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There are also two boot-legged albums out
there, one or two complete in the can sessions that were
never released and a couple of best of albums. If you can
find them, buy them. Richard Newell is Canada's True Blues
Godfather. He has spawned so many of today's blues players
in Canada. He brought the REAL BLUES to Canada in his
recordings. Beware of cheap imitations and rewrites of the
facts concerning the Blues Music History of Canada
A few quotes from the
gallery
"King Biscuit Boy is the single greatest
blues musician this country has produced (and probably ever
will). The King's standards are considerably higher than yer
average blooze hack"... Lily Sazz (Toronto Blues Society
board member and associate editor of the Toronto Blues
Society's Newsletter)
King Biscuit Boy - Gooduns (1972) This is
really Official Music Part Two (see below), kicked off by an
uproarious tribute to Arthur Gunter: "You Done Tore Your
Playhouse Down Again." (Blues Access Magazine)
King Biscuit Boy With Crowbar - Official
Music (1972) Hooray! One of all-time favourites is finally
on CD. The outrageous Richard Newell, harp player and singer
extraordinaire, is backed by one of Canada's top bands.
There's not a single throwaway among these blues classics
and originals that sound like they ought to be. (Blues
Access Magazine)
King Biscuit Boy "GOODUNS": Richard
Newell, a.k.a. King Biscuit Boy, is a Canadian harmonica
player with both feet in Arkansas. Newell is the Sonny Boy
Williamson of the Great White North. If this record does not
get you moving, be worried for your health. Good production
and liner notes. (Onsight
Reviews by Tommy Tearaway)
Discography
SINGLES
Corrina Corrina (with Crowbar)
1970
Biscuit's Boogie 1971
29 Ways/Boom Boom 1972
Barefoot Rock 1972-73
New Orleans 1975
ALBUMS
"Official Music - King Biscuit Boy &
Crowbar " - Daffodil 1970 and reissued on CD in 1996 by
Stony Plain
"Gooduns" - Daffodil 1971 and reissued on
CD in 1996 by Stony Plain
"King Biscuit Boy" (AKA The Brown Derby
Album) - Epic 1974
"Badly Bent: The Best Of King Biscuit
Boy" - Daffodil 1976 and reissued on CD in 1996 by Stony
Plain
"Mouth Of Steel" - Red Lightning and
Stony Plain 1979
"King Biscuit Boy A.K.A. Richard Newell"
Stony Plain 1988
"Urban Blues Re: Newell " - Blue Wave and
Stony Plain 1995
CFMU 93.3 FM Hamilton Top Ten Blues
Recordings For The Week Ending February 8, 1997
1. King Biscuit Boy Badly Bent: Best of..
Stony Plain
2. Big Jack Johnson We Got To Stop This..
MC
3. Various Artists Texas Blueswomen Top
Cat
4. Little Mack Simmons Little Mack Is
Back Elektro Fi
5. Sue Foley Walk In The Sun
Antones
6. Jeff Lang Native Dog Creek True
North
7. Various Artists Antone's 20th Ann..
Antones
8. The Whiteley Brothers 16 Shades Of
Blue Borealis
9. Alvin Youngblood Hart Big Mama's Door
Sony
10.Mike Henderson First Blood Dead
Reakoning
Compiled Weekly By Steve Gash
Obituaries
The Hamilton Spectator January 8th,
2003
Those who loved King Biscuit Boy (Richard
Newell), his countless friends and fans all over the world,
seemed always to be wishing for him to step up to his own
potential, as though there were some final proof he had to
give, some last distance he had to go.
It's strange in a way because at the same
time, they all avow, in a reflex of certainty, that the
Hamilton blues singer/harmonica player was "the best." In
the world.
How much farther can you go than
that?
As his old friend and former Crowbar
bandmate Kelly Jay said yesterday: "I declared it official a
long time ago. He was the best. We knew it from the
giddy-up. You just had to hear him. I was literally in awe
of his talent.
"He was maddening. I've spent my whole
bloody life, it seems, singing the praises of Richard
Newell. I just hope he's saving a little place for me in
heaven."
Newell, 58, was found dead in his
Hamilton home on Sunday. An autopsy is expected.
If there's just a mild intrusion of anger
in the love and grief behind Jay's words, it's because King
Biscuit Boy could drive people crazy, says Jay. He drank too
much. He wouldn't show up for gigs. He wouldn't do what
everyone expected of him.
People like Keith Richards and Paul
McCartney called themselves fans.
"He was one of the great ones, boy," said
Ronnie Hawkins. "He was one of the most talented kids I'd
ever seen."
In 1971, Britain's the New Musical
Express, then the largest music magazine in the world,
wrote: "It's easy to see why his name is bandied around like
pieces of silver."
The same year, when his career as a blues
singer and harmonica player was barely out of its infancy,
Rolling Stone called him "legendary."
But he was a legend who, by choice, never
left Hamilton, and kept his phone number listed.
"If you don't go to the big centres, you
don't get the big success, but then he was never the rock
star type," said Paul Panchezak, a close friend since 1983
when he began playing drums for him.
Perhaps that was the push his friends and
fans wanted for him, the recognition that rock stardom would
afford -- because he deserved it.
And it could so easily have been his,
most agree. If he'd wanted it badly enough. And if alcohol
hadn't gotten in the way.
Discovered by Hawkins, Newell was asked
at one point to join The Allman Brothers Band. He said no.
There were plans afoot for him to open for The Rolling
Stones on tour. The plans fell through.
But he did record some of the finest
blues music ever produced in Canada -- albums like Official
Music and Gooduns. He recorded New Orleans in 1975 with
pioneers like The Neville Brothers, King Curtis and producer
Alan Toussaint.
He played with Muddy Waters, Etta James
and Joe Cocker, among others. Everywhere he went -- the
United States, Europe (especially England) -- blues lovers
knew and admired King Biscuit Boy. His name was like a
passport. He would be invited to play in all the biggest
clubs. Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels opened for
him.
"We were playing in a Toronto club once
and Paul Schaefer, David Letterman's band leader, was in the
audience and asked to sit in," said Panchezak. "What was
amazing was that Schaefer knew a lot of King Biscuit Boy's
tunes."
That's how influential he was, and still
is, even in death. His playing, both live and in the studio,
left listeners slack-jawed.
"Clearly he was at another level," said
Panchezak. "And as a fellow musician, he could bring things
out in you you didn't know you had."
But even in the early days of his career,
the booze complicated his talent.
"I played with Richard in Ronnie Hawkins'
band for a while and one night Ronnie said to me, 'You're in
control of Ritchie,'" said old friend and bandmate Gary
Lucas.
"But by the time he got on stage he was
in the bag. I told Ronnie, 'I followed him everywhere except
the bathroom.' So Ronnie goes into the bathroom and sure
enough there's a bottle of rum under the toilet
tank."
Lucas knew Newell all through school
(G.L. Armstrong and Hill Park) and was in touch with him as
recently as December when he tried to get him out to the
Ronnie Hawkins tribute show at the Hamilton Convention
Centre.
"He was always a real individual," said
Lucas. "I remember he would walk through the hall at the
high school in shades. No one could quite figure him out,
and he liked it that way."
Jay, who now lives in Calgary, said if
people found Newell frustrating, perhaps the fault was
sometimes their own expectations.
"He burned some bridges. He caused some
people to give up on him. He might not want to go to some
place he'd made an arrangement to be. So he stayed at home.
That was part of his MO.
"Some people washed their hands of him.
He wouldn't complete things. Now in death, you want to be
kind and generous, but there were those who were furious at
him for not realizing his potential, and, therefore, our
potentials. We wanted to show him off, for our sakes as well
as his sake.
"He was one of the most maddening
characters but you had to love him for his sense of humour
and his whole take on our world. He was a warm, dear, dear
friend who had a soft spot that filled his whole
heart.
"Once a fan came up to him in a bar and
said, 'You're the greatest blues singer who ever lived,' and
he said, 'Like you'd know.' But the next thing you know he
was drinking with the guy for hours like they were best
pals.
"When I remember Ritchie, I remember the
laughs. I'm gonna miss that forever."
Newell was a "flawed character" but a
"flawless musician," said Jay. "He did not record a bad
record. I challenge anyone to dispute that. He was flawless.
He's a national treasure."
Darcy Hepner, 48, a sax player with the
current lineup of Blood, Sweat and Tears who lives in
Brooklyn, N.Y., played many times with Newell and has many
fond and warm memories of him.
The Hamilton-born Hepner worked on a
record in the early '80s with Newell that was never
released.
And he was there the night Newell may
have blown a chance for bigger things.
It happened in the early '80s at the old
Diamond Jim's nightclub on King Street East where their band
was booked for a show attended by several movers and shakers
in the Canadian music industry.
Unfortunately, Newell had too much to
drink and made an obscene gesture to the crowd. The music
industry types left.
"If we could have got past that, we might
have been OK," said Hepner. "We were fired.
Hepner stressed that Newell was a
wonderful person and a terrific musician.
If he left things undone, said Panchezak,
they didn't include stardom and wider recognition, which he
did not seem to crave.
"He was always more interested in the
music than in the trappings of fame."
But, said Panchezak, he did always dream
of recording a gospel record and never got around to
it.
"Everyone leaves stuff undone. Everyone
has something still in the In basket when they go.
"But no one played the blues in Hamilton
before King Biscuit Boy. He created a Hamilton sound, what
he called the "THA" sound. Everyone who plays blues in this
city, whether they know it or not, has been influenced by
King Biscuit Boy.
"And to me, he was the older brother I
never had."
The Globe and Mail
Thursday, January 16, 2003 &endash;
Page R9
By BRUCE FARLEY MOWAT
Bluesman made his mark
Canadian harpist's brush with greatness
was frustrated by his battle with the bottle
He will be remembered for creating some
of the high water marks in the history of popular music in
Canada. Blues harpist Richard Newell, also known as King
Biscuit Boy, has died. He was found dead at his house in
Hamilton on Jan. 5. Richard Newell's story is the stuff of
legend, but not legendary. The Oxford Canadian Dictionary
defines legend as "a traditional story sometimes popularly
regarded as historical, but unauthenticated."
Nearly all the career an ecdotes
surrounding King Biscuit Boy have been verified. Yes, he
really was recruited for the Allman Brothers in 1969, for
Janis Joplin's Full Tilt Boogie Band in 1970 and for a
mid-seventies session with Aretha Franklin. The stellar
Houston blues guitarist, Albert Collins was recording a
version of Mr. Newell's Mean Old Lady,before he died in
1994.
Mr. Newell, though, would rarely
volunteer to offer up such information, unless you prodded
him for it. He didn't think it was important.
He was born the son of Lily and Walter
(Dick) Newell, an RAF airman stationed in Canada during the
Second World War. Richard Newell developed an early interest
in music, from the country of Hank Williams Sr. to the jump
blues of Louis Jordan, to the frenetic sounds of such origin
Èal rock 'n' rollers as Little Richard. At age 12, he
purchased his first harmonica after discovering the blues
via late-night AM radio.
Mr. Newell spent seven years rehearsing
his ever-expanding collection of blues 45s, which he
purchased on regular hitchhiking forays to Buffalo. Few of
his friends at the time were even aware that he played
harmonica and guitar.
In 1963, Ronnie Copple's sock-hop rock
'n' roll group, the Barons, recruited Mr. Newell as its lead
singer. Mr. Newell had heard a recording of their
instrumental original, Bottleneck,and came by with an LP by
the prototypical American electric blues slide guitarist,
Elmore James.
Within weeks of his joining, the group
was transfigured into the flat-out, deep blues band, The
Á Chessmen Featuring Son Richard. The sound was
guitar driven and harmonica-heavy, certainly not the type of
thing you'd find at the average mid-sixties Southern Ontario
teen dance. The band made it to Europe the following summer,
playing successful shows at U.S. Army bases to predominantly
black audiences.
Back in Canada, Mr. Newell would go on to
become the lead singer of Richie Knight & The Mid
Knights in 1966. He also made his debut professional
recording at this time, as a session harmonica player on a
recording by country singer, Dallas Harms, best known for
writing such hits as Paper Rosie for American country singer
Gene Watson.
When ex-Mid Knight and future Full Tilt
Boogie band member Rick Bell was recruited for the Ronnie
Hawkins band in 1968, Mr. Newell's name came up. After one
audition, he was hired on the spot and rechristened with the
royal King Biscuit Boy moniker, a title he was never totally
comfortable with.
Back in his native Arkansas, Hawkins had
rehearsed in the basement of the old KFFA radio station
where blues harpist, Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller),
did his King Biscuit Flour Hour broadcasts. To Hawkins, Mr.
Newell must have sounded like a letter from home.
When Joplin scooped Bell and guitarist
John Till from Hawkins's band early in 1970, Mr. Newell and
drummer Larry Atamanuik were left with the task of
re-assembling the band. That group would become the first
King Biscuit Boy-led outfit, Crowbar. In a fit of pique,
Hawkins had inadvertently ¯ given the band its name in
an exchange of parting shots at the Grange Tavern in
Hamilton. "You guys are so dumb," he yelled, "you could fuck
up the moving parts of a crowbar."
As the bandleader, singer, harmonica
player and guitarist on Official Music, Mr. Newell was
responsible for building a razor-sharp and singularly
intense sound. The rehearsals for these sessions were
apparently tension-laden affairs, but the payoff came when
the album muscled its way on to the Canadian charts,
(without the benefit of Canadian-content regulations), the
fastest-selling domestic release to date.
Mr. Newell and the band would part ways
after King Biscuit Boy and Crowbar had scored on the singles
chart with the traditional piece, Corrina, Corrina. In 1971,
Crowba Ìr (without King Biscuit Boy) earned a place
on the bestseller charts with a song that was to become a
perennial Canuck rock anthem. Oh, What a Feeling was the
first domestic single to take advantage of the newly
legislated Canadian-content rules for broadcasting.
Fate intervened throughout the following
years to rob Mr. Newell of his career momentum. The backing
band he assembled to promote Good 'Uns, the 1971 followup to
Official Music,was beginning to work on a third album, when
the funding for it ran out. With the momentum lost, that
unit disintegrated, with guitarist Earl Johnson leaving to
form the hard-rock outfit, Moxy.
In 1974, sessions produced by Allen
Toussaint, the architect of many a New Orleans R&B
classic, would culminate õ in the Epic label release of a
self-titled recording. Mr. Newell would tour the United
States the following year with The Meters (featuring future
members of the Neville Brothers) as his backup band. When
the Epic label cleaned house later that year, though, he was
one of the acts dropped.
In 1972, Mr. Newell wed Jacqueline
Willetts but found that married life did not curb his
increasingly frequent drinking binges. The couple divorced
in 1979. Alcoholism was also the source of most of his
professional woes for the better part of his life, as key
shows were either cancelled, or worse, rendered into
shambles. Musicians who worked with him tended to admire
him, but found it incredibly frustrating that such an
enormous talent was being squandered.
At several junctures in his career, Mr.
Newell managed to quit drinking. Of the three albums he
recorded and released in the eighties and nineties, two were
the direct dividends of his abstinence. Those recordings
earned him Juno nominations, in 1988 for Richard Newell aka
King Biscuit Boy,and in 1996 for Urban Blues Re: Newell. The
latter is still in print on Holger Peterson's Stony Plain
label. Official Music,along with Good'Uns and Badly Bent,a
best-of compilation, are available on the Unidisc label
(http://www.unidisc.com). The rest of the King Biscuit Boy
catalogue, including the 1980 Mouth of Steel album, is out
of print.
In 2000, Mr. Newell's mother died and he
left regular stage work, preferring the seclusion of his
home in the central Mountain neighbourhood of Hamilton. His
last recordings include a version of Blue
Christmas,available on the Hamilton Hometown Christmas CD
compilation assembled by saxophonist & long-time friend,
Sonny Del Rio. An original composition, Two Hound
Blues,along with material recorded by Del Rio & Mr.
Newell in the late seventies (the Biscuit With Gravy
sessions) is planned for release this year.
Mr. Newell, who leaves his father Dick,
brother Walter (Randy), and son Richard James Oddie, made
his last public performance in a cameo appearance with The
Little Red Blues Gang on Sept. 12, 2002, at Mermaids Lounge
in Hamilton. The 60 or so audience members present were
treated to a version of his hit, Corrina, Corrina,which is
strange, because he never particularly cared for that
song.
Richard Alfred Newell, musician; born
March 9, 1944, in Hamilton; died in Hamilton, Jan. 5,
2003.
REMEMBERING RICHARD NEWELL
By: Ric Taylor View Magazine,
Hamilton, Ontario
February 6th, 2003
Blues harpist Richard Newell, also known
as King Biscuit Boy, born here on March 9, 1944, was found
dead at his home in Hamilton on January 5 of this year. I
was dumbfounded when I heard the news. I think most music
fans were. His name, or perhaps more likely his nickname
&emdash; "King Biscuit Boy" &emdash; was often reverently
evoked as a source of pride for Hamiltonians. Richard Newell
helped put Hamilton on the international music community map
long ago and now a host of musicians and fans come together
February 11, to celebrate the man and his music, putting the
myth to rest. The city of Hamilton has so many legends
circulating the musical community but save a few others the
talents of Richard Newell were the real deal. Still his was
a real life story of success, excess and misguided potential
&emdash; whose life story in the end culminated more in the
heartbreak of the blues than of its ultimate euphoric
jubilation.
Even though his musical prowess is well
documented by the likes of The Allman Brothers, Janis
Joplin's Full Tilt Boogie Band Aretha Franklin Ronnie
Hawkins and Crowbar and on a variety of his own albums
&emdash; There was just so much left to do. The headlines
announced "The King is Gone", but many believe the music
will still live on. While the man didn't like to boast of
his accomplishments, Newell's life in music enriched the
world. An early starter, Newell wasn't even a teenager when
he got his first harmonica, but some influential friends in
Hamilton and on some late night AM radio blues programs sure
did solidify his destiny. "Richard and I go back to when I
was going to Westdale High School before he was ever playing
in a band," recalls local legend Harrison 'Sweet Taste'
Kennedy. "He was 13 and I was 15. That was 45 years ago. I
was playing the harp, as taught to me through tradition by
family and other kin and I showed him some blues riffs on
the harp. Richard had a great love for the blues sound and
was a fast learner." Newell fell in love with the blues and
would voraciously study songs on the radio and later the
vinyl 45s that he and his friends were going to great
lengths to get in Buffalo.
"He and I and Bobby Washington used to
thumb to Buffalo to buy records," smiles Kennedy. "We would
call one another about 2am in the morning or the next day to
talk about The "Hound Dog's" show which was coming out of
Mexico at that time, to talk about the great tunes we heard.
We'd discuss words and I'd tell him about my folks in
Tennessee and Detroit, and how that music was all about
'tellin the truth to shame the devil'. He never forgot that
line, because whenever he'd see me, he would repeat it, and
we'd laugh." "Bobby's gone, and now Rich, but I will always
remember this sweet little guy who loved the blues." An
instantly recognizable talent, Newell played with a litany
of bands in the '60s including The Barons, The Chessmen and
The Mid Knights making good use of his "mouth of steel" and
his gritty voice &emdash; even refining his chops with
session work.
But it was a Richard named Bell that
would entice Richard Newell to try out for Ronnie Hawkins in
1968. One audition later, his Christian name was to be a
memory as Hawkins' immediate response was to bestow a new
nickname upon Newell. A fan of blues harpist Sonny Boy
Williamson II (Rice Miller) and a resident of the rehearsal
space in the basement of KFFA where Williamson created The
King Biscuit Flour Hour radio broadcasts, Hawkins was
astounded by how well Newell could play and expressed his
love with the nickname King Biscuit Boy. Kelly Jay met
Newell and found a kindred spirit when they were both in
their teens in Hamilton. Their musical paths diverged and
Jay went off to do his own thing. But Jay eventually
returned. After a year long stint in Winnipeg with The
Ascott Review, Jay visited his friend Ronnie Hawkins.
Hawkins was assembling a band and Jay offered his services
and as luck would have it, the meeting reunited him with his
old chum. "Richard and I renewed our friendship and that was
the beginning of a band called And Many Others," remembers
Jay. "We played all over the Northern U.S. with The Hawk, in
Detroit, Boston and even The Fillmore East. We quit after
the weekend we played at The Fillmore with Joe Cocker and
Mad Dogs. We came back to Ontario and we just kept
rehearsing.
"Some agents started sniffing around.
There was a guy in Hamilton named Timmy Quantemateo &emdash;
he was a former Edmonton Eskimo. He rented us an old riding
stable covering 25 acres for $250 bucks a month for the next
12 years. He did more for us in the music business probably
than anyone else." "As a band we were an entity &emdash;
Ronnie only worked a light amount of gigs so we had to work
more often than him," continues Jay. "At that point we
decided to call ourselves the Full Tilt Boogie Band. Then
Rick Bell and John Till left to play with Janis
Joplin.
"We were having our photo taken at the
exhibition grounds and Ritchie Yorke, a rock writer in town,
was there. He said 'Hey, did you boys hear what Ronnie just
said about you guys?' We said, 'No' and he told us Ronnie
said 'You guys are a bunch of good ol' boys but you could
fuck up the moving parts of a crowbar in 15 seconds'. We
thought good, that's what we'll call ourselves. Ritchie
asked if we had a quote back and we said 'Yeah, that sounds
like something the old cocksucker would say!' Ronnie would
have everyone know that he fired us, but there was never any
ill will between us and Ronnie." Newell's talents
immediately brought him to the forefront of the newly
christened Crowbar. "Richard basically instructed everybody
how to do it," sighs Jay remembering the natural ability
Newell exuded. "He had the vision he had the sound he had
the arrangements in his head. He wouldn't tell you how to do
a solo but he would tell you what not to do. His expression
was 'There's nothing new in the blues' but he was an
encyclopedia." But Newell would only be with the band
shortly before needing to stretch his wings. In 1970 he
released Official Music, followed it up with Good 'Uns in
1971, and probably his crowning glory, King Biscuit Boy, in
1974 on Epic Records. "Listening to his CDs, they're
magnificent; works of art, there isn't a bad tune in the
whole thing," offers Jay in review of Newell's later work.
"I can always tell where you can hit the skip button on your
CD player, but you don't do that with Biscuit. Every rock
writer that ever wrote about him said he was the hottest
thing they ever heard. The Rolling Stones loved him, The
Beatles loved him &emdash; that was from their lips to our
ears. I keep telling people, never mind what I say, just
listen to his albums. Thirty years after he recorded them
they're still rocking."
His skills were never in doubt, his
talent never in question. Due to a changing marketplace and
record company marketing plans, Newell found himself in a
specialty market and as such made albums when he felt the
urge, which over the last two decades of his life became
less frequent. 1980 saw Mouth of Steel minted but it wasn't
until 1988 that Richard Newell aka King Biscuit Boy was
released and in 1996 Urban Blues Re: Newell. Juno
nominations kept coming and requests for his playing never
stopped. He was always welcome to join in the jam. His final
performance was with The Little Red Blues Gang at the
Mermaid's Lounge and his last official recording was a
version of Blue Christmas on Sonny Del Rio's Hamilton
Hometown Christmas released this past December. Longtime
friend Del Rio is currently in the works assembling a final
document of work.
"A new CD is going to be coming out
soon," he explains. "Six never heard tracks recorded by
Richard back in 1982 &emdash; three off of my Forty Years of
Rock and Roll album that Richard played on and the original
"Two Hound Blues" where me and Richard can be heard laughing
together on the record. It's a fun track that I had the
pleasure of recording with him the year before he passed
away. "I miss him so much already," Del Rio admits with a
lump in his throat. "It's hard to put into words how much I
enjoyed his company. He just loved to have fun. I guess I've
known him since 1959, and we crisscrossed the country and
played in every province with him from Newfoundland to
Victoria Island. He had a wonderful willingness to share his
knowledge and enthusiasm for the blues with me and with
anybody who asked him. He was the source authority for the
blues as far as I knew and he was always willing to share
that with me. Whether it was a semi&endash;tone difference
on a horn riff or whatever the case may be, he'd tell you
exactly how it was and he new exactly how it was. As a
friend he was such a great personality He had a charming
wit. He was a really intelligent man. He was the real thing
and I miss him as a friend."
"He wouldn't let conventionality rule
him," Jay admits. "Showbiz rules, setup times, play lists.
One of my favourite things would be when one of these guys
came up to him and say, 'God Richard. You're the best blues
harmonica player I've ever heard in my whole life. You're
the best!' And Richard would just say, 'Yeah, like you'd
know.' It was just like a snotty reaction that would
devastate this guy, but two hours later you'd see the two of
them together having drinks. Richard had a way about him. He
spoke what was on his mind and he didn't bullshit people."
In fact, Jay contends that if Newell was in charge, he'd
want his life and music celebrated with that same kind of
humour. "The jokes are already sardonic and mounting," he
laughs. "My joke was we tell people we had Richard cremated
and didn't know what to do with his remains so we put a
little bit of him in each one of your ashtrays! Another is
that we're having this benefit concert and we're going to
take the money and build a statue in front of the liquor
store. That's the kind of stuff Richard and I would just
howl over.É I've known and loved Richard for 40 years.
Nothing ever changed. He was an infuriating kind of guy,
especially when liquor got a hold of him but I think a lot
of people loved him &emdash; in spite of whatever
shortcomings there might have been. It was a real
heartbreaker when I heard the news. It closed the door on so
many things. All the things that you thought you were going
to be able to do once you got things straightened out aren't
going to happen and never can." In the end, there's so much
more to still do and one of the first is celebrating the
life, the loves, the magic and the music of Richard 'King
Biscuit Boy' Newell. "I'll be there," Jay proudly exclaims
as he looks forward to a return to old stomping grounds.
"It'd be obscene for anyone not to come out. You might have
missed Richard's last performances, but at least you'll see
the people that adored the guy."
BLUES WITH A FEELING: REMEMBERING RICHARD
NEWELL aka KING BISCUIT BOY featuring Crowbar / Kelly Jay /
Richard Bell / Tom Wilson / Neil Nickafor / Lily Sazz /
Tiffany Thompson / Sonny Del Rio / Dave Rave / Trick Bag /
Jack Pedler / Shawn O'Halloran / Bing Bell / Earl Johnson /
Bob Segarini / Harrison Kennedy / Gordie Lewis / Steve
Marshall / Rick Andrew / Edgar Breau & Many More......
Tuesday, February 11 ¥ 7pm Seventy Seven (77 King William
St., Hamilton) 905.527.7488
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