"The Story Of BO DIDDLEY...":

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David Blakey (Webmaster) and BO DIDDLEY's custom-built electric guitar, backstage at the 8th Annual Ritzville Blues Fest in Ritzville, WA on Saturday July 14th 2001. (Photo courtesy of Debby Hastings.)

My love of BO DIDDLEY and his music go back to around 1964 when, as a 12 year old fan of The Rolling Stones and living in England, I first began to hear the Stones, The Pretty Things, The Animals etc. praising the records of American performers such as BO DIDDLEY, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Little Walter and Howlin' Wolf. Intrigued in the first instance that men could possess such strange names (to my ears) as "Muddy Waters" and "The Howlin' Wolf", I also soon noticed that all of the above's records came out on the same labels: Chess/Checker Records in the States, and on Pye International in the UK. The release of "Hi-Heel Sneakers" by Tommy Tucker and "Rescue Me" by Fontella Bass the following year, cemented a love affair with the recorded history of the Chess/Checker/Argo/Cadet labels that exists to this day.

I finally got to see BO DIDDLEY perform live for the first time at a small club called Dingwall's on George Street, Kingston upon Hull, in the north of England. It was the evening of Saturday April 30th 1983. It was to be a poignant date for, although none of us packed into that club knew it at the time, it was the night that Muddy Waters died. BO DIDDLEY gave a performance that had me walking on air for literally weeks afterwards. I remember feeling so elated that I was alive and living on the planet at the same time as a man with such an awesome talent to entertain. Despite the boastful albums, song titles, and lyrics, he remains at large a very dignified and essentially a simple man, too easily overlooked in a world so caught up by the ephemeral. The abiding image I have of him is of Chuck Berry pulling him back onto the stage in the movie of the 1972 London Rock'n'Roll Festival, to reluctantly take the plaudits and the cheers of the huge Wembley Stadium crowd. Eventually, after much persuading from Chuck, he raises a very reluctant arm in salute. Look beyond the exaggerated boasts of so many of his song titles and you'll find a humorous, good-natured and unpretentious man, whom Dick Clark calls "...one of the nicest people in the business".

Chicago!