Only just found out about the passing of Spencer Davis who died two days ago. I'm very sad to hear this as I was a big fan of The Spencer Davis Group in the 1960s and used to do cover versions of the group's 'Keep On Running'' and 'When I Come Home' singles when I played in local Wakefield bands at that time.
In fact, the first time I ever sang with a band was when we covered those songs. The rest of the band I was in were not so keen on the emerging British R n' B scene, being somewhat more conservative, but they agreed to do the numbers provided I sang them. I think they thought that I wouldn't take up the offer and that would be the end of it, but I decided to have a go.
And so, at a working men's club gig somewhere in West Yorkshire in the mid 1960s,, I sang in front of an audience for the very first time, (well, the second time if you count that I'd sung 'The Christmas Alphabet' as an infant in my school's Christmas play!)
The Spencer Davis Group were excellent and very influential, and those records still sound great. Rest in peace, Spencer...
The Spencer Davis Group. Left to right: Steve Winwood, Spencer Davis, Pete York and Muff Winwood.
Spencer was a generous man as well. My brother Andy had two songs on his album called Mousetrap from 1971/1972 and Davis contributed guitar on them ...