Comments

This site aims to be the most factual record of Jess Roden's musicology.

Comments and corrections are very much welcomed and will be included and attributed in the various sections, once they have been verified.

To submit comments (or corrections / additional information) please use the email address on the contact page.

Please do bear in mind though, this site is continually developing - so, please treat any (obvious) omissions - such as copy in certain segments etc) - as work in progress...

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Thanks for the website.I have been a fan of Jess since the sixties and first saw the Alan Bown Set while on my first holiday without my parents; it was in Ramsgate and something to do with Radio London - Headline News was top of their chart at the time also on the bill was Tony Blackburn. Anyway, needless to say I became big fan of the Set and especially Jess. Living in Wolverhampton I was able to see Alan Bown several times including at the Civic and Park Hall Hotel (where we had to get changed as jeans weren't allowed). My favourite Bown number was their version of All Along The Watchtower. Tony Catchpole was great - what happened to him?When Jess formed Bronco, I saw them when they supported Free at the Civic and was amazed by Jess and also by the 'duelling guitarists’ Robbie and Kevyn. The JRB were a great band and provided a great atmosphere, especially at JB's in Dudley and I also saw Jess with the Humans at The Robin. I still keep returning to the albums and always find them enjoyable (even Toyland!). So thanks, Jess - for the entertainment both live and recorded and thanks too for the website. Yours gratefully,

Tony Nauta

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I had been trawling the Internet on occasions to replace some of my old and very worn LP's with Cd's when I came across your website. I was a Kidderminster lad and I was at most of Bronco's gigs in those days. Gypsy were backing you at one of the Kidderminster college gigs and I was at a rather empty town hall on a July evening when they pulled the electricity on you !  Who on earth booked a Kidderminster gig at the start of the factory fortnight ? Almost as bad as the robbers that held up the wages office in Stoke on Trent during the factory holiday! It was nice top see Robert Plant to pay tribute to your mother referring to her as his second Mom in the booklet provided with his solo album. So many thanks for the great music you and the rest of Bronco played in those days.
 
Rod Cope.
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I was at the Wellington Club in East Dereham on the night that the local “Rockers” took exception to the “Alan Bown” mod panache. They were just a fantastic hard working club act (the highest paid act without a hit record to their name), wearing brightly coloured and well tailored suits, playing a full tilt R&B set in the early days which attracted a strong male & female following, but by this time it was “Let’s go down & blow our minds in Toyland”. Trouble had broken out during an appearance by the Jeff Beck Band during a previous weekend, when a bottle was thrown at Rod Stewart, but the night that Jess & the Alan Bown Set were forced to leave the stage early got completely out of hand when the door to their dressing room in the basement was smashed down while members of the band were desperately striving to protect themselves. It was a total disgrace and those of us who lived for the Alan Bown, who until then played in Dereham regularly were shocked and ashamed. The incident sounded the death knell for the Wellington Club, but Dick Bloy, the promoter did manage to get the band back to Norfolk to appear at Great Ryburgh village hall, but it was never the same – the magic had gone.

Neil from Norfolk

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I'm so pleased at last to be able to write to you (Jess) just to tell you really what a joy and pleasure it's been to play your music over the last thirty years or so.

Not only yours, but lots of blues. Your rendition of St. james' Infirmary sung at the Whisky a GoGo in about 1966, blew me away even then. I was at St. Ambroses with Kevyn Gammond, and Dave Deakin. Then at The Grammar School with Johnny Pasternak and Pete Waldron. John was a rebel and a hero, a year above me, flaunting school regulation uniform by wearing winkle pickers and purple and black striped socks. He had a purple racing bike too. I think that the first time I met you was in the Flamingo, just before I made it to the Whisky with Bri Smith and a few others. We travelled back to Kidder with you and the Shakedown Sound in the van, nicking milk off a milk wagon en route, it was soooooo exciting to be a part of it all!

I left Kidderminster to go to London in 1967, then left London to come to Cornwall in 1968, where I've been ever since. One song in particular used to keep me going on off days, 'Jump Mama', off the' Keep Your hat On Album', expressed a sentiment that I could relate to after painting thousands of paintings and seeming to get nowhere. Your work has given me much pleasure. Many thanks, and sincere best wishes for the future

John Bampfield

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It is so good to see that there finally is a proper website for one of the greatest voices ever to emerge from the British island. Many thanks for your efforts - keep up your great work!
 
I understand that the website is still a work in progress. Although I have not read everything in detail as yet, please allow me some minor input to improve it:
 
The JRB sessions page seems to be a little bit mixed up: You number 4 sessions, although there are actually 5 sessions listed, the fourth (rec. date 7 Dec. 76) being added at the end of # 3 without a space and without a number. So this one would be session # 4, the one with the unknown track listing. What is now listed as session # 4 would become # 5. That's the one with the unknown recording/broadcast date in 1974.
 
Btw, the BBC website does not list Billy Livsey being part of the liineup that played the session recorded on 4 April 1975. Are you sure he is on it. I know that this session is on the "Live at the BBC" CD, but don't have that on hand right now to check.

Joerg Reinicke

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So, so pleased to see that the site is up and running, it's looking good For things to grow to this point where a good friend and colleague of Jess puts in this sterling work to create a website worthy of the man, is something indeed! I want to wish you the best of luck with the site, and let you know that you can count on me for any help if need be. On behalf Jess's fans, I'd like to be so bold as to say "thank you!"

Kev Moore
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Hi! It's really good to see a website dedicated to Jess, a superb & ridiculously undervalued soul singer. He has a waiting audience for his gigs and records if he should ever decide to revive his all too brief career. I followed the link to this site from Kev Moore's website, Kev has referred to seeing Jess perform with Bronco at Derby College, around 1974, a gig which I'm fairly sure (even after all these years) I also attended; we saw Bronco once or twice in the area in those days - maybe at Cleos (Clouds) club, too. It's a hazy memory now, much like seeing those great singers Robert Palmer & Elkie Brooks together in Vinegar Joe in the town too. You folk that love the voice of Jess Roden should also check out Frankie Miller, a brilliant Glaswegian rock/soul/blues singer who made some great records in the early-mid seventies - including classic stuff with the genius Allen Toussaint in New Orleans. Just browsing through the "sessions" section quickly revealed a surprising fact I didn't know, despite my 44-year addiction to the Who - that Jess sang bvox on "Magic Bus". Some of his other supporting credits were also a surprise to me, so I'll be digging out some of that vinyl soon... I also have that fantastic double CD tribute to guitar genius Peter Green to sample the voice. I'm chuffed to discover this website through Kev's tribute, and it's now no my "faves" list!

Dave Mortimer (in Birmingham).
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I just want to say thank you so much for establishing the fantastic new Jess Roden web site - I have been a fan and admirer of Jess's music (and of course voice) for 30+ years - its always been a mystery to me why the guy never achieved the wide-spread recognition that he so well deserves - the new compilation & now your fantastic (and ever growing) resource may offer a kick start to it at long last. I have got together with a drummer buddy I played with some 30 yrs ago - Jess's songs Cystal Eye, In A Circle and On Broadway used to be in our set back then & we have covered Me and Crystal Eye in a new band we have recently formed. Thanks again - all the best
 
Julian
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