Richard Hawley

I have these two and love them. Really uplifting.

get the others and be raised to the ceiling higher

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now,then!

I fancy the sound of that!

don't panic............................its organic

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now,then!

I've just been listening to 'ROSE OF LOVE'.......................Its the first time I have ever heard it ...................... so really beautiful .......................quite emotional .................................I read that it possibly was the last song Gene ever recorded.........

Again the guitar really stands out.............Cliff Gallup?

Right up to his last recordings on John Peel's show......what a voice. One of the most dramatic things I've ever seen was the "Rock and Roll Singer" documentary shot a little while before Gene bit it in his Mum's trailer. Ole Gene hobblin' around London.....

What a life....short...semi-sweet and painful.

My fave Gene story is the one about his Japan tour. He faked a telegram saying that one of his kids was seriously ill. He split for the USA and left Johnny Meeks to carry on pretending he was Gene for the last couple of dates. Is this a true tale or legend? I think I read that in the Brett Haggerty book.

Thanks for that story Tommy......................and I think you got it right with your description of Gene's life.................

No, that was recorded years after Cliff left.

Here's the track personel:

Gene Vincent - Vocals
Ray Campi - Acoustic Guitar & Acoustic Bass
Rip Masters - Piano
Jay Phillips - Rhythm Guitar
Poppa Jim Durbin - Drums

If you can get Britt Hagarty's The Day the World Turned Blue it's well worth the read. Really passionate and right about the quality of the later recordings.....some of it's through rose tinted specs but, well he's a fan writing so who can blame him?

Rock n Roll Singer is without doubt one of the greatest and saddest programmes ever made. Gene is in a terible state and is really struggling to move, to keep this side of sober, to get paid......he's exasperated and low but them he gets on stage, he gets inside the music (even the rehearsals with the Wild cats (?) are intense and ruled by him) and gives every drop of energy he has.

When I got a VHS/DVD copier the first programme I copied to DVD was Rock n Roll Singer.

He's the person out of everybody I'd most like to see live, more than Elvis, more than The Beatles, more than Muddy and even more than Luke Kelly.

Yeah Exapno. Well said.

I wrote Brett, didn't I. Britt Britt Britt..... Very good book indeed.

sorry Tommy, didn't read your post properly.........was hung up on the tv programme and doesn't take anything to set me off on that. Wasn't correcting you .....thought the librarian in me....

and aye, the Japanese tour story is in that book. Sure the whole tour was just about unknown so I guess the story comes from Johnny Meeks...who could argue, doubt Gene even remembered it

No worries Exapno!

Regarding "The Rock and Roll Singer".....those clips of Gene having his hair pasted before the TV appearance are equally heartbreaking and funny. Poor guy. It's amazing how far he fell in physical appearance between 63 and 69. The cornoner said that his insides were that of a 60+ year old man when he died. He was only 36!! He refused to have the bad leg amputated and it tortured him until his death. I read a description of that gimp leg at the time of his death, but will spare you all the horrid details. So much like Hank Williams Sr. Not the writer obviously, but there are similarities. Ya know?

There's something about that doomed self destruction being almost like the only way they could deal with the demons inside and they were both punished for their art too and not appreciated when they clearly needed people to rally around them. Mercurial performers who just had what other people spend years trying to manufacture and still can't get close to

I know it's been already answered, but Cliff was only with Gene & The Bluecaps for about 4 months max - he left after the 1st album 'BlueJean Bop' and the subsequent tour (about July '56). The producer, Ken Nelson requested that Cliff came back as a session guitarist to do Gene's second album in October 1956, to which he agreed. He was asked to appear in the film 'The Girl Can't Help It' with the Bluecaps around the same time, but had a studio session booked back in Virginia. The guitarist that replaced him for a short period of time and appears in the film and on the cover of Gene's 2nd LP was Russell Wilaford - a blond haired Fender Telecaster/Esquire player who never recorded with Gene. Johnny Meeks followed in early '57 and was on the next 3 LP's.


This October it's 20 years since Cliff Gallup died from a heart attack - i'm pretty sure he was only 57. A very sad loss.

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Twang is, as Twang does.

http://www.myspace.com/stevebillybuckley

http://www.myspace.com/thewagontrain

and of course Gene

oh my heart aches and smiles at the same time when i hear the music
sweet gene Vincent?.........................fuckin bang on

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now,then!