Peter
MEASROCH
Electric Desert Music
Left SA at 21 for the UK in the early 70's. Surrounded by rock icons in the wilds of the English countryside was soon hooked up with singer Leo Sayer for a Speakeasy debut and US expats Daddy Longlegs (below) for touring and recording.
LtoR in photo: Thom Mitz -bass, Cliff Carrison - drums, Norton Holderman - guitar and yrs truly, hat....
England
Left South Africa for Europe & UK in early 70's and found myself in the English countryside rubbing elbows with rock icons at the local pubs and jam sessions.
They were wild times and I was soon hooked up with the Daddy Longlegs,
a Chicago based band with whom I toured and recorded the Shifting Sands album, writing and singing the title song of the album.
L to R in photo: Thom Mitz -bass, Cliff Carrison - drums,
Norton Holderman - guitar and yrs truly, hat....
The album cover painting was the work of Thomas Mitz, the bass player, whose luminous work can be seen elsewhere on this site. He lives and works in the USA these days, here is a link to his site.
Rock "star" on a budget - 1973 - looks like Hohner didn't want to splurge on colour ads in Melody Maker either ... (or spellcheck) !
Moving on, I joined a street-theatre company called The Friends Roadshow, based between London, Amsterdam and Ann Arbor, Michigan, whose solid musical core included Abstract Truth saxophonist Sean Bergin and after touring Europe and North Africa, we headed Stateside.
The further adventures...
After a brief period with the Roadshow in Ann Arbor, Michigan I left to
join bassist Thom Mitz in Chicago where he was working with the Chicago Slim Blues Band.
Appearances with these local legends, and a short college tour with the late bluesman Luther Allison were stand-out experiences...
Many Chicago bluesmen had their "monikers" - in Slim's Band alone there were "Bumblebee Bob" Novack and "Cadillac" Sam, so it was not long before I started to be referred to by the locals as "Bushman Piano-Finger". Hmm.......