The Crème de la crème

Flipping heck.  St Peter must have some big shindig to organise clearly given the list of music stars who've recently been taken from us.  A set of people who've been there throughout most of my life providing music I listened to and was interested and inspired by.

Of the three Lemmy from Motorhead was the biggest personal loss to me.  I've seen Motorhead live possibly more than any other band/artist I can think of... maybe Gary Moore (another one in St Pete's line up now) just shades it but it'll be close.  My funniest memory of them is at Hyde Park when they supported The Foo Fighters.  We were about half way back in the huge crowd that afternoon.  You'd see the roadies changing over the amps etc.  You'd see them trying stuff out but the piped interval music from the PA drowned out the stage volume where we were clearly... I mean we were further away than you'd be in any but the largest arenas... until the Motorhead crew began to soundcheck... yep they drowned out the PA!  Oh I saw them with Sepultura backing up at a tiny old seaside dance hall in Folkestone once.   Loudest gig I've ever been to!  Mental - quiet simply the bass introduce bowel movements!

David Bowie - I can't say I've been an avid Bowie fan, in fact there is a paucity of Bowie recordings in my collection but I remember buying Laughing Gnome as a kid.  Then Ziggy - of course all but one of the Spiders from Mars is in this St Pete Big Band now.  I loved how he continually reinvented himself and could move around styles with such impressive ease.  Station to Station was a favourite album I had on cassette for a long time.

Glen Fry - I mean The Eagles were just one of those bands in the 70s that redefined how big a band could be.  I was always in awe of their vocal abilities and of course what guitarist can't admit to wishing he'd been one of the duelling players in the duet in Hotel California which still will come high up in any "best solo" poll you care to mention.

Add to that Natalie Cole, Dale Griffin (Mott the Hoople drummer) and then for me also Pete Huttlinger (John Denver and stunning fingerstyle guitarist) as I say - whatever is the occasion no high they seem to need the crème de la crème.

Here is Pete Huttlinger just being a bloody genius...  The lady in the shot in the crowd about 25 seconds in sums it up as she simply mouths "Wow!".   BTW this was after his recovery from stroke and heart failure - even more unfair then that he is taken at only 54