From Dire Straits To Dire Straits

I remember seeing my first CD. It was on a visit to Eindhoven in the Netherlands in the early 1980s. Philips was based nearby and was getting people to try out its revolutionary new product.

The CD in question was by Dire Straits. And the selling point of the new technology was that the disc was indestructible, was easy to store in large quantities, and gave the very best sound reproduction.

Time has proved all of those claims to be far from correct.

I've continued to buy CDs, though. And my favourite place to buy them has been the little Music Memorabilia shop in Alfriston, East Sussex, which has stocked an eccentric collection of great albums covering everything from music hall and comedy to a huge range of pop, blues and jazz.

But not any more. The shelves at Music Memorabilia are slowly emptying as the manufacturers cease to make CDs – and people cease to buy them.

The CD is now truly in dire straits... And I feel as though I've been there at its birth and its death.

In Very Good Company

It was sad to hear a few days ago of the passing away of James Cotton – a name synonymous with the blues harmonica. Cotton wailed with the greats – Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters – and played on countless recordings and gigs.

Playing the blues harp is as much about raw emotion as it is about technique. I occasionally get the chance to put down my sticks and play harmonica with Russ Payne and Unison Bends, and much as I love the drums, I always leap at a chance to try to emulate the likes of masters such as Cotton, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Paul Jones and Bob Dylan.

It was also quite a big kick to find that a track from our new album, 'Liquor and Iron', was going to get big exposure from being on the playlist at Digital Blues this week – alongside a couple of tracks by James Cotton. Now that is a real musical honour...

Winwood Ho

At a time when most rock legends from the Sixties seem to be scarily older than you think – or in many cases, more scarily, dead – one of them still seems remarkably young.

Steve Winwood is still touring and is due in London in July. And though you might think he should be in his seventies by now, he's actually a mere 68.

That makes it more than 50 years since I first saw him on stage – when he was 16 or 17. He was already a veteran performer then, and fronting the Spencer Davis Group.

A precocious guitarist as well as keyboard player, he has had so many incarnations. But his finest hour was with the sadly short-lived Blind Faith, in which the Creamy musical virtuosity of Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker was harnessed to the truly lyrical songwriting and singing of Winwood.

I was fortunate enough to see Winwood and Blind Faith at Hyde Park. And despite all his brilliant work since that time, it is the Blind Faith album that seems perfectly to capture the Winwood essence.