In December 1983 my husband Jerry and I visited the UK for a few weeks. One afternoon, while we were shopping in London, we saw posters for B.B. King at Royal Albert Hall, so we thought, "Let's go!" We were staying at Brown’s Hotel, and when we checked in they told us they had tickets for West End shows and concerts. Later that day, when we returned to Brown’s, we spoke to the Concierge, who had second row seats.
The day of the show, we had lunch in a Hammersmith pub, and visited a few more pubs and (thanks to the bartender at Brown's) smoked joints before the show. As always, B.B. put on one hell of a show! His banter between songs was worth the price of admission alone.
When B.B. came out for his encore, Jerry elbowed me and said, "Look at B.B.’s vest (waistcoat to non-Americans), it looks like half a gram fell out of his nose!" and indeed it did. At every B.B. King show I’ve seen, when he came out for his encore, he gave out enameled lapel pins in the shape of his guitar Lucille, and I was determined to get one. I was sitting in an aisle seat, so when B.B. came out for his encore, I rushed to the stage. When he looked at me, I said with my New York accent "HowAhYa, B.B.?!" he bent towards me from the stage and said, "Where ya from, honey?" I said, "Brooklyn!", he smiled and said, "I can dig that" and gave me a pin, and I told him, "There’s blow all over your vest!" he looked down, and said, "Oh shit!" brushed it off his vest, laughed, gave me a wink, and continued giving out his pins. After he gave out his pins, he walked back over to me and said, "Thanks again, sweetie!", then reached into his pocket and gave and gave me a tortoiseshell colored guitar pick that had D’Andrea, .71mm and M printed on it. All in all, a very cool evening.
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| Brown’s drawing room |
One of the things on our agenda in London, was to have Sunday afternoon tea at Brown's, so the next day, we’re sitting in Brown’s drawing room, and some people came in, and were seated next to us. When I looked up, it was B.B. King, with his musical director Calvin Owens, and two other people. B.B. smiled at us, and noticed I was wearing the Lucille pin, and said, "I remember you, you’re from Brooklyn!" then in a hushed voice told his table, "She’s the one who tipped me off about the snow-white on my threads." They looked at us and smiled. B.B. introduced us to Calvin Owens, LaVerne his P.A. and Tony his road manager. We had a nice little chat and some laughs for around fifteen minutes, when B.B. said, "If you’ll excuse us now, we have some business to discuss." A few minutes later a bottle of Champagne (a ’60 Bollinger) was brought to our table, and we were told by the waitress, "The gentleman next to you sent this.", and then asked, "Who is he?" I told her "It’s B.B. King", then she asked, "What does he do, then?" Jerry told her, "He’s one of the most famous guitarists in the world!" to which she replied, "If you say so, Sir", shrugged her shoulders and walked away. Jerry and I started singing a low-volume version of Muddy Water’s "Champagne & Reefer", which caused B.B. to burst out laughing and say, "I wish ol' Mud was here, to hear this!"
Today's freeload is three of B.B.'s live albums.
'Live at the Regal' was recorded on November 21, 1964, at the Regal Theater in Chicago, and released in 1965. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest blues albums ever recorded.
'Blues is King' was recorded on November 6, 1966, in Chicago's Burning Spear Club, not at the International Club, as many people and reissues mistakenly believe. It was released in 1967. B.B.'s guitar tone on this one is sweet!
'Live in Cook County Jail' was recorded on September 10, 1970, and released in 1971. This is a smoking hot performance.
All three albums are limited edition, Japanese SHM-CDs from 2012, and are 24bit remasters, from the original analog master tapes.
For the freeload, tell us about a concert you saw that blew you away.