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room, chess players tweaked their skills as poets argued with tourists over inner-city London bus
time tables, and the devaluation of the British pound, turning the pennies into P.
One of the quirks, of the London folk music scene, a private treaty so to speak. If one played
at the Troubadour, then you were excluded from playing at Les Cousins or Bungees, and vice
versa. Which is where Donovan go his 'act together', to go on and become the intrinsic singer of
fairytales. Another live music venue, in a pub near Putney Bridge, the Half Moon Hotel, much
larger as a venue, John Martyn played his Fylde guitar through an effects rack, and guzzled old
beer as if Beer Fest had begun. 'The grog is my first love' he confessed to me, 'It kills the time,
most forcefully.'
The best show there ever in the 'Half Moon' if called..I would say, Tim Hardin, accompanied
by Sammy Mitchell on slide guitar. 'Reason to Believe' a spellbinding version, followed by, 'If I
was a Carpenter' had the audience in limbo. 'Near a penny' could be heard to drop, as magic
unravelled. Just a singer, songwriter with his steel string guitar, holding the listener in a rapture.
Just to set it straight, Tim Hardin did not die from a drug overdose, he had a crook ticker. The
last time I saw him, walking down Fulham Road smiling, he had a sack of money in his hand,
'taking last nights till to the bank,' he said with a drawl.
Johnny Guitar Watson played a clean set of Chicago Blues, brought the house down as I sat
next to troll doll, in the front row, who at one point stepped behind a huge white broadcast
piano on stage, and pounded into the blues with Johnny Watson. That man in the immaculate
cream plaid suite was Leon Russell, rock delta blues master.
An air of apprehension filled the bar as Max Jones, introduced Sammy Mitchell to the stage.
A small man with a carved gypsy face, who had mastered, the acoustic and electric Hawaiian
slide guitar, being taught by his father at an early age, and who forbade him to pursue a career
as a professional musician. This must have egged him on, as he had gone on to record with Rod
Stewart, the Stones and many others.
Of course, Ralph McTell and Burt Janzch, appeared singing and fingerpicking guitars in their
most notable way. Maddy Prior, the north county girl who vocalized for Pentangle, and Trevor
Lucas, the antipodean renegade often sat perched at the bar in the old Half moon pub. John
Renbourne stumbled into the conversation and vocalized 'The great difference between playing
to a London crowd and one that is Stateside is the audience here, sits before you, like stuffed
dummies, where the yanks kick up a huge racket through the performance.'