The Mullett, The Wig and The Quiff

No one does Chuck Berry like Dave Edmunds and that includes ol' Chuckie boy himself. Here he shows the ol Ding a Linger how to do it with Carl perkins and Brian Setzer in tow.

Flip's Clips No.6 - Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry - Promised Land

Let`s leave the country archive for awhile. Next month ole uncle Chuckles is coming to south Wales for 2 gigs but I reckon ole Phillybuster here and the young `un` "little Jimmie" Mather won't be attending (nearly a £100 for the two shows) I`ve seen Chuck around a dozen times and he`s been brilliant four times ( 72 - 84), ok thrice and dire the other 5 times, usual suspects ie crap tuning, poor pick up band, thudding bass, short set with Dingblydiling taking up a quarter of it and I`ve already got tickets to another gig on the same night as the local show.

I felt the same last time Little Richard came here, stick to me records n videos ta very much, its rock n roll but not as we know and lurveeeeeeee it, I`d rather recall the decent show Mr CB did in the Docklands arena in London a few years back with ole JLL stonking thru a short opening set and Little Richard and his oh so boring "clap yer hands have ya read my religious tract, are there any posers sorry dancers who wanna come up, all the men say OOOH, here's a Fats/Bob Seeger/Larry Willaims toon in fatc anything not by me " set, a good humoured Chuck with a decent piano man saved the day.

Glad to here Chuck is finally going to play the Viva Las Vegas rab fest and that he'll be backed by a stellar band of 50s experts, always wanted him to tour here backed by dave Edmunds Rockpile and then to record and album guided by Dave, who like George Thorogood does Chuck`s songs properly.


I love Chuck`s music to pieces, recently bought the 2nd Hip O Select 4cd box You Never Can Tell the early 60s years which is fabulous esp the new live album on it, I have Fred Rothwell`s great Long Distance Info book on his music and even bought the 4dvd US version of Hail R N R, Taylor " mr Helen Mirren" Hackford the director and Keith Richards the musical direction deserve the Nobel peace prize for getting through it in one piece.

Between 1955 and 65- ish he cut the greatest self penned rocking r&b/rnr records of all time. One of my all time favs is the travelogue Promised Land apparently written during his 2nd incarceration (he had to get special permission to get a map in case he was planning a break out!!), now both Elvis and the great cajun rocker Johnnie Allen have done sterling versions but I love Chuck`s original, got it on UK Pye and US Chess.

This great clip is almost like a sequel to the great Jazz On A Summer's day movie in that Chuck appears on this b&w French tv show in the mid 60s backed by jazzer the George Shearing quintet ( I think!!), dig the beatnik on the double bass,looks like Mike Stoller in Jailhouse Rock, chuck looks and sounds great slim, greasy haired, that marvellous sly smile and cheeky eye movements and moving n groovin for all he's worth, even the mike collapse is covered by a cool duckwalk, check the side bar for the other gems from this show. there's a very abrupt ending - hinted at by Chuck`s usual foot stomp to finish it being almost cut off, remember him this way, the Stones,Beach Boys etc etc should all bow down and say a prayer for this marvellous singer songwriter giving us a golden decade indeed.

Flip remembers Mickey Gee

In memory of Wales` greatest guitarist - Mickey Gee

Earlier this year I sadly attended the funeral of the Welsh guiatr great Mickey Gee in Cardiff, many musicians were there including Shaking Stevens, Geraint Watkins, Andy Fairweather Low, John David, Terry Williams,John Lewis and Ian Calford, Mickey had provided immaculate Fender bending to all these guys, he`d played with Ian`s dad the late Cal Ford and the Brakemen.

He was a valued part of Edmunds Rockpile and played on the great Carl Perkins Rockabilly Session tv show. He also played with Tom Jones, Lulu, Joe Cocker,Bill Wyman as part of Willie and the Poor Boys and the great 70s rockabilly band Memphis Bend recording a brillaint album on UA that sadly has not been issued on cd and was an important part of the Shaky sound during the 80s chart hits years. When ill health hit him in the 90s he turned down many lucrative jobs/tours preferring to turn up in the local pubs and clubs of Cardiff and sitting in.

A few years back much to my surprise BBC Wales tv acknowledged that music started before Tom Jones by putting this prog out reunting Edmunds, Geraint, Mickey, Andy, etc and one of the many highlights was Mickey`s version of the great Chuck Berry blues rocker Betty Jean (given the wrong title on youtube BTW).

There's an old b& w clip of the pre fame Tom Jones in rocker mode doing What`d I Say and Chills n Fever on tv, look carefully at the young guitarist with hair it`s Mr Gee!

My fav memory of Mickey is of him blowing up his amp doing a Burnette rab classic as his set opener, much of a delay ensued as a roadie went off in his van to find another amp, eventually he set up the new one, Mickey played the Burnette intro and the new amp blew up!

I also love the story about Chet Atkins dressing room where Chet was holding court to all these modern guitar gods when Mickey shyly entered the door, most of the stars looked at this shy bald bloke and wondered who the gatecrasher was. Chet spotted him and called him over to sit next to him and got them both guiatrs whilst they ripped thru the Reed/Atkins classic The Claw, much jaw dropping ensued in the room, I bet they're still jamming up there.

Sadly missed, a wonderful part of my collection is devoted to Mickey.

Flip`s clips No.2 - Dave Dudley

If Chuck Berry had lusted over a big semi instead of Caddies then he coulda written and recorded this, the greatest trucking song of all time. Ladies 'n gentlemens I give you Mr Dave Dudley doing 6 Days On The Road on his debut Opry appearance in 1966 in absolutely magnificent retro-colour.

Dig the guitar, the Presley-Cash-ish slurring on the end of lines. Didn't the censors spot the Little White pills line, all this fuss bout Jagger/Morrison breaking the rules on Sullivan (hell Bo n Elvis did that in 55-57). This is the bible belt temple of American values here in Nashville and he gits away with that line, white line fever in deed.

There's only one decent Dudley CD and I think that is now deleted. So why have BF ignored the consistently great albums he did for Mercury in the 60s/70s, go figure ( I mean they`ve even done Pat Boone and that`s without a rope n feathers ----;-))).