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Chuck Berry 1964
The
European tours 1964
From: Chuck Berry - The autobiography
Harmony Books (1987)
by Chuck Berry
In may, 1964, the Chicago
federal parole officer granted me my first travel across the atlantic,
to England, to fulfill a tour for Don Arden Limited. The English tour
had mostly bus and trains for transportion. A second European tour
came for me in november '64 that paid much more than the first. They
sent two round-trip tickets with the engagement deposit but Toddy
objected to leaving our three-year-old son, Charles Jr, under the
care of anyone else. So I took the secretary, Francine Gillium, along.
A teenage boy run up
to me as I was entering the Grand Hotel in Paris. The boy asked not
my name but pronounced it, and requested an autograph. He intruduced
himself as Jean Pierre Ravelli and began telling me every recording,
by title, of every single and/or album I had ever made. He was a Frenchman,
but his English was clearly understandable.
Jean went to every
concert I performed on that tour, confirming to me that our frendchip
was one that would live on. He swore, while he saw me at the Music
hall in Paris, november 11, then all the way to Orly Airport, that
this was only the first of many live visits that would never come
to soon end.
Chuck
Berry delighted fans with rock and blues
unknown english paper
November 1964
Chuck Berry, king of
Rhythm & Blues and the man responsible for the modern british beat
scene opened his second British tour Lewisham on friday with a programme
of his past hits and the new one, "Promised Land", now at 44 in the
pop 50. Chuck featured a lot of guitar playing and sounded a bit tired
on numbers like "Memphis Tennessee", which he must played a thusand
times before.
But although he lost
interest in "Memphis", his playing on a slow blues was excellent,
and he delighted fans with rockers like "No Particular Place To Go",
"Nadine", "Let It Rock", "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "Johnny B. Goode".
The Five Dimensions
were a solid backing group but got a bit lost on some of the breaks,
as there were handicapped by practically no rehearsal.
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