Jim Pembroke

to. add. I read one of Jim's interviews and it reminded me of many things and events we shared. At the start of the piece that was written he mentioned my name and the fact that I had a B.B.King album and he was uncertain how I had found it. In the early 60's in London, where we both lived, the music scene was in a state of early post war development. As far as blues recordings went it was incredibly thin on the ground. Very few record shops had any blues recordings available. Only one or two radio stations would air any recordings. We even use to purchase a music paper that showed different radio stations listings by their wave lengths. If a blues or jazz recording was going to be played often the item to be aired would be shown as well as the time it would be broadcast. These would be published days in advance. This I think shows the rarity of this kind of music being available for appreciation. So the UK was like a musical dessert for blues enthusiasts. I went to a school in Muswell Hill in north London, yes the home of the Kinks, Dave Davies use to sit behind me in the Maths class. Jim at that time was at a school in Finchley, I suppose we would have been 14-15 at the time. Well during lunch break I would sneak off to go to the Broadway for a smoke and food. By the cinema at the top of the hill was a tiny record shop. The man who owned the store was very helpful and he allowed me to look at his catalogues of current vinyl releases in the UK and the USA. I poured over them each lunchtime and found many records of blues and Jazz artists in America that were non-existent in the UK. The kind shop owner helped me to import some of these vinyl records. Of course it wasn't cheap and import duties had to be paid as well. I used to do 2 news paper delivery rounds before school every day to help pay for my prize findings. This was one way of getting recordings by such people as Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and a whole host of USA deep south 'field reco