Big Muff

Reminiscences of a Fat Folk Singer

Anecdote about a spontaneous jam with John Martyn and Eric Clapton.

Excerpt from the 192 pages Hamish Imlach autobiography, originally published in Well Kept Secret #2 (July 1997)

The Brahms and Liszt Blues

It was through drink that I met Eric Clapton in 1979. John Martyn was at the time still living at his rock star home in the south of England. John had just returned from doing a large American tour where he was opening for Eric, and both of them at the time were drinking heavily. John said it was awful. They would go from the airport to the hotel to the stadium, and at some of the gigs there would be men with shotguns and dogs between them and the audience. John had a hard time in the some places where the audience were just there to [see] Eric and were quite rude to John.

John and Eric spent some five or six weeks getting pissed on planes and hotels, and going on stage the worse for wear, and both were fans of Robert Johnson, an American bluesman of the twenties, so they tried to write together a drinking blues song called The Brahms And List Blues - Brahms and Liszt is cockney rhyming slang for pissed. When John told me the story I happened to mention that there was a strong ale called Brahms and Liszt, manufactured by a brewery in Selby, Yorkshire, and in Leeds was a pub called Brahms and Liszt which featured this beer.

John said, "I'd love to give Elo (the name Clapton is known to his by friends) some. Can you get me a case?" As it happened I was going up to do some gigs in the north, then back down London for some more. When I went north I called at the pub and got a case of the ale, and arrived at John's place with it. He asked what I was doing next.
- "I've got a gig in Dorking Folk Club tomorrow night. I've never been there before."
- "That's right next to where Eric lives!" John said.

So midday the next day we set off to Eric's house. At the time he wasn't married to Patti Boyd but they were living together. She was a very nice woman, who made us a meal. She said to me that Eric's favourite meal was egg and chips, and she would force him to have something like chops. We delivered the crate of Brahms and Liszt, all sampled along with a good few brandies. Eventually I had to say
- "I have to leave now, I've got this gig."
- "Where is it?"
- "Dorking."
- "That's just near here. We'll come with you."

My car was rather clapped out, so we took a big Mercedes 500 limousine, which Patti Boyd drove since she was sober. The folk club took place in a hospital social club, and I had a bit of trouble finding it. Finally we got the car quite close. I had a six-string and a twelve-string guitar with me, so I said to John, "I'm pretty late, and I've never been here before. I'll run ahead to let them know I'm here, in case they're panicking. Could you bring my guitars once you've found somewhere to park?"
No problem.

I had to go through the door of the social club to a room at the back. A woman was sitting outside the door, selling admission tickets, and I could hear that the floor singing had started inside. I apologised for being late, and she answered "There's plenty of time, the floor singers have just started, and you won't be on for another half an hour." Just then Patti Boyd, Eric Clapton and John Martyn came up, Eric carrying one guitar and John the other.

The woman said, "Are your friends musicians?"
I was totally gobsmacked, and thought she was kidding, but she was totally serious. I asked why. "Well if they play they can get in free." I turned to John and said "What do you think?" He turned to Eric, who said "Fair enough, we'll play." During my sets I sang The Band Played Waltzing Matilda' unaccompanied. At the end I got John and Eric up -neither of them were recognised by any member of the audience- and the two played as a duet on my guitars the old blind Gary Davis favourite Cocaine. Then I borrowed a clapped-out Echo which was the only guitar in the place, and as my final number I sang Cod Liver Oil And The Orange Juice, accompanied by John and Eric.

We went back and stayed overnight at Eric's place, staying up till all hours, there's a tape somewhere of me playing guitar there while Eric plays drums.

Hamish Imlach: 10 February 1940 - 1 January 1996.
A quote from the 300 pound singer: "I'd always joked about my drinking and smoking that I would hate to die with a heart attack and have a good liver, kidneys and brain. When I die I want everything to be knackered."

The book sold out quickly in Glasgow.