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Chocolate Watchband bassist Bill Flores passed away in his sleep in northern California on March 8^th. Alec Palao pays homage to a true gent.

It was the mid-fifties, probably 1956, I was listening to AFN [the American Forces Network] coming in over static-laden airwaves from Stuttgart in West Germany at about 9.30 one weeknight. Suddenly my ears sprang to attention as a wild and frantic sound came screaming from the tiny speakers of our ancient wireless receiver. It was Little Richard and ‘Tutti Frutti’ and I’d never heard ANYTHING even vaguely like it before. It was the most exciting record I’d ever heard and still is.

It changed my life!

I went to the record department of our local electrical store the very next day. Even though we didn’t have a record player in our house, I needed to own THAT record!

Big Jay McNeely  April 29, 1927 - September 16, 2018

“What it was all about at the time is kind of summed up in that picture". 

"That picture where I’m lying on stage, playing on my back in front of all those white kids. That’s the greatest rock’n’roll picture there is … everybody included. That’s what rock’n’roll was all about back then.”

With the impending release of Willie Hightower’s brand new Ace album uppermost in the minds of soul fans everywhere, those who live or can travel easily to the Cambridge area – that’s Massachusetts, not the home of punting and universities – should take note of this upcoming ‘can’t miss’ show at that town’s Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub.

More than 30 years ago, an Italian music fan with few contacts in the world of black American music decided he wanted to bring his beloved southern soul music to the area of Northern Italy where he lived by promoting a show headlined by one of his favourites, Solomon Burke. From that modest beginning in 1987 has emerged the world’s most prestigious soul music event. For the 31^st time, the Porretta Soul Festival has again recently brought artists and music lovers from all over the world to the small, sleepy spa town in Northern Italy where it is held annually.