday, having stayed up all night to watch coverage of the US elections, I wasn't functioning well. Jon Taylor, our reviews editor, was in, gathering together reviews that have come in by email and correcting text. He was also tearing open jiffy bags with CDs sent in for review and mailing out copies of the magazine to record companies and PR people whose artists have been reviewed.
I was fielding phone calls from PR people representing musicians, Don Cleary our advertising salesman, several musicians and people who think I have nothing to do but chat.
I did learn from Don that Jon Cleary will be on the Lengendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise in January, which I am going on too. It will be my first time; a week on a ship in the Caribbean with Taj Mahal, et alia, I am looking forwardto it!
I also contributed to and wrote a reviews of recent events: Festival New Orleans, at what I still call the Dome in Greenwich, Storm Warning at The Bull's Head in Barnes. I was looking for photographs and trying to identify some of the musicians in them.
Today will be more of the same. I have to write about Ian Siegal and T-99 at Dingwall's. I might have Jazz FM (www.jazzfm.com) on or listen to Monday's Paul Jones show again, on my computer.
Tonight, I am going to see the Reverend Al Green at Hammersmith Apollo. I have never seen him live and I may never get the chance again. I was not granted an interview and I gather that people who did try didn't publish. I would have got something and I would have given him a front cover. Seasick Steve wouldn't grant us an interview. He is reported to have said that blues magazines 'ghettoize the music' and that 'journalists lie'. I always report what people tell me, unless they ask me not to print it, even when I know they are lying to me. Blues In Britain is about the artists and the music, not my ego.