Oh dear I didn't know he had died,that's a shock I knew him very well in the 60s and again in the 90s. His first gig was at the Ealing Folk Club at the Labour Hall in Overdale Road,he lived in either Blondin or Niagra. At the time he had a co-musician Alan Young (Radourne Avenue)who wrote Breakfast on Pluto for Don,I think Alan still lives on a barge in Brentford. Don was a consumate musician and showman,anyone who saw his impression of a baby being born (and complaining that it was "Too cold on the outside") would have to agree,it was really funny. He was also a poet,My favourite "Grain of sand",in which he makes the point that we are each just like a grain on a beach,and not very important to the greater scheme of things. After his hits he met harder times,drink (and possibly worse) took it's toll.In about 1996 I phoned him on a whim and persuaded him to try recording once more. I went to his house in Seaford Sussex where he played me his latest song which was a poem by A.L.Noyes called "The Highwayman" put to music by Don...one of the most moving songs I'd heard. The session was all a bit fraught,one of us was being a tad "tired",I tried again in a London studio with much the same result,sadly we parted not the best of friends :0(. The song was re-recorded by a Sussex folk record company and got to see the light of day,but wasn't a commercial success sadly.I could go on about some of his wilder escapades,living on oranges in Spain(you can imagine the result),starving and being forced to eat a cat,and much worse that can't be placed on a public forum.He was known as the "King of the Buskers" that he most definately was, Long live the King.
Tony Wood ● 5841d