Bulls Head Bob Jun 2024. STEVE WINWOOD at 76. 12 String Madness.

 Hello Brummies and Fans of Brummie Beat groups of the 60's.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVE WINWOOD

Seventy six years ago the single greatest talent as a musician and vocalist ever to come out of Birmingham was born in Handsworth on May 12 1948.    By the early sixties the incredible Steve Winwood was making other musicians look and sound like rank amateurs.    He had it all, his soulful voice was adequately matched by his musicality as an incredible guitarist and organist and if that were not enough, he was the coolest of dudes which made the girls go weak at the knees.  

He could make any band sound good and luckily for the Spencer

Davis Group he was the guy making that group stand out as Brums finest R&B band and by 1965 he was at Number 1 in the charts with "Keep on Running", a song written by Jamaican artist Jackie Edwards, a song writer for Island records.     

Edward's version was pretty simple and poorly produced and benefitted by the bands bluesier arrangement with a fuzz soaked Stratocaster providing the opening riff, it was all excitement for the rest of the song.    The follow up release in 1966 was another Edward's penned song "Somebody Help me" which, once again, given the bands R&B treatment also shot up the charts to the Number 1 spot.  It was a great time to be a musician in Birmingham in those days.

Steve's success went ballistic from then on with Traffic and Blind Faith.  He was now rubbing shoulders with the elite musicians of the world and deservedly so. He impressed the mighty Eric Clapton and the two have played together ever since.

He has continued to impress this old git forever.  Who would have thought that someone who recorded his first record in 1964 would still be touring today, 60 years later.

Happy Birthday Steve!!    

12 String Madness

In the 60 's Framus guitars weren't all that good, they were semi acoustic guitars used by jazz guitarists, largely in Germany.  Although they could be seen hanging on walls of guitar shops they weren't sought after.  Their fame came more from bassists who used the now famous Framus "Star" electric bass used by the likes of Jet Harris and Brian Gregg, both eminent bassists of their day.    

In 1964 the Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman was offered a 3 year sponsorship from Framus to use their basses however by this time the better known companies of Fender and Gibson had their solid body guitars stealing the show and Framus declined so much that they went bankrupt in 1970.  

Among their range of guitars they built the "Hootenany 12 String" which happened to be purchased by John Lennon in 1964.   12 string guitars were a novelty item at the time.   He used the guitar to write " You've got to hide Your Love Away" for the Beatles film "Help" along with some others.    He also played it on the film itself.    It was used in the studio by Lennon and George Harrison until being gifted to Gordon Waller, one half of 60's duo, Peter and Gordon who, in turn, gave it to his road manager who stuck it in the loft of his house until recently when it was

retrieved and put up for sale at Juliens Auction house and reached the sum of 2.9 Million Dollars!!   

This is madness in a world gone mad.     

The guitar will probably sit in a safe for the rest of its days until some other person thinks it's worth five Million.   

I've got an old Eko 12 string which I'm putting up in the attic to gain in value just in case I get mega famous.

FINALLY

Its Flaming June folks so let's hope we have some nice weather for our upcoming holidays.    Thanks for reading the blog you guys and thanks for getting in touch.

Have a Hug, 

Bob

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Contact:   Bobsbullocks@Gmail.com