This weeks featured bluesman is perhaps for many an improbable choice as John William “Long John” Baldry is perhaps best known for his pop music hits of the later 1960s , but in the early 1960s, he was one of the first British vocalists to sing the blues in clubs and shared the stage with many British musicians including the Rolling Stones , and both Rod Stewart and Elton John were members of bands he led.
Baldry grew to 6 ft 7 in , resulting in the nickname “Long John”. He appeared quite regularly in the early 1960s in the Gyre & Gimble coffee lounge, around the corner from Charing Cross railway station, and at the Bluesville R. & B. Club in London, as well as the Railway Hotel in West Hampstead. He appeared weekly for many years at Eel Pie Island on the Thames at Twickenham and also appeared at the Station Hotel in Richmond, one of the Rolling Stones’ earliest venues.

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In the early 1960s, he sang with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, with whom he recorded the first British blues album in 1962 ‘R&B from the Marquee’. Famously Mick Jagger, Jack Bruce and Charlie Watts were all members of this band with Keith Richards and Brian Jones also often in support . When The Rolling Stones made their debut at the Marquee Club in July 1962, Baldry put together a group to support them.

Baldry sang ‘Got My Mojo Workin’on the Beatles 1964 TV special Around The Beatles.

In 1963, he joined the Cyril Davies R&B All Stars and in 1964 took over after the death of Cyril Davies, renaming the group Long John Baldry and his Hoochie Coochie Men which featured Rod Stewart on vocals . Baldry first encountered Rod Stewart busking a Muddy Waters number at a London Underground stationthat same year .
Long John Baldry became a regular at Eel Pie Island fronting a series of bands.

In 1965, the Hoochie Coochie Men were renamed Steampacket with Baldry and Stewart as male vocalists, Julie Driscoll as the female vocalist and Brian Auger on Hammond organ. After Steampacket broke up in 1966, Baldry formed Bluesology featuring Reg Dwight on keyboards and Elton Dean later of Soft Machine. Well you know where this is going … Reg Dwight of course took his stage name of Elton John, his first name from Elton Dean and his surname from John Baldry.

Baldry was openly gay during the early 1960s, at least amongst his friends but of course due to UK law did not acknowledge this publicly until the 1970s. When in 1968, Elton John tried to commit suicide after relationship problems with a woman, Linda Woodrow , his lyricist Bernie Taupin and Baldry found him, and Baldry talked him out of marrying her. The song “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” from Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy was about the experience. The name “Sugar Bear” in the song is a reference to Baldry.

During the mid-1970s, Baldry suffered from depression and developed an addiction to alcohol and painkillers at one point he was found barely conscious by his sister in their London home, having overdosed on Valium and alcohol in an apparent suicide attempt.
By the mid 1980s Baldry suffered from crippling gout and bronchial and sinus issues. In 1995 he underwent surgery for a bleeding stomach ulcer.
In 2002 he had developed spinal osteoporosis and underwent hip replacement surgery . In early 2005, his health further deteriorated and he was moved to an intensive care unit. Baldry’s condition was deemed beyond treatment, as he had contracted MRSA due to his depleted immune system and was pronounced dead at 10:30 PM on 21 July 2005 at the age of 64.