Ray Blazdell (OK 1961)

“One of the first people I met was Ray Blazdell. I knew him as a trombone player, but he was really a pianist. He said he really liked jazz but I said that I’d got a gig on Saturday night, somewhere outside Oxford. And we were getting 10 quid, so I could pay him two quid. I asked him whether he knew Blue Suede Shoes? And he said he did, and he knew the B-side too, which is Lawdy Miss Clawdy. It’s got a nice piano part. So off we went to this gig and at the end of each number, we’d look at each other and say, “What should we do next?” We’d never rehearsed, but we knew the same tunes. We knew Chuck Berry and we knew Elvis and Little Richard. I would say let’s do Tutti Frutti, let’s do Long Tall Sally. I’ll do it in C – I’ll start!”

Nigel Tully of “The Fourbeats”
From Rock-and-roll to Royalty