The Legacy of Cyril Davies...British Blues PioneerIntroduction by Todd Allen.Cyril was a real supernova. A musical prodigy, he sang, played banjo, guitar and harmonica. Some fellow musicians called him a musical genius with a purist's vision. There are pivotal characters in history, those that open doors for significant change. The great Chris Barber was one of these characters, he unlocked Britain's gate and let the blues flow in; this blues found its way into the hearts and souls of many young musicians. Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner fashioned a loose ensemble that each night lent the stage boards to countless rough diamonds - looking for their opportunity to shine. Messrs. Barber and Korner have, and rightly so, had their life works documented and immortalized in print and on wax. Why so little has been written about this Bluesman, this British Bluesman, is beyond the realm of my understanding. Cyril has not received the historical attention he so rightfully deserves. There are stirrings in history, revivals of learning and art converging at one time in one place that leave the world forever changed. The British blues renaissance in the late 1950's and early 1960's was such a time. We all remember names that rose out of this scene to great fame: names like the Rolling Stones, Cream or the Animals, but history forgets the period itself and some of the great characters that played important roles in this magnificent creative convergence. It is my hope that the passing of time will right this wrong and that Mr. Cyril Davies will take his place along side Barber, Colyer, Donegan, Lyttleton and Korner and other pioneers in the combustible mix that would give ignition to a pop culture rocket, the effects of which would be seen and heard around the world. 
Davies' story is significant for more reasons than his important role facilitating a renaissance. His story is interesting because of the boundaries he placed on his own awakening. He was among a group of young British musicians who simply became possessed by a mystical musical form - the blues. They were affected by its purity, simplicity, and by the depth and honesty of emotion that was accessible through its traditional patterns. Davies, though, was one who narrowly defined the acceptable boundaries of this tradition. He was offended by Alexis Korner's penchant for horns, although it fit safely in the Dixieland jazz or New Orleans blues convention. Cyril was equally unimpressed with Keith Richards' mastery of Chuck Berry's rock n' roll style. The stubbornness inherent in his vision eventually led to the severing of his musical partnership with Alexis Korner. He withdrew from the open-format mentoring characteristic of Blues Incorporated and focused his energy within the margins of his extremely talented band of 'All-Stars'. The proof of his passion for the Chicago style of electric blues was evident in his absolute mastery of the sound. Harp playing aside, there are those today who say he was, without a doubt, the best 12-string blues guitarist England has ever produced. In a strange way, Davies life seemed to peak and end abruptly at the height of this renaissance. Just as he had set firm limits on the way blues should be played, the fates decided he wasn't to see the full expanse of the development of the form in Britain. While they shared experience and countless smoke filled venues with Davies, upstarts like Jones, Jagger, Richards, Baker and Bruce would race on to marathon-like careers. Our Cyril's race may, today, be looked upon as a short track hurdle event. Such is life... and death - at the age of 31. "I used to go down The Marquee Club where all these R & B bands were 
Well, we're sitting in the upstairs room of the Round House Pub on the corner of Wardour Street and Brewer Street in Soho and of course this is the very room that Alex Korner and Cyril Davies had their weekly 'Blues & Barrelhouse' sessions back in the late 50's…and I think it was about 1957 (that) I first came up here and met Alex and Cyril for the first time and of course…they were 'THE BLUES'. I mean, they were, they were totally enamored with the blues, as was I at that age, and I became very close to them in a very short time - Long John Baldry (LJB doc) 'In the Shadow of the Blues' ©2007 …at that time he (Long John Baldry) was well known within the blues circles. I mean he had so much, him and Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies and Chris Barber…four names that literally brought Rhythm & Blues and Blues to Britain…so we really owe them a great deal - Rod Stewart (LJB doc) 'In the Shadow of the Blues' ©2007 
In a new series (2006), 'Soundtrack of My Life', Ray Davies the Kinks singer (now turned solo artist) reveals the five records that more than any others have shaped his career. "The record that kick-started The Kinks? 'Country Line Special', Cyril Davies and His Rhythm And Blues All-Stars (1963). I did buy that one, and it's one of the greatest records of its type ever made. It's a seminal English R'n'B track played brilliantly. I saw the band when I was at Hornsey Art School in 1962, and my girlfriend booked all the bands that played; I thought she'd be good to latch onto because she would get me free tickets. She booked the Rolling Stones for £50, and (English R'n'B legend) Alexis Korner, so art school gave me access to music I wouldn't have otherwise heard. The Kinks came through after that." Ray Davies - Sunday January 22, 2006 - The Observer I'll spend hours listening to Big Bill Broonzy - his voice is fantastic and he's also one of my personal favourite instrumentalists. His style is for real. It's genuine; got a lot of atmosphere - but then I also like girl singers like Anita O'Day; also the late Cyril Davies on harmonica. It was a tragedy that he didn't live to earn the acclaim he deserved, for he was a pioneer of rhythm 'n' blues in this country - Dave Davies Ginger Baker's 1999 album, 'Coward of the County', opens with the gracefully swinging 'Cyril Davies'; inspired by the harmonica player/singer…the piece is infused with the blues - listen for the echoes of Blues Inc at the Marquee. 
I wanted to record 'Send For Me' because the writer, Cyril Davies, was a tremendous influence on all of us lucky enough to play with him in Blues Incorporated. He showed me that it was valid to just be yourself - but I never dared to play harp while he was around! - Jack Bruce I joined Alexis and it was marvelous tuition. If it were not for him and Cyril Davies this scene wouldn't have been what it is today - Graham Bond In the two or three months (August-October) and a little bit of November 1962, when Ginger, Jack and I were playing with the crème de la crème, the absolute best (for me) version of Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, I played this original of Cyril Davies' many, many times. Fantastic - Cyril was IT every time, always was. Dick Heckstall-Smith, (commenting on his remake of the song 'Spooky But Nice' in 2001) 
It is interesting to look back to the birth of the British blues scene when one man pioneered a sound that was to give incentive to every group of that time. This man was the late Cyril Davies. Robbed by an early death of the fruits of his labors, he and his group the "Allstars" showed the path to many. Cyril was the first man to emulate the sound of the Chicago Blues Band in England, and with his harmonica electrified in the style of Little Walter, he set a standard which helped many groups such as the Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - Jimmy Page Without a doubt, it was Alexis, together with the late Cyril Davies who was directly responsible for nurturing the way in which most progressive blues and pop in this country has developed -for it can virtually all be genetically traced back to…Blues Incorporated - Roy Carr (New Musical Express) 
There's certainly three key figures in the early history of British Blues. Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies in R & B Incorporated laid as explicit a template for the way the British Blues can be done as anybody did. Chris Barber, in his position as a successful trad jazz bandleader and who outlived that whole trad phase, was also a Blues fan, a great record collector, and he knew enough about modern Blues to know about and be interested in musicians like Muddy Waters - Tony Russell (author) I have spent a deplorably large part of my life listening to music in dives. But I will never, ever, forget the impact of seeing Cyril Davies and his All Stars steaming into Smokestack Lightning in the Ricky Tick Club in Windsor, the first R&B I'd ever heard live...He humped over his mouth-harp, spat his lyrics and drove his band like a galley master. The noise was phenomenal, a humping, thundering blast. Davies...was a true fanatic, and we loved him for it. Behind him sat various apprentices juddering along in his wake, doing respectful imitations of Chicago Southside-as-glimpsed-at-Croydon. These hopefuls were mainly Thames Valley art students who have subsequently become rock millionaires or OD'd. But then they were people just like us with spots and girl trouble - David John Turner Widgery (writer/activist) 
Cyril Davies was probably the best blues harmonica player in England in the early-to-mid 1960s. He was also the inadvertent midwife of the Rolling Stones: it was Davies who pressed his then-bandleader, Alexis Korner, to make a kid named Jagger a full band member after the kid gave an exuberant reading of Chuck Berry's 'Around and Around' on an audition night. Ironic, since Davies ordinarily had no use for rocking the blues - BluesDuke (freerepublic.com) This (filling out the Who's sound) started with Nicky (Hopkins) playing on our very first LP 'My Generation' and me realizing he was the guy who played piano on 'Country Line Special' by Cyril Davies, one of my hottest tracks at the time! - Pete Townsend I lived in Hounslow and was at art school in Twickenham. I'd go down to the island on Saturday night. You'd get there as early as you could and drink as much as you could. I think I saw Cyril Davies there the first time, but I also saw Memphis Slim with the Tridents, who had Jeff Beck on guitar. I saw Alexis Korner a few times. My membership card, the Eel Pie Passport, I got that signed by Alexis - Ian McLagan I hadn't heard harmonica played like this ('Chicago Calling') before and Davies was probably the best white R & B harmonica player in the world. Listening to him also made me interested in others, like Jesse Fuller and Sonny Boy Williamson - Des Henly (of Fumble) 
…went to see Humphrey Lyttelton and Kenny Ball at Eel Pie Island, and Cyril Davies, one of the fathers of British R&B, at the Railway Tavern in Harrow - Nick Mason (of Pink Floyd) (Alexis) had what was the first real R&B band in the country. He had Cyril Davies on harmonica and it was truly exotic stuff, because it was still so rare. They played once a week at the Marquee and the rest of the week the club put on jazz. But it made me realize it could be done. I was listening to Muddy Waters by then, so I knew full well what a blues band ought to sound like. Then the second time I went to see Alexis play, Mick Jagger was there and we got talking. Brian Jones and Keith Richards were also there, and they'd all get up and play with Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce, or whoever was Alexis' rhythm section that particular night. After that, it was only a matter of time before I thought about trying to do it for myself - Eric Clapton We got a gig playing with Cyril Davies at Eel Pie Island. We didn't have a name or anything; we were just playing twelve bar blues. Then when we'd finished playing - Cyril Davies said, "That was a great set, thank you (!)...and what was the name of the band?" Keith (Relf) said to him - it was, "The Yardbirds"! That was the first time I had heard the name! - Jim McCarty (The Yardbirds) 
Having been there, it was just a change of pace from the traditional jazz, which you would know as New Orleans jazz. It had been the dominant force in clubs and radio for ten years prior to Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies bringing amplifiers into the clubs and performing the Chicago style blues. I think it excited everybody in the '60s at a time when not only music was changing, but fashion and culture and the whole thing. The whole generation was changing and looking for fresh things. I think the raucous music of the blues just fit in with that. It all happened very quickly, this British rock/blues scene, Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies pioneered it; then there was the Rolling Stones, the Animals, Georgie Fame, Spencer Davis, the Yardbirds -- everybody was playing in London - John Mayall A band called the Krewsaders, formed by boys from the same street in Ealing, West London, was John McVie's first job as a bassplayer. "We had jackets, a logo, the whole deal. We played weddings and parties, those kinds of things. Someone called Cliff Barton, bass player with Cyril Davies (harp-player with Alexis Korner and Chris Barber) was asked to play with John Mayall. He said: "No, I won't do it because I already play for Cyril Davies…but I know this boy of 15 - give him a chance" - John McVie 
I didn't know Cyril personally although I know a few people who did and I saw him play several times myself. I first remember Alexis, with Cyril Davies on harmonica playing to packed houses at Chris Barber's regular weekly blues session at the old Marquee Club in Oxford Street... the electric atmosphere of those early sessions (!) - Bob Hall The first British Blues I heard was Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated at a pub in East Cheam, a suburb in South London near my home in Wimbledon. That would be '62, I think. Then I used to go every Sunday to see the Stones at The Station Hotel in Richmond. They were wonderful and inspired me to get into playin R'n'B - not just listening. I saw Cyril Davies' new band at their first gig at Ken Colyer's club one Sunday afternoon. They were so LOUD partly because all (of) his band came from Screaming Lord Sutch! - Tom McGuinness 
I first met Cyril Davies in about 1956 I think, when I was sixteen. Used to spend Sundays down The Viaduct, Colin Kingwell & his Jazz Bandits were playing. Cyril used to collect the half crowns on the door and then he used to play and sing in the interval - that was quite nice. Another piece of useless information with that band was Ted Wood on drums, Ronnie's brother, you know, the 'Rolling Stone'! Looks just like Ronnie, big nose and all, amazing! Nice guy Cyril, he used to play at The Roundhouse pub, and he used to call the band, The Roundhouse Jug Band, and who's always with them? Alexis Korner on mandolin and things and playing harmonica and stuff like that. He was a nice bloke I met - I knew him very well! - Joe Rush (Mungo Jerry) The other band I saw regularly was Cyril Davies' All-Stars, and for me, they were the best, especially when they had Carlo Little on drums and Nicky Hopkins on piano. I later heard an album by Nicky, and it was dreadful! All strings and massive orchestrations, no blues, no rock'n roll, yuk! It's the sort of thing that happens when middle-of-the-road record company 'execs' think they know best - Colin Earl (Mungo Jerry) 
The Roaring Twenties was one of the first R&B clubs in London, it was frequented a lot by black Americans and musicians. When you walked down the stairs into the club there was a strong smell of grass, no hash, brown or black, only grass in those days. The resident band was Cyril Davis and The All-Stars. Cyril sung and played the harmonica (he had a roll of cloth with lots of pockets in it with about a dozen harmonicas sitting in them). He was absolutely brilliant on them. Another regular was Long John Baldry a great singer and now also an excellent harp player. He would sit in with the All-Stars. We would start playing and warm them up, and then Cyril, then us, and then Cyril again. I have some good memories of our weeks at the Roaring Twenties - Bob Posner (The Rokes) White British musicians found the form liberating and bold, and the list of bands that sprung from the UK blues clubs is a complete Who's Who of 20th Century English music: Alexis Korner, Cyril Davies, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown. Muddy and his fellow Chicago bluesmen touched off a tidal wave of music in the UK. The Rolling Stones took their name from a Muddy Waters song. British musicians admitted their debt to Muddy, a fact which led countless Americans to examine the neglected blues giants right under their noses - Fender Players Club 
In the early '60s, I'd take every opportunity to see Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages, partly because Sutch was great entertainment but mainly because the Savages always contained great musicians…they were a joy! Pure theatre, great rock 'n' roll and worth three shillings and sixpence of anybody's money! The same band could be found later the same week playing down home blues as Cyril Davies' Rhythm and Blues All-Stars. In fact, the backing band on Davies' superb "Country Line Special" single, now a highly sought after collectors' item, and in my view the best UK blues record of all time, consisted entirely of the above, classic, Savages line-up - Trev Williams (Audience) Every generation, mostly, think that they have experienced the 'best' period of topical music, but I do feel that the sixties were a special case. Consider this; any weekend my friends and I had a difficult decision to make. Did we go 'up town' to Ken Colyer's to see American blues stars like Big Bill Broonzy or jazz giants like Dizzy Gillespie; or perhaps to the Marquee or 100 Club to listen to the up and coming Britishers like Paul Weller in the Jam, Eric Clapton and the Yardbirds and Georgie Fame with the All Stars…or did we stay closer to home and go to the Riky Tick in Windsor and risk asphyxiation in the tiny room listening to an exciting new group called the Rolling Stones. And that was only the start; what about Osterley where you could hear John Lee Hooker, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee and any number of other Southern American blues stars; or Windsor Drill hall where, on a Friday night you could enjoy the best of Cyril Davies and the All Stars, which usually featured one of my favourites, Long John Baldry - Fabio Marcell (writer) 
…one other club must be mentioned, although many should be. That was the Roundhouse in Soho. Started by Cyril Davies as the London Skiffle Centre, it soon brought in Alexis Korner. Informal visits from Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, gradually confirmed the move toward a blues oriented programme. Davies started out as a Leadbelly imitator with a good command of the twelve string. I clearly remember taking Sonny Terry there one night and him saying "That Cyril sounds more like Lead than Lead does." He moved over to harmonica as the sound electrified, Muddy Waters and Otis Spann paid state visits, and the stage was set for the new blues craze. Evicted by a pub landlord who said the music was too loud, they went to Ealing and the rest is the history of R 'n' B in Britain. Nevertheless, the first recordings for Dobell's 77 label, were listed as the Alexis Korner Skiffle Group and Korner himself started out as a Woody Guthrie fan - John Pilgrim Halcyon days…where to begin? In London the 1960s began in the 50s. The Skiffle Cellar in Greek Street, with Russell Quay and the City Ramblers, Rambling Jack Elliott and Deryl Adams, Red Sullivan, and Steve Benbow. I saw Margaret Barry and Paddy Gorman there. The Blues Club in Wardour Street with Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies, Long John Baldry, Rory and Alex McEwen and Nadia Catouse. The most memorable night for me was seeing Big Bill Broonzy, playing and singing like a dream, and consuming two bottles of whisky from a pint glass. - John (the Fish) Langford
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