Roddy Jackson passes on

Music deaths are coming thick and fast at the moment, the latest being rockabilly artist Roddy Jackson, aged 80, who recorded some memorable records for Specialty in the fifties but never had a major hit. Roddy was a regular on the rock and roll scene in recent years and played a great Tales From The Woods show at the Spice of Life in 2013. I also saw him at the Rhythm Riot the following year and most recently at Viva Las Vegas in 2018. Here's my review of the TFTW show: 'Roddy Jackson must be one of the wildest original rockers to hit a London stage in many a long year. Last night's Tales From The Woods show in the downstairs room of the Spice of Life pub on the edge of Soho was the first time that this 1950s Californian rock and roller - dubbed the Central Valley Fireball - has played a central London venue, despite appearing at several rockabilly festivals over the years. It was a show to remember, with some exciting, raucous vocals, combined with Roddy's Jerry Lee Lewis-styled piano playing and frantic sax work. Roddy had a brief recording career with Specialty in LA when he was discovered by Sonny Bono and introduced to label owner Art Rupe, but never quite made it despite three top class rockabilly 45s. He stuck mainly to his own compositions last night with a couple of nods to his idol and fellow Specialty artist Little Richard in the form of 'Lucille' and 'Good Golly Miss Molly'. Roddy is fun, as well as being a genuine rocker, as his first number, his own novelty song 'Hiccups', showed. He followed this with another early rocker 'Any Old Town', 'Juke Box Baby' and the slower 'No One Else Will Do'. His keyboard playing was nothing short of manic on 'Baby Don't You Do This To Me' and he moved on to one of his 'love' songs (one of many, he said, as he would fall in love several times a day in those days), 'Gloria', and then to Larry Williams' 'She Said Yeah', a song he co-wrote with Sonny Bono. Other originals flew thick and fast - 'I Found A New Girl', 'There's A Moose On The Loose' (the B side of 'Hiccups', with some great vocal sound effects), 'Love At First Sight', 'Johnny's Last Ride', 'She's My One And Only' and 'Consider', before launching into his first 45 - one that would have made him a star, he said, if a promised appearance on American Bandstand had gone ahead - 'I've Got My Sights On Someone New'. Finally he gave the band a chance to shine individually with 'Come On Everybody Let's Go Rock and Roll'. They did! The TFTW house band were tremendous throughout, with Claire (Hamlin) taking over keyboard duties when Roddy moved on to the saxophone, and Alex (Bland) and Sid (Phillips) reciprocating on horn duties when he played keyboards. As someone said, Roddy is the 'real deal' of rock and roll. I can't argue with that.'

Top photo shows Roddy at the Spice of Life show with TWTW house band guitarist John Spencely. Second photo is of Roddy at Rhythm Riot.