Roly Veitch recalls his early inspirations: Spencer Davies Group (with Steve Winwood) - Georgia on my mind (1967) - v...

Here’s how I became a jazz lover. I was born in 1946 so my teenage/young adult years were across the ‘swinging sixties’. I had liked The Shadows (learned some of their material on guitar) also Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly. But when the Stones emerged I was drawn to their earthy R&B based early album songs. This led me to the original artists they were influenced by, such as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley.

When I started my Newcastle office job I discovered a colleague could play good blues and boogie woogie piano (Honky Tonk Train Blues, etc.). I loved that. His name was Bobby Hogg.

Also I went to Club A’Gogo in Percy Street and was knocked out by Steve Winwood with Spencer Davis Group and also I liked Alex Harvey Soul Band.

My work pal then played me Oscar Peterson’s ‘Night Train’ album and that was the eureka moment. I bought some Peterson vinyl albums (at JG Windows of course) and started going to jazz gigs, the New Orleans Club for example. I had stopped playing guitar but wanted to learn jazz piano. I went to Newlands Furniture Store in Northumberland Street where they had rows and rows of old pianos in the basement. Most were rubbish but I found a decent one, a Squire and my grandmother was kind enough to let me keep it at her house. I set about trying to learn blues piano but made limited progress. Eventually when I heard guitarist George Barnes (with Ruby Braff) I loved his playing, went out and bought a cheap guitar (at Barratt’s on Newgate Street) and brought it home and started playing along with the Barnes/Braff albums.

I still think back to those Club A'Gogo days. Steve Winwood was amazing. For anyone not familiar I recommend listen to him playing Georgia on my Mind aged about 17 I think (see YouTube clip above). You could hear a pin drop when he sang that. Roly