I mention that because I have been reminded of the Welsh prog rock scene by a pal talking about 'Black Hole Star' an album by Man offshoot 'The Neutrons'. Same chap was bemoaning the loss of many stars of the old days during his recent extended holiday in NZ. Researching the Neutrons I came across a page detailing lots of 'where are they now' info on acts of the 60's and 70's. One page of said site had links to obituaries and due to a morbid interest in who has popped their clogs recently, I had a quick shuftie.I was quite sad to discover that one of my closest brushes with the big time (ever) has died last year.
Once upon a time, many, many moons ago, I was playing a gig with a very early incarnation of my current band in a seedy seaside dive in Westward-Ho! As we were sound checking a balding and diminuative hippy-ish looking chap came in, listened to the band intently for some minutes and when we had finished came over and introduced himself. "Hi, my name is Brian, I really like the band, you sound cool, would you mind if I sat in on drums on a couple of numbers?" Well, ya get a lot of this in a working band, so I pointed him at the drummer who had a chat, let him have a knockabout and decided he was up to the task. So we let him sit in on a couple of blues standards. While we were playing another local muso friend came in. At the end of the set he asked me if I knew who the mystery drummer was and I said "Yes, that's Brian, he's a nice guy and not a bad drummer - go have a chat to him". My chum said "Yes that is Brian, Brian Davison of 'The Nice'!
The Nice, of course, were one of the first recognised 'prog' bands in the UK and Brian was their highly able drummer. And so the circle closes, prog rock to prog rock, and one of my best 'brush with the greats' stories is told.
RIP Brian
As for my hand - well that is healing just fine - not allowed to move my thumb yet, but no sign of the arthritic pain that constantly dogged me before the surgery - looking good then.
Current Pain Rating: 1
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