Ray-chaud

That's the title of what my friend Ray calls his 'one man show'. That Friday in the village bar in Octon, half an hour to the north of here, there were three of them including keyboards and guitar, but who's quibbling when he served up two hours of infectious swing which got the whole bar dancing.

I seem to have become Ray's roadie for local gigs - and since I got free beer all night and a pizza at a gig I'd have gone to anyway I'm happy with that.

You can hear Ray talking about the early days of Eel Pie Island, crucible of British jazz, and then the sixties beat boom, here.