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An old musician friend of mine, George Junor had encountered Steve Marriott sometime in the 80s and I am now happy to share his memory. Now, it's a small world isn't it? The band we were in together was called 'Tush' and we played gigs in and around London in the mid-70s. I remember the manager and bass player had gone to Orange Music (near Denmark St W1) to buy some extra gear for the band. It turns out that some of the gear we bought was ex-Humble Pie, I didn't know that at the time and surprised to find out after all these years. The Les Paul Custom that George mentions was actually owned bu our manager and eventually ended up in the hands of Phil Collen, the Def Leppard guitarist who
played in Tush at one time. For the record, George played a lot of gigs in Scotland in various bands, two of which were 'The Kicks' and 'The Cut'.
Anyway this is what George put in his email to me:
"Information on that gig - it was at the Bishopmill Hotel in Elgin,
Morayshire, Scotland in the late eighties. (coincidentally the
Beatles had played Elgin way way back too, at the Two Red Shoes
ballroom - the towns other claim to fame). This is a provincial town,
pop approx 12,000 about 40 miles east of Inverness.
We didn't actually play support that night. We had played the gig a
number of times and it was after a gig there we saw posters for the
Steve Marriott gig, which we couldn't believe at first. However when
they confirmed it was THE Steve Marriott we grabbed tickets and
arranged to come back through for the gig.
It was the classic 3 piece line up (which became Packet of Three)and
the gig was great. Steve was a ball of energy on stage in t-shirt and
dungarees. He played a blonde Gibson 335 and blew us away. I hadn't
really appreciated his guitar playing as much during SF and HP days
but he was certainly a fabulous blues rock guitarist. When you added
the voice of course........
I did meet him afterward and he remembered Humble Pie offloading tour
gear into Orange Music in London (Tush got some of it I recall -
Mickey bought Orange bass reflex bins and an Acoustic 200 watt amp
and we got horns and JBL bins for the PA). Steve also remembered the
black 3 PU Les Paul Custom that I bought from the store and confirmed
it as one he had used on that tour (wish I had it now). He was a
really nice genuine guy and signed photos and albums for loads of
folk in his hotel room. It was funny seeing folk really star-struck
at meeting him while he was totally ordinary and accepted their
adulation really nicely (including some RAF guys stationed nearby who
had the whole Mod thing going still, with the sharp clothes and
hairstyles. They had original copies of early Small Faces albums
which he fondly signed).
I remember asking him over a drink, why he still played these kind of
small gigs after all he had achieved. He said that he 'had to play
live regularly or he got sort of ill without it'. He had to get the
music out. He was almost evangelical about the need for guys like him
to be seen live by younger players in the way he had seen the old
blues and soul artists when he was starting out.
A sad memory in hindsight, was him saying 'I mean, when guys like me
are gone - whose going to show the young players what it's really all
about'. I think he was all about energy, giving 100% live for the
punters, great enthusiasm and love for the music. His time was too
short, but I think in the scheme of things his star shone pretty
bright. He was a one-off."
Kind of says it all really.
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