AL "The Bluesman"
( AL Willard Peterson -
acoustic guitar, harmonica and vocals)
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The Bluesman &
Son
©
Artwork by Rob Jackson |
Eddie Croft Blows
Photo AL Peters
Eddie has played Liverpool Town Hall with the
Saturday Mornin Jazz Combo
for the delight of
Yoko Ono and solo at the
Miles Davis Art
Exhibition
More recently seen blowin with various members of
the jazz fraternity
throughout Merseyside.
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AL 'The Bluesman'
described as 'one of Merseyside's authentic survivors" occassionally
has his youngest son
Eddie
Croft guestin'
on Tenor Saxophone. "Their work
together covers numbers like Doxy, Blue Seven and Work Song.
A must for jazzy-blues lovers!
"The Bluesman's Art"
'Workin Class Hero'
(John Lennon)
'King Biscuit Boy' (Sonny Boy
Williamson)
'Blues Cry' (Billie Holiday)
'Lookin for Trouble' (Elvis
Presley) 'Brother Ray' (Ray Charles)
'All Blues' (Miles
Davis)
Signed A2 Fine Art prints of the above charcoals will be
available soon.
ALL WORKS ARE UNDER COPYRIGHT CONTROL
AL's
portraits are available as greetings cards for more information contact
groovin.records@virgin.net.
'TALKIN
of ART'
AL's eldest son Adrian saw the struggle to 'keep the wolf
from the door' (not Chester Arthur Burnett) by his father followin a
'passionate obsessional profession' playin the Blues. Therefore he
chose a career in Art as an animation script writer and has recently won
an award in Cannes for his work in collaboration with his workin
partner Dave for their contribution to the advertisin profession.
Adrian at home in London
He is currently workin on projects for the BBC and
CH4 as well as
collaborations with Armando Iannucci .
Check out his work at
www.mantlepies.com
AL Meets Leonard Cohen
 Leonard Cohen & Tony Wilson |
 AL& Leonard Cohen at the
Richard Goodall Gallery Manchester |
 Conversation with Dr Johnston |
The 'Forgotten' Years
29th & Dearborn
'The
Forgotten Years' The Cavern 17th November 2006
Tony Bolland and Alan
Lynch organised an event to showcase popular local Liverpool Rock Bands
that have remained relatively unknown since the 1970's. This event
showcased the launch of Tony Bolland's
book
'Plug Inn' that features many of the musicians playin that night and was
recorded for a future DVD release.
All the bands played to an
exceptionally high standard and included the followin
Colonel Bagshot, Rocking Horse,
Splinter, Joker, Last Train, Gaz Gaskell's Mambo, Pepperbox and Nutz.
29th & Dearborn
was represented by an acoustic electric band consistin of three
original members AL Peters - acoustic guitar and vocals, Kenny Roberts -
lead guitar and vocals and Richie Winn - drums
passionately
accompanied by Brian Preston - acoustic bass and Leigh Marles - lead and
slide guitar.
Richie who originally played
guitar
with 29th & Dearborn flew in from Germany to do the gig
without any prior rehearsal on an instrument that he later admitted he
'hadn't played for six years or more!'
On
the night
29th & Dearborn became 'Dearborn Blues' and played two original
numbers - 'Revolutionary Brother' and
'I Just Wanna Play (In a Democratic UK)
with a dedication to New Orleans and those devastated by Hurricane Katrina
in the shape of 'Down Home Girl'. The band was enthusiastically
received by the capacity audience most of whom would not be familiar with
the original material with it's overtly political messages.
It was good to meet up with so many
people after 30 years and to everyone's amazement people still recognise
each other after the ravages of 'sex, drugs and rock and roll' had taken
their toll.
'Plug Inn' Awards were handed out to
various members of the musical fraternity by the effervescent Tommy Mac
and the sharply dressed Tony Bolland. The
relief at the success of this event after all the hard work is clearly
seen in the photo below Dearborn of the man himself. The night proved so
successful that other similar events are goin to be held in the very near
future so 'Watch this space!' Although Dearborn did not achieve an
award they received so many favourable comments from such a varied age
group - 'It's great to hear those 'down home blues', 'excellent band',
'the revolution hasn't stopped' 'inspirational' and so on.
A special thanks must go to all
concerned especially the sound engineers Chris, Otto and Alan Lynch for
managin the continual change-overs with such professional ease.
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Dearborn Blues @ Cavern
Kenny Roberts, Brian Preston, Richie Winn,
AL Peters &
Leigh Marles
Thanks to Sol for takin the photos |
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Johnny Hodge tellin it like it is
(Joker) ex 'Almost' Blues
|
Tony Bolland proudly displays his
book
backstage @ The Cavern |
With a little help from Brian Farrell
(Colonel Bagshot) |
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Ozzie Yue accepts 'Plugg Inn' Award
on behalf of Supercharge |
Gaz Gazkell accepts Award for best
Saxophone player in the 1970's from Tony |
Keith Mulholland (Nutz) gets his Award
and priorities right. |
More Info re Tony Bolland & The
Forgotten Years
Willard & the Poor Boys
"Acoustic Mersey Delta Blues"
The 'Bohemian' Bluesman often strolls into many 'Open Mike Nights'
unannounced to spread the faith
in 'Keepin' Music Live' without the aid of backing
tracks.
Check out The Egg, Newington
St, and later that night
The Metro,
Victoria St,
Liverpool on
the first Monday of the month
or the Alun Parry Acoustic Singer/Songwriter
Sessions at Parr Street.
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AL Willard Peterson played his unique
style of 'Folk Blues'
Acoustic Legends
Night
(Still Giggin)
Friday 2nd
November 2007
The Kerryman
Digbeth High Street
Birmingham
Supporting
Nick Barrett
& Peter Gee from Pendragon
Cissy Stone & Tony McPhee
AL blew some harp with Tony Mc Phee and enjoyed
the performances of all at
The Kerryman especially Nick, Peter, Tony &
Cissy..
Very impressed with the hospitality of the
Fishwick family especially Mum & Dad
who kindly introduced me to the taste of
'Stafford Oatcakes'. |
A special thanks must go to Neil Fishwick of Still Giggin.
|
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AL
performing
'Liverpool
Blues' at
'Plug Inn 2'
CARLING ACADEMY LIVERPOOL
Friday 23rd November 2007
Photo by 'Viv' Wright
'I'm lookin forward to bein involved in the
ALL DAY PLUG INN 3 in 2008'
"One has to admire Tony for his relentless work in
makin sure that Liverpool of the 1970's
is not forgotten"
Check his book out 'The Forgotten Years' |
Receiving an award from Tony Bolland for services
rendered to the Liverpool Music Scene in the 1970's |
Blues On the Rock
|
Fort Perch Rock New Brighton |
BLUE C
Christine & Raphael |
AL was the special guest of
BLUE C
at this new Blues Venue
Fort Perch Rock
New Brighton Wallasey Merseyside
last Sunday 13th July 2008
This event hosted by Raphael Callaghan (vcl, slide gtr &
harmonica) & Christine Purnell (bass gtr)
of
BLUE C was well and
enthusiastically attended and
included a
Talkin' Blues
Session with AL in conversation with Raphael
There was a Rhythm & Blues Disco, CD's won and sold
along with
a display of blues memorabilia.
Due to the well deserved reception of the superb
performance of Raphael & Christine, and the enthusiasm of the proprietors
at this wonderful little venue I will be donatin a
collage of a prestigious gig held at the Plaza Theatre Birkenhead in 1962
that had Bo Diddley, Little Richard & the Everly
Brothers headlinin with the Rolling Stones at the bottom of the bill with
their new single 'Come On'.
Celebrate the first anniversary of 'Blues on the Rock'
at Fort Perch Rock on Sunday 12th July 2009 when
AL Willard Peterson will be the special guest of
BLUE C and promotin
his new CD Single 'Greenfish Cafe Blues'.
The Fort has a Cafe/Bottle Bar and is open
1pm - 4pm £4 Adm
AL supported Dean Friedman and Searchin at the Fort
on Saturday the 25th July 2009
An excellent night was had by all concerned.
for venue
and gig info contact 0151 709 5484 or
groovin.records@virgin.net
|
A4 Blues
on the Rock Poster
featurin
all the artists who have appeared
over the
past 18 months |
Promoters
Christine & Raphael amongst their Blues Memorabilia
IN
COMMEMORATION
Of the
Last Blues on the Rock Gig in this series
on the
13th December 2009 with Blue 'C'
an A4
glossy poster is available from
Groovin
Records PO Box 39
Hoylake
Wirral CH47 2HP
Please
make cheques of
£2.50 + £1 (p&p) payable to 'AL
Peters'
groovin.records@virgin.net
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ARTE TV at Fort Perch
Rock 9th February 2010
A
Franco/German TV Company arrived at Fort
Perch Rock
to film
AL as part of the 'British Blues Explosion' 1955 -1965
produced
by Phil Priestley (left) who has previously worked on productions
about the Stax label and James Brown.
This was
a 'thrillin an chillin' experience due to the
extremely
cold weather. Besides featurin personal memorabilia from that period
AL played 'Midnight Special'
and 'Key
to the Highway' to help illustrate the progression
from the
Blues to Mersey Beat.
A special
thanks must go to Bill Harry writer and editor of 'Mersey Beat' and
'Bigger than the Beatles' for the recommendation and Dougie Darroch
for the use of the Fort.
This
production is due out in May
|
AL (The Photographer)
Photo by Dan Young 29/05/10
Fort Perch
Rock Gigs Summer 2010
Just two of the many excellent gigs at Fort Perch Rock
promoted by Dougie and Sasha
|
Gary
Christian of The Christians ( My Ray Charles
shot)
Also did
the support along with Jack Roberts |
Susan
Hedges with Paul Young
Played harmonica with Susan on this gig |
AL
'The Bluesman' at The Raven Inn Llanarmon-yn-lal 21/08/10
|
AL
at the Raven photo by Comrade Lowe |
The Raven Inn, Llanarmon Yn Lal, Nr Mold, North Wales -
a great
little pub that the local community took over a year ago
to save
it from closing down.
You can find more details of what is
happening over the weekend at
www.raveninn.co.uk.
When
the
historic Raven Inn will celebrate a successful year in business on
Saturday August 28th. The Pub is a traditional
community-orientated and community run free house situated in the
heart of the picturesque North Wales village of Llanarmon-yn-Ial.
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The pub had been closed and on the
market for several months. Threatened with long term closure the
villagers approached the current landlord and proposed the community
reopen and
run the pub.
Llanarmon-yn-Ial is a very picturesque
welsh village situated in the Clwydian hills which is a designated
“area of outstanding beauty”. The village is one of few remaining
with a shop, post office,
school and pub.
The pub is now run as a community
venture, and has initially be staffed and run by keen volunteers from
the village. Volunteers from the community have worked tirelessly to
maintain its success.
The Raven is a limited company by
guarantee which means that all profits are put back into local
community projects.
So
why not come along and see us at the “Annual Celebration” August Bank
Holiday Week End and enjoy a true
village pub atmosphere.
