New Geoff Bradford
website, see below.
GEOFF BRADFORD
Acoustic Blues/Rag Guitarist and singer
As
a brief history lesson in the British blues boom of the early sixties we
go back a few years to 1958 when Geoff having learned guitar in the Navy
heard the sounds of Big Bill Broonzy, Leadbelly, Lionel Hampton and
others.
At
this time Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies had already (1955) paired up and
formed Britain’s first skiffle and blues club at the Roundhouse in Soho.
Geoff became a Roundhouse regular, so much so that he often covered for
Alexis with Cyril when he wasn’t around. 1962 saw a R’n’B’ band
formed with Geoff as electric guitarist, ‘Blues
Incorporated’ and featured such artists as Alexis and Cyril, Long
John Baldry, Charlie Watts and
Dick Heckstall-Smith........all
in one line-up!
May
‘62 and Geoff found himself approached by Brian
Jones also a Roundhouse regular to join a band he was trying to get
together playing the new wave of American blues sounds. This embryonic
band line-up included Brian Knight and Ian Stewart. By June the band had been through various musicians but at this
point had been sifted to a line-up of Geoff
Bradford, Brian Jones, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and Ian Stewart.
From here they called themselves ‘The
Rolling Stones’ and the music took a distinct departure from how
Geoff had envisaged portraying the blues.
Geoff
was ten years older and decided shortly after this wasn’t his cup of tea
and joined coincidentally Charlie Watts and old mate Keith Scott in ‘Blues
by Six’.
It
was a move some would question in later years as to whether that was a
wise move! Well, I’m not
sure what happened to The Rolling stones, but Geoff also joined ‘Cyril Davies and the R’n’B All Stars’. From here he went
into ‘Long John Baldry & the
Hoochie Coochie Men’ that featured amongst others a lead vocalist by
the name of Rod Stewart.
Through all of this Geoff had been making enormous impressions on budding
young guitarists that came to watch him regularly at ‘The Eel Pie
Island’ including Jimmy Page, Peter Green, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck amongst others.
Through
the years, Geoff has followed his
favoured path of music in the form of acoustic traditional blues. There
have been band and solo albums including the recent acclaimed C.D. from
the Guitar Masters series titled ‘Return
of a Guitar Legend’.
Geoff
was also a feature of an album celebrating the best of British blues, ‘Blues
Britannia’.
More
recently the documentary ‘Living
With The Blues’ of which Geoff was a main feature was shown on
Channel Four television. It was a testament to Geoff’s skills as he was
seen to duel with world ranking rock guitarist Micky Moody from ‘Whitesnake’.
Another
interesting note recently publicised in the biography of Keith Richards, ‘Till I Roll Over Dead’ is the time when in 1975
the Stones were looking for a new guitarist after long serving Mick Taylor
decided to quit. In the book Richards confirms the fact that the potential
candidates for such a position were, Jeff Beck, Rory Gallagher, Ry Cooder
and that early Stones playmate......Geoff Bradford!
Wizz
Jones say’s “Geoff Bradford is a
fine finger style guitarist who seems to be playing better than ever”.
Along
with traditional wooden bodied acoustic guitar, Geoff is also performing
with a National Tri-Plate playing an eclectic repertoire of blues,
ragtime, trad. jazz and continental jazz forms.
Geoff now has his own web site at: