Georgie Fame’s flame slow burns

THIS was more like `An Evening With Georgie Fame` where he interspersed some of his hits and favourite tracks by charting the highlights and low lights of his phenomenal musical journey in the upper echelons of the blues and jazz scene, over the last 50 years.

At one point I closed my eyes and his voice sounded no different to the same very distinctive, mellow sound that I first heard in the 60s, when he used to play at the Flamingo Club in Soho, from midnight to 6am every Saturday night. At 68, he’s not yet found time to draw his pension, but will no doubt continue to catch royalties from his many hits, such as Yeh Yeh and Sitting in the Park, for years to come.

He played just three numbers from the lovely grand piano, but the rest of the night he was happily settled behind his old travelling Hammond organ which has always been so much part of his fabulous sound, and was still covered in all the stickers gathered at gigs over the years.

He talked of the pressure from the music scene movers and shakers and it was Larry Parnell who said he would only book him if Clive Powell, who he was, took on the name Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames, which he did, with such great success.

When forced to sack The Blue Flames, the drummer (and Georgie’s flatmate) Mitch Mitchell, was inconsolable - right up until they got a call from Chas Chandler of The Animals who needed some help working on the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Mitch ended up being involved right through to Woodstock an beyond.

The stories and the names just kept coming and nobody wanted to go when time was up. Georgie did an impromptu request from the audience but was rehearsing the day after with the Rolling Stone, Bill Wyman, where they were both starting a long tour two days later in Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings.

On Van Morrison’s recent album - Georgie had contributed to many of Van’s albums - he makes the comment “I won’t be seeing Mr Clive no more”. No, there won’t be time to collect his pension for a while yet, but if he had been on the X factor I wonder if they would have let him stay with Clive Powell?

Baden Smith

Verdict: I said Yeh Yeh!