Zoot Money
In the late 1960s, after scoring a hit with "Big Time Operator", the Big Roll Band metamorphosed for a while into the prototype psychedelia outfit Dantalian's Chariot. Sharing bills with the likes of Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett vintage), Soft Machine and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, there were a lot of goings-on with white khaftans, lava lamps and sweet-smelling incense at the most underground of clubs, but despite all this and an inspired crop of songs, for various reasons no more than a single, "Madman Running Through The Fields", saw the light of day until the fabled "Chariot Rising" album was released thirty years on in 1997.
Since the 1980s, during which he notably acted as musical director for "Tutti Frutti", the BBC TV drama which first catapulted Hollywood favourites Emma Thompson and Robbie Coltrane to fame, Zoot has continued to appear regularly worldwide, both as a featured artist with groups such as (among others) the Spencer Davis Band, Georgie Fame and The Blue Flames, Mick Taylor, Alan Price's Electric Blues Band, Humble Pie, The Blues Band, The Foundations, Geno Washington's Soul Train and The Animals (again) to name but a few.
2006 saw the birth of the British Blues Quintet - an allstar lineup featuring Zoot (keyboards and vocals), Colin Allen (drums), Colin Hodgkinson (bass), Miller Anderson (guitar) and Maggie Bell (vocals). This unique cocktail of premium vintage blues has proved absolutely electric, playing to packed and enthusiastic houses wherever they go.
Of course Zoot is still delivering the goods with the Big Roll Band too. Currently the line-up is Paul McCallum, (bass), Steve Laffy (drums), Gary Foote (sax) and Ronnie Johnson (guitar), although this is subject to variation as former members are liable to drift back when they get hungry for some serious good-time blues. You can catch them on the final Thursday of most months at the Bull's Head.
Quite simply the biggest character on the British rhythm and blues scene since the early 1960s, In 1961 Zoot formed the first incarnation of the Big Roll band; over the next two years the line-up settled into Andy Summers (guitar), Nick Newall (saxophone)and Colin Allen (drums), with Zoot on piano and Hammond organ. Before long The Big Roll Band, alongside those other luminaries of the Soho blues scene of the time, Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames and The Animals, had become permanent fixtures at the Flamingo Club in Wardour Street.
