Yes folks another sad loss  , late last year a Queen  ,  this time  a  King  , the King of progressive Guitarists  namely  Jeff Beck  . Undeniably  the best in Europe  , ever since his pyrotechnics in the Yardbirds on early hit singles  , Jeff never stopped progressing  and forging ahead on albums  like  "Blow by blow"  always coming up with  fantastic little licks and ideas .

I first saw him in '68 in London's  NW  venue in Manor House  , playing with him were a little known singer called Rod Stewart  , on bass was Ronnie Wood  and I can't remember who the drummer was , after all  I had gone along to see Jeff Beck  and that's  who I was interested in . We  the crowd were not disappointed  Jeff did his stuff superbly well  , the whole band for that matter , it would be 5/6 years later that I saw him again  in summer '73  at a major German rock festival  at the "Radarstadium"  outside  Frankfurt  ,  Germany .  This time he was  fronting  B.B.A.   namely  Beck , Bogart and Appice   and of course they were brilliant  with  Jeff being in a more  Funky groove  ( the Superstition vibe)  than Blues mode . Of course  since those days he just went Stratospheric  in more than one definition of that word  , out went the lovely Les Pauls  and in came the Strats  . But fair do's  the Strats did it for him  ,   where  the  Paul's couldn't  , the Les Paul's  belonged more to straight blues / rock  ,  also the  walls of sound  ( Marshall Stacks ) were now not so popular  , Guitarists were now using  small combos   , VOX AC30's  , Fender Super Reverbs  etc  etc .

Anyway back to the main man  , he will live on as the legend he was  , having probably influenced more Guitarists than anyone else  , he certainly did for the likes of me and my mates ,   remember this was pre  Jimi Hendrix   ,  whom we regarded as a new boy on the block  .

RIP    JEFF BECK .