EMAIL RECEIVED JANUARY XXX 2006
“I saw the Jug Trust perform a couple of times in around 1967 at a pub at Bakers Arms Leyton. I was about 17at the time and had been playing guitar for about 2 years. Along with my mates Ray and Alex and I had been eternally entranced by the music of Gus Cannon after listening to the EP in the series that Alexis Korner put his name to.
I was completely transfixed by the trust and especially by Brian's performance and persona. His entire physical style was some much at one with his voice and the music and his great sense of humour. I asked him in the break if he could play Cannon's Ripley Blues in the second half, but he didn't.
Brian has remained in my mind as the kind of performer I would aspire to be.
Oh bugger it, if I'd known earlier how to contact him I could have sought him out and told him what a lasting influence he has had on me and how often I recall the two occasions I was privileged to experience the magic of a Jug Trust gig. I wish I had some of the music to listen to”.
Thanks
Terry Hutchings
Terry continues in another email….
“My first public performance was in a floor spot at one of the Jug Trust gigs. I think the pub might have been the Prince William or William IV, just down the road from the Bakers Arms which is itself a pub. I had rehearsed John Hurt's Candy Man (gleaned, at that stage, via John Renbourn) in C. So I inexplicably put a capo on at the third fret so that I was attempting it in E flat. Couldn't sing it. (take the bloody thing off) No I'll drop it one fret and try it in D. Still couldn't sing it. Eventually I took it off and did a totally dispirited rendition in C where I should have been all along. This in front of a band who I was seriously eager to impress!
Some of the numbers I recall with particular fondness from the JT repertoire are: Stealin' Stealin', Round and Round and a wonderfully outrageous version of Lover Come Back To Me with signing for the hard-of –hearing”