Free The Man Who Lived by Night by David Handler Page B

dead set against talking to me.
    Scarr: So leave him be.
    Hoag: Can’t. He’s too valuable a source.
    Scarr: I see. I’ll have a word with him then.
    Hoag: Thank you. I’m interested in what the music scene was like here in ’62, when the Rough Boys were first getting gigs.
    Scarr: Uh-huh. There was a small R and B thing happening in and around London. Like a cult thing, really. (pause) Did you fuck her? It’s okay, mate. I mean it.
    Hoag: It didn’t come up.
    Scarr: (silence, then laughs) There’s a good one. Bloody good.
    Hoag: Now can we … ?
    Scarr: Right. We talked about how Lonnie Donegan, of skiffle fame, had played in Chris Barber’s jazz band back in the fifties. So had Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies, until they split to form Blues Incorporated, which I reckon you could call Britain’s very first blues band. Charlie Watts of the Stones-to-be was on drums. Jack Bruce of Cream-to-be played bass. Blues Incorporated tried playing the trad jazz clubs around London, only the serious jazz fans—the bleedin’ intellects—thought they were too scruff. So they started up their own club in a basement under a teashop in Ealing—the Ealing Club. Those of us who were into R and B took to hanging out there when we weren’t playing a gig. Me and Rory, Michael Jagger, Keith, Brian, John Mayall, Long John Baldry … We were all mates then, before there was competition and egos and the like. We’d rap about music and gigs, and anybody could have a blow up on stage. Got up there m’self one night, roaring drunk I was, and sang “Ooh-ee Baby,” the Albert King song, with Blues Incorporated. Cyril backed me up on harp. Played it like a monster. Right then I decided to learn harp m’self. (yawns) All of which meant the Rough Boys started sounding bluesier. We added “Please, Please, Please,” a James Brown song, and “Spoonful,” the Howlin’ Wolf song, which Cream did years later. After Blues Incorporated split up, Cyril formed a new band, the All Stars, and they got a gig at the Island. That’s Eel Pie Island, which was an old twenties dance hall out on this island in the middle of the Thames at Twickenham. Cyril put in the word for us and got us a gig there as well. There was a small blues circuit then—the Railway Hotel in Harrow, St. Mary’s Parish Hall in Richmond, Studio Fifty-One in London. We played all of ’em. Met people. Talked ourselves up. Only, we kept playin’ the weddings and church dances as well, which was a mistake. Couldn’t get known for anything that way. I thought we should be a blues band. The Beatles were already rockin’, y’know? Rory and the others, they still liked playing “Blue Suede Shoes.” While we were busy arguing over it, Decca went and signed up the Stones to a recording contract. Pissed me off. (yawns) They were playin’ at Crawdaddy then. Turnin’ it into a big R and B club. We followed ’em in there after they signed with Decca. We were always followin’ ’em. Played the Marquee after ’em as well. Only now—now the knock against us was we was too much like the bleedin’ Stones. We sounded different, but the people makin’ decisions, the record people, they went by categories. Rory fought the categories. He believed in the power of the music. (yawns) I…
    Hoag: You didn’t?
    Scarr: Hmm?… Sorry … I was more a realist, I reckon.
    Hoag: Realist?
    Scarr: To me all we lacked was a proper gimmick. Or management. It’s all a hustle, isn’t it? You’ve got to get noticed, is all … I think I’ve had it for tonight, mate.
    Hoag: You do look somewhat beat. I meant to tell you, Tristam—somebody was following me in London last night.
    Scarr: Know that feeling. So well. Seems real, doesn’t it? It’s the acid … So real …
    Hoag: This was real.
    Scarr: Mmm-mmmmm …
    Hoag: Any idea why someone would be following me? (silence) Tristam? (silence) Hello?
    (end tape)
    (Tape #1 with Jack Horner recorded in his office Nov. 25. There is a cluttered desk,