Saturday 25 August 2012

Reader/Band Profile: Sid Griffin

Back from our Summer hols, having had a restful time witnessing the exertions of Team GB from the exhausting heat of Istanbul; team B&B is delighted to bring you news of our September 9th Amnesty International fundraiser! 

If you haven't yet booked your tickets, now is the time to do so, only 50 are available for pre-sale, and they're going fast!  Your ticket not only gets you access to a night featuring live performances from the majestic Tim Wells and the peerless Ralgh Long & the Primary 3, you will also get to see SID GRIFFIN:
 
Sid Griffin is perhaps best known as the leader of alt-country founders the Long Ryders back in the 1980s in Los Angeles.

Since those heady days Sid has written four books; Gram Parsons: A Musical Biography (1985), Bluegrass Guitar: Know The Players, Play The Music (2005), Million Dollar Bash: Bob Dylan, The Band & the Basement Tapes (2007) and Shelter From The Storm: Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Years (2010). In addition Sid wrote for BAM, the L.A. Times, German Rolling Stone, Gosh!, spent ten years writing for Q, wrote for Mojo starting with issue two, has authored several late night BBC Radio 2 specials including a memorable one on The Carter Family which was narrated by Dolly Parton (!),  and he also did the research, interviews and wrote the script for the Warner Bros/BBC TV documentary Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel.

In 2002 he flew to Florence, Italy to received the Piero Ciampi Award for service to the arts, accepting the award on national radio. He is a native of Kentucky, a graduate of the University of South Carolina and now lives in Camden Town, north London. He has compiled and annotated over forty collections, anthologies or reissues for various record labels such as Rhino, Warner Bros, Universal and PolyGram, perhaps most notably Flying High, the well-received collection by his old friend Gene Clark (the Byrds, Dillard & Clark).

Sid Griffin is a raconteur, a solo performer of note with two solo CDs out, a mandolinist with “alt-bluegrass” heroes the Coal Porters, the resident musicologist on BBC 6 Music’s Radcliffe & Maconie Show and a political junkie of the first order. He has no chemical dependencies and is a vegetarian. 

Sid will be telling us stories about Bob Dylan and singing us some songs. We can't wait to see you there!

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