Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
03:16 - Landing in London
09:13 - Discovering Georgie Fame
13:17 - A key role in British music culture
19:01 - "There's no success like failure"
21:28 - Great undiscovered gems
26:04 - Candid conversations
27:39 - Keeping the balance
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Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock & Roll going: patreon.com/wordinyourear
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Ben Sidran was in a teenage band with Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs, a session pianist with the Stones in 1969 and carved a brilliant career as a jazz musician, producer, author and broadcaster. He’s just written ‘Cool Cat Blues’ about his old friend and collaborator Georgie Fame and the brief, luminous, pre-rock London blues and jazz scene that launched him. This enthralling conversation looks at the “heavy lift” of being a piano player and Georgie’s unique position in the organic, unhyped, pre-youth scene before the arrival of rock. And covers …
… the “coal smoke” London of the late ‘60s and Ben recording with the Stones at Olympic
… the romance and “elephant paths” of the great jazz legends
… why British musicians were more sophisticated than Americans obsessed with authenticity
... the influence of Mose Allison, “a white jazz and blues intellectual with storytelling and social commentary”
… GI’s bringing black American records to the Flamingo Club
… how Georgie Fame was “raised by wolves” and the Larry Parnes and Light Entertainment worlds that helped shape him
… and Yeh Yeh, Get Away and the Ballad Of Bonnie and Clyde, the hits that damaged his reputation.
Order ‘Cool Cat Blues’ here: equinoxpub.com/projects/cool-cat-blues
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
03:16 - Landing in London
09:13 - Discovering Georgie Fame
13:17 - A key role in British music culture
19:01 - "There's no success like failure"
21:28 - Great undiscovered gems
26:04 - Candid conversations
27:39 - Keeping the balance
----
Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock & Roll going: patreon.com/wordinyourear
----
Ben Sidran was in a teenage band with Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs, a session pianist with the Stones in 1969 and carved a brilliant career as a jazz musician, producer, author and broadcaster. He’s just written ‘Cool Cat Blues’ about his old friend and collaborator Georgie Fame and the brief, luminous, pre-rock London blues and jazz scene that launched him. This enthralling conversation looks at the “heavy lift” of being a piano player and Georgie’s unique position in the organic, unhyped, pre-youth scene before the arrival of rock. And covers …
… the “coal smoke” London of the late ‘60s and Ben recording with the Stones at Olympic
… the romance and “elephant paths” of the great jazz legends
… why British musicians were more sophisticated than Americans obsessed with authenticity
... the influence of Mose Allison, “a white jazz and blues intellectual with storytelling and social commentary”
… GI’s bringing black American records to the Flamingo Club
… how Georgie Fame was “raised by wolves” and the Larry Parnes and Light Entertainment worlds that helped shape him
… and Yeh Yeh, Get Away and the Ballad Of Bonnie and Clyde, the hits that damaged his reputation.
Order ‘Cool Cat Blues’ here: equinoxpub.com/projects/cool-cat-blues
