RIP Big Jim Sullivan

[StuartD]

Just remembered as well that he had a song he had written called the Great Train Robbery and he showed me a letter he had received from Tony Meehan who was doing the arrangements. That would have been about 1968 in the Excel Bowling Alley in Leeds.

Regards

Stu

[tommybird]

Very sad news indeed. A truly great guitarist.
RIP

[Keith Bateman]

An excellent obituary from the Independent here http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/big-jim-sullivan-legendary-session-guitarist-who-played-on-more-than-900-hit-records-8196459.html revealing that Jim lent Jet his Fender Bass VI and helped him develop his sound when launching his solo career.

Keith

[GoldenStreet]

Just remembered as well that he had a song he had written called the Great Train Robbery and he showed me a letter he had received from Tony Meehan who was doing the arrangements. That would have been about 1968 in the Excel Bowling Alley in Leeds.

Regards

Stu

This was issued on a single (Instant IN 001) in 1968.

From the 45cat site:-

Capture(OL).JPG

(44.44 KiB) Downloaded 3486 times

Bill

[StuartD]

Just remembered as well that he had a song he had written called the Great Train Robbery and he showed me a letter he had received from Tony Meehan who was doing the arrangements. That would have been about 1968 in the Excel Bowling Alley in Leeds.

Regards

Stu

This was issued on a single (Instant IN 001) in 1968.

From the 45cat site:-

Capture(OL).JPG

Bill

That's brilliant. Proves my memory is still working

Regards

Stu

[Newliverman]

He is a great loss to the music world. I remember meeting Big Jim in Halifax when he was playing at a open evening in a local guitar shop. He was accompanied by his close friend on rhythm guitar. He was demonstrating for a guitar company. At the end he held a question and answer session. I asked him who his guitar hero was? He replied " not Hank Marvin but he does play a nice tune!" (he knew I was going to be in the audience as Licorice had a spoken with him prior to the evening telling him I was going to be there and I was a great fan of the Shadows. I can't for the life in me remember who he said was his hero, but it did cause a smile. He was fabulous that night and I didn't see him in his prime! What a pity.
Nice memory.

[George Geddes]

Funnily enough, Colin Pryce Jones, Alan Taylor and I were talking to Bill Bonney at Shadowmania, and Bill said he had tried a sunburst Bass VI, didn't like it abd gave it back to Arbiter, where it was passed on to Jet.

George

[RayL]

Judging from the length of this thread, there is a lot of interest in Jim Sullivan. Here's a clip from a video I made at one of his evenings in Coolham in 2008. He's playing Jerry Reed's 'The Claw' with a segue into 'Jessica' - wonderful fingerwork!
http://youtu.be/59jHVUAR_cs

This being Saturday morning i've also had the time to upload some video from the '2i's Plaque Unveiling' shoot from which I took the still at the beginning of this thread.
http://youtu.be/Ow8z0iH5YPI

This is from the opening few minutes of the recording and you can see many famous faces soon after their arrival. Not only Big Jim, but the full reunion of the Wildecats/Krewcats, plus Clem, Bruce, Wee Willie, etc, etc. See how many you can spot!

Ray

[GoldenStreet]

This is from the opening few minutes of the recording and you can see many famous faces soon after their arrival. Not only Big Jim, but the full reunion of the Wildecats/Krewcats, plus Clem, Bruce, Wee Willie, etc, etc. See how many you can spot!

Ray

The gentleman 19-20 secs in is the late Rick Hardy (aka Rick Richards), who was at the 2i's the afternoon John Foster arrived to audition the absent Tony Sheridan and recommended he listen to Hank instead.

Rick's website:-

http://www.geoffgibbsguitarist.pwp.blue ... hardy.html

Bill

[Ivan Pongracic Jr]

I'm chiming in rather late here, mostly because I can't really say I'm a big fan of Big Jim's, my knowledge of his playing being primarily restricted to the six great Krew Kats tracks. I especially enjoyed his playing on Peak Hour, which was just phenomenal. I have a feeling his major heroes were Chet Atkins and the big jazz guys. Anyway, I just came across these words of appreciation for Big Jim by none other than Ritchie Blackmore. I remember reading an interview with Blackmore where he talked about how when he was very young and just learning to play guitar, he lived very close to Big Jim. After school he would often sit at Big Jim's door, waiting for him to come home and give him a lesson, which apparently Big Jim was kind enough to do. Would Blackmore have been Blackmore without Big Jim Sullivan? Quite possibly not. (Also, would Jimmy Page be Jimmy Page without him?) Anyway, here is Ritchie in his own words:

I first met Jim Sullivan in 1958. He was introduced to me by my sister-in-law's brother. We both lived in the same area: in Middlesex, Cranford. He was playing with Marty Wilde and the Wildcats. He showed me another level of playing. He was probably the most advanced guitarist in the London area. I would listen to the radio every week there was a Marty Wilde show. Jim was often featured on the show, so I was glued to the radio. He also made some great instrumentals, one being "Trambone" and one being "Peak Hour." He was the 1st guitarist to play through a wah wah pedal. It was a Deamond foot volume and tone control. I remember an instrumental called "The Bat," where he used the pedal. That would've been around 1959. Last time I saw Jim was in LA where he was playing with Tom Jones. He was one of England's finest players, a mentor and a good friend for me. His playing will always be in my heart and live on.
God bless you Jim.
-Ritchie

How nice that Ritchie actually remembers those great Krew Kats instros, and even mentioned them in his memorial to Big Jim! Anyway, It thought some of you might enjoy reading this.

R.I.P, Jim Sullivan