Buying the albums sampled on “You Can All Join In”.
The notes on the expanded CD are excellent, pointing out that the band first came together on 19 April 1968 at the Nag’s Head, Battersea, at which time all of them were still teenagers.
The guitarist, Paul Kossoff, was the only one with any claim to fame, his dad being a much respected actor, David Kossoff. He had been trained as a classical guitarist, which accounts for his unfamiliarity with the chords with which the rest of us started. In 1967 he joined a R&B combo called Black Cat Bones, at one of whose gigs one Simon Kirke was present. Kirke audaciously went to Kossoff and suggested that he, Kirke, replace their extant drummer, which suggestion was taken up.
Paul Rodgers was a docker’s son from Middlesborough, and one of seven children, and had an unshakable, but entirely justifiable, faith in his singing ability. He was in a series of bands including The Titans and The Intrepids, ending up in an outfit called Brown Sugar, with whom Kossoff jammed at a gig in a pub, The Fickle Pickle in Finsbury Park. They gelled and agreed to form a new group, and so they needed a bass player…
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