21st January Already playing the encore

It is with a heavy heart we learn of the passing of Garth Hudson. Garth was the last living member of The Band. He was 85 years old. #garthhudson #theband #restinpeace        Thin Lizzy Guitarist John Sykes ... 

A double blow today for the world of music with the passing of two greats from very different musical genres. 

Multi instrumentalist Garth Hudson, last surviving member of The Band, died today at the age of 87. Following on from the earlier deaths of other band members Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, Levon Helm and Robbie Robertson, the death today of Hudson reunited one of the greatest folk-rock bands of the late 60's early 70's for what I am sure would be a heavenly jam sessio.

And then in a double whammy it was announced that guitar hero John Sykes has also died after losing his battle with cancer at the age of 65. Always one of my favourite guitarists, Sykes came to promicence when he joined Thin Lizzy on what was to be their final Thunder and Lightening tour, which I was lucky enough to see in Manchster many many moons ago. 

His stunning solo during the live version of 'Still in love with you', which is playing in the background as I upload this blog,  is right up there  with the very, very best uses of the guitar. Then after the demise of Lizzy, Sykes was recruited by David Coverdale into Whitesnake, a move that saw said band catapulted to superstardom especially in the USA, in no small way as a result of Sykes ferocious and yet at the same time beautifully toned guitar work.

Both very different, both from different genres, both very talented. Both will be greatly missed.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

6th May Olbia

Image
  A chance to stretch our legs today with our first port of call; Olbia, Sardinia. And it was a quick stretch too due to it being only a five hour stay. Up bright and early, so early in fact that the hot food at the buffet wasn't even ready to be served. Still it gave us a chance to watch the ship glide into port past a host of oyster/mussel beds, before performing a 180 degree turn to reverse into it's berth. A couple of short bus rides later and we were in downtown Olbia. But there an hour or so before anything appeared to open, the disadvantage of being early birds and something we don't seem to learn! Not that Olbia had a great deal to see or maybe if we had done the slightest bit of planning beforehand there might have benn but we didn't. It was pleasant enough but that's about it. It was pleasant enough but nothing special, indeed we were back on the ship after just a couple of hours ashore and then managed to sleep away most of th...
Read more

7th May Naples

Image
 I'm sure I've heard the phrase 'see Naples and die' suggesting that it is perhaps not the nicest location in the Mediterranean but if it's good enough for Diego Maradona fir a few years then it's good enough for me for 10 hours. Although the millions of tax free pounds he was paid might have eased his stay. By the time we got up, washed, dressed and up to The Kitchens, the rest of the ship were already there. Compared to the Marie Celeste of yesterday it was absolutely packed, presumably with people having breakfast before heading out on 8am excursions, our excursion was simply going to be the city of Naples itself as possible trips to Vesuvius, Pompei or the Amalfi coast would have been too much / tired.  So on a day when the weather initially seemed uncertain, we jumped aboard route A for the Hop on Hop off bus and headed out into the mayhem that is the Napoli traffic where it was every van, car and scooter for the selves. I think it's bes...
Read more