CYRIL DAVIES: Another forgotten pioneer

Overlooked titan of London's early R&B scene who passed away just over 61 years ago

This weekend finds me deeply immersed in writing about the Rolling Stones — nothing new there, that’s often been the case since they dominated my school diaries over 60 years ago. Delving back to their earliest days reminded me of another of those major figures I’m fixated by who fearlessly blazed a trail that helped shape music as we know it but either burnt out or died too early, remaining all but forgotten as decades rolled by. Following my first (and still most popular) major Substack post nearly 3 months ago about Guy Stevens, here’s another equally as important R&B scene titan, who was also the scariest of purists.

First published in Record Collector in 2014.