Monday, April 02, 2012

OPINIONS VARY


found at ordinary finds

6 comments:

bulletholes said...

My good friend and High School pal Buddy Whittington was lead guitarist for John Mayall from about 1994 thru 2008. He replaced the great Coco Montoya. Buddy got to do a lot of things and meet a lot of people, including playing with Clapton on a few occasions including Mayalls fairly well documented 70th Birthday Bash.

As the story goes, during rehearsal for Mayalls birthday,on a particular song (I don’t know which) Clapton turned to Buddy and said something like “You take the lead on this one, you do it better than me, mate”.
Can you imagine?
Anyway for all it says about Buddy’s ability, maybe it says just as much about Clapton’s nature.

bulletholes said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Martijn said...

I liked the picture, but I like your story even better.

bulletholes said...

Too bad the story is not exactly true. the real story is this, straight from buddy as left in a comment at Ordinary inds...

"Well it didn't go 'quite' like that Steve ;^)
Closest I can come to anything of that nature was that when we were rehearsing for the 70th Birthday Concert at King's Dock Arena, Liverpool UK in 2003, we had a list of the tunes that John had recorded with EC early on, mostly from the 'Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton' record affectionately known by many (read: old guitar nerds like me) as 'The Beano' album. EC has said countless times in interviews that he was trying to show his disdain and indifference to the photo shoot that was going on by just disconnecting and reading a comic book during the photographic proceedings. The Beano is a UK comic book featuring Dennis the Menace (completely different kid than the kid we know by the same name here in the US)
ANYWAY........
We were running down Freddie King's 'Hideaway', just about to count it off when EC paused, looked at me and said 'How does this GO?' to which I replied, 'YOU'RE askin' ME?' (After which he performed it flawlessly.) He said he hadn't played the tune since he recorded it w/ Mayall, which was a little hard for me to believe given its provenance, and he just looks at it as an early record he did when he was young, just a rung on the ladder to where he currently resides, and doesn't consider it as important and necessary listening as a generation of guitar students and blues/rock fans. At any rate, I can only speak for myself, but it was a great night, everybody got a solo or two, even us plebes in the band! and Eric made it a point to be available to anyone that would like a word with him after the gig. Good work if you can get it! Here's a little info on 'Hideaway'... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...
And here's a link to us playing the tune on the night.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwGL5L...
-Bud

Martijn said...

I still like your story too, Steve. But Buddy's just as much. I feel like getting close to the actual action! All I've got is that same album of John Mayall with Eric Clapton! Yes I do. I am so 2nd handy... but I love rock legends as much as the next guy. Thanks for the full story.

bulletholes said...

Buddy comes to Amsterdam usully at least once a year. I'll try to give you a good heads up.