The connections from the show:

Dire Straits (Terry Williams on drums) → Rockpile (Williams with Dave Edmunds) → Dave Edmunds → Dave Edmunds with Mark Knopfler (who was the front man of Dire Straits) → John Fogerty with Mark Knopfler (Kenny Aronoff on drums, who also filled in for Dave Mattacks a few times) → Steeleye Span (Dave Mattacks on drums) → Chris Rea (Dave Mattacks on drums) → Chris Rea with Elton John → Olivia Newton-John with Elton John → Olivia Newton-John with ELO → ELO (Jeff Lynne guitar/vocals) → Traveling Wilburys (Jeff Lynne guitar/vocals, Jim Keltner drums) → Pink Floyd (Jim Keltner drums on 1987 album).

Back to Jeff Lynne: first solo album produced by Dave Edmunds → Dion (1989 album produced and guitars by Edmunds, Terry Williams drums) → Man (Terry Williams drums), bringing us back to our starting point.

Back to Dave Mattacks: Fairport Convention → Richard Thompson (John Kirkpatrick accordion) → Steeleye Span (Kirkpatrick accordion, Maddy Prior vocals) → Jethro Tull (Maddy Prior vocals on 1976 album).

And the next bunch of connections will therefore most likely be focused on Ian Anderson/Jethro Tull.

On a side note, Terry Williams and Dave Edmunds have worked together since 1970 when Williams replaced Bob „Congo“ Jones on drums with Edmunds’ band Love Sculpture, and has played on many Edmunds solo albums, as well as with the other members of Rockpile (Nick Lowe, Billy Bremner). We would have loved to explore those connections a bit further, but since we only have 2 hours of air time per show, we stuck to the stuff farther afield. Edmunds also produced the first demos of Motörhead, and there will be quite a bunch of seemingly weird connections from Jethro Tull, some back to the English Electric Folk scene, which could well rate its own Connections show in the future.

And an apology to all those who want more Connections shows (we heard you…), these shows unfortunately require a particularly large amount of research, so they will be spaced out a little. There will be more, though.

Klaus Doldinger, the man behind Jazzrock/Krautrock group Passport (a group we have broadcast a History Of), has turned 80 years old, is still touring, in good health, and shows no sign of letting up. According to news items, he celebrated by going on top of a hill near his home in the early morning and played the melody of his most-played song (a TV theme) solo on sax, before having breakfast and spending the evening in a local jazz club jamming with old bandmates and local amateur musicians.

That’s how a jazz man celebrates his 80th, people… 🙂

See you in the Cavern,
Malaclypse

The line of connections from the show:

The Rolling Stones → Ronnie Wood (member) → The Faces → Rod Steward (member) → The Jeff Beck Group (Wood and Steward both members) → Jeff Beck → Yardbirds (Jeff Beck member) → Yardbirds (Eric Clapton member) → The Beatles (Eric Clapton playing on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”) → Billy Preston (played with the Beatles on final album) → The Rolling Stones (Preston member 1970-1977).

Eric Clapton → Blind Faith (Clapton member) → Steve Winwood (member) → David Gilmour (Winwood played on solo album) → Supertramp (Gilmour guitar solos on “Brother Where You Bound”) → Thin Lizzy/Pink Floyd: Scott Gorham (guitar on “BWYB”) and Scott Page (Flute on “BWYB” and sax on “The Dogs of War”) → Jeff Porcaro (drums on “Mother”) → Toto (Porcaro member) → Jim Horn (woodwinds on album Toto IV) → Canned Heat (Horn on flute)/The Beach Boys (Horn on baritone sax) → Ringo Starr (drums on “California Calling”) → Paul McCartney (Starr drums on album Give My Regards to Broad Street) → Dave Edmunds (guitars on GMRtBS and playing with McCartney on the tour). And we’ll pick up with Edmunds for the next Connections show.

There are quite a few side notes there, too: Clapton left Yardbirds to join John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, was replaced by Jeff Beck, who was joined in Yardbirds by Jimmy Page. After Beck left, the Yardbirds name could no longer be used (legal reasons) and Page and Plant wanted to go Hard Rock anyway, so renamed the leftovers of the Group Led Zeppelin.

Clapton left Bluesbreakers to form Cream, and was replaced with Peter Green, who went on to form Fleetwood Mac.

Cream broke up, and Clapton formed Blind Faith with Peter Baker. Clapton left Blind Faith to play with Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, who ended up playing on Clapton’s first solo album as the band before breaking up, leaving Clapton to pursue his solo career.

Jim Horn is a bit of a deus ex machina: Having been part of the group of L.A. session musicians who were informally called “The Wrecking Crew” in the mid-1960s, he has played on just about everything and with just about every group that anybody can remember. So… that’s a bunch of connections I may come back to in case I run into a dead end during research.

Also, on McCartney’s album “Give My Regards to Broad Street,” we can hear Dave Gilmour (Pink Floyd) and Steve Lukather (Toto) as well as Chris Spedding on guitars alongside Dave Edmunds and McCartney himself.

There are a lot more connections going sideways from the ones we explored in this show, but there is only so much one can cover in two hours of air time, and I believe what we did cover was already convoluted enough.

See you in the Cavern,
Malaclypse