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Cambridge
1969
This is a pic. of Davey on stage at Cambridge Folk Festival in 1969, not
long after we first met at the Folk Cottage, Mitchell, my local folk
club. Davey was playing with Noel Murphy at the time. Although still
young Davey was a stunning musician and a showman, playing banjo behind
his head, Jimmy Hendrix style.... Note the hippy beads! |
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Draught Porridge
1969/70
Davey and Noel Murphy were joined by Ronnie from The Strawbs and Noel
named them 'Draught Porridge'. I think this was taken at Pipers which
was Brenda Wottons club at the Counthouse, Bottalick . The Counthouse
was on the site of a tin mining area and its where the wages from the
mines were handed out. It was a pretty wild place near the cliff edge.
Draught Porridge contributed to the wildness and all got so drunk that
the only reason Ronnie was still standing was because his double bass
was wedged between the floor and the ceiling!
He just kept on playing! |
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Magna Carta 1970
Davey and I were living in Long Hanborough, near Witney in Oxfordshire,
in a place called Wastie's Orchard. The band spent a lot of time there
rehearsing and working on new songs for an album which was titled
''Songs From Wastie's Orchard". Our son Tam was born in Oxford. |
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Elton John Band
1972/3
Davey had worked with Gus Dudgeon a lot as a session player and Gus got
Davey to play on" Madman Across The Water ", Elton Johns' second album.
One day Davey had two phone calls , one was asking if he wanted to join
Cat Stevens' band and the other asking if he wanted to join Elton !!
Davey chose Elton John and this is one of my favourite pictures of Davey
and the late Dee Murray, Elton's bass player, who we still miss. |
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Backstage
Philadelphia 1972
This is taken in one of the vast stadium gigs that the band played in
the '70's. It really was a phenomenal time in musical history and I was
somehow caught up in it!
Around this time Davey was invited to record his own album on Rocket
Records. This was called "Smiling Face" and has a photo I took of Tam on
the front sleeve. He's sat in his high chair in our house in North
London, covered in yoghurt!
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El Paso 1972/3
This was taken on the set of "the Getaway", the iconic film starring
Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw. The band were playing in El Paso and we
were invited on to the set in the afternoon before the gig. Davey's
talking to Aly Mcgraw, while I'm probably trying to catch a glimpse of
Steve McQueen! |
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N.A.S.A 1972/3
In between gigs and recording the band would get invited to various
things. This was a memorable day. We were taken to N.A.S.A. and
introduced to a couple of the astronauts. They told us that they had
been invited to choose music to take with them into space and and one of
the pieces they chose to take on that Apollo Mission was " Rocket Man ".
The band got to go in the weightless chamber, while Davey and I spent
some time with Al Worden, one of the astronauts. He was a lovely man and
he told us how amazing it was to look back at the earth. The feeling I
had was that he felt so much compassion for humanity and love for the
planet from that incredible experience. |
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China 1974/5
Davey formed a band "China" and recorded his second album. Davey was
told by a psychic that he would visit China .At that time China was a
completely closed Communist country, and we had no concept of how things
could ever change.
My brother, Jo Partridge, is on the right in this publicity photo, just
below Davey. Next to him is James Newton-Howard who played in The Elton
John band, and is now a highly successful Hollywood film score composer.
I wrote some of the lyrics for the "China" album.
www.dianajohnstone.com |
