Hamish Maxwell : A Tribute

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Mike Denham maintained that he had personally rescued Hamish from the seedy bohemian underworld of Bridport, and had somehow persuaded him to join us as our very own ‘living legend’ vocalist, and how we all loved having him on board! He was immensely enthusiastic about bringing new material into the repertoire, and was versatile enough to tackle a really eclectic range of material. Such was his talent, he was even able to interpret gender-specific numbers by the great Bessie Smith.

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I remember his first gig with us – at a jazz club in the Cotleigh Brewery at Wiveliscombe. As we were setting up, I noticed a rather distinguished-looking - and notably sartorially-dressed - gentleman sitting off to one side, but didn’t recollect him as one of the club regulars.  Imagine my surprise a short way into the programme, when Mike introduced this mysterious stranger as “Hamish Maxwell, who’s going to sing a couple of numbers for you”. It didn’t need a couple of numbers to convince me of his talent – more like a couple of lines from his first song! I turned to Steve Graham and said something like: “My goodness! He’s good, isn’t he?!”  Steve just smiled happily, and nodded assent - and Hamish was part of the band from that moment on.

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Later, as we chatted at various subsequent gigs, we decided that he and I must have almost have met around the London skiffle scene in the 50s (not that I was remotely in Hamish’s league, as I was still at school, and merely dabbling amateurishly on the sidelines). I certainly remembered the Eden Street Skiffle Group – with Hamish as star vocalist - being among the better-known groups of the era. They were regulars on TV’s ‘Six-Five Special’ and BBC radio’s ‘Saturday Skiffle Club’, no less, and even appeared at the Royal Albert Hall and the Festival Hall. Hamish and I also discovered that we’d both gone on to become avid fans of Mike Daniels’ Delta Jazzmen – not to mention their wonderful vocalist Doreen Beatty – who went back to the classic bands of the 20s for their inspiration rather than jumping on the ‘British Trad’ bandwagon of that time.

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It was so great having Hamish with the band, not just for his undoubted vocal talent, but – more importantly – as a great friend with an extremely lively and entertaining personality. He was such fun to be with, so young at heart, enthusiastic about so many things, though especially music (oh - and food!). He had the rare ability to really perform – to really feel – a song, rather than to just sing through it, and that empathy set him apart from the average band vocalist.

 

It was a standard joke in the band – and absolutely true – that he never failed to earn more applause than the rest of us put together, especially from ladies of a certain age - there was something about that twinkle in his eye!  We loved having him with us, and only wish it could have gone on for much, much  longer ...

 

There was, inevitably, given his enthusiasm for introducing new material to the band, a whole list of numbers that we hoped to do one day, but, sadly, now never will. My favourite of these was T-Bone Walker’s You Can’t Take It With You, which – in the proverbial nutshell –seems to encapsulate his whole approach to life and music:

 

Let your hair down, baby

Let’s have a natural ball

'Cause when you're not happy
It ain't no fun at all

You can't take it with you, baby
That's one thing for sure
There's nothing wrong with you, baby
That a good T-Bone shuffle can't cure

Have fun while you can
Fate's an awful thing
You can't tell what might happen
That's why I love to sing