Dick Heckstall-Smith has been blowing British blues saxophone for fifty years! He has become a legend. Dick was the cornerstone of such seminal R&B bands as Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, the Graham Bon ORGANization, John Mayall's Blesbreakers and Colosseum. He helped pave the way for R&B-influenced rock groups like Fleetwood Mac, The Yardbirds, The Animals and The Rolling Stones.

This is a book of two-halves: in the autobiographical section Dick Heckstall-Smith writes with his pithy humour of the revolutionary founding years of British R&B, including his unforgettable anecdotes about Ginger Baker, Alexis Korner, Eric Clapton, Charlie Watts and the larger than life Graham Bond. His unrelentingly honest account of his musical career also reflects on what it takes to be a full time musician, and grapples with the racism and drug abuse endemic in the music industry. In the second part of the book, Dick's manager, Pete Grant, covers the last twenty years and questions why someone as influential and talented as Heckstall-Smith has not been more of a commercial success.

The book is enriched with the cartoons of Biff, which make often biting comments on the life of a blues musician, and many rare photographs. Also included is a CD featuring 70 minutes of music by Dick Heckstall-Smith, much of it previously unreleased.

CONTENTS:
PART I: The Safest Place In the World
Preface by Jack Bruce; Foreword
Fledgling
Substances
Blues Incorporated
The Beginning on the Graham Bon ORGANization
Snowed In
To Be A Ruined Man Is Itself A Vocation
The End of the Graham Bond ORGANization
Interregnum: John Mayell's Bluesbreakers
The Rise of Colosseum
'Jon Hiseman's Clothes Museum' - Dave Greenslade
Why Did Colosseum Fall?
A Story Ended
Afterword: Race and Racism in Music
PART II: Managing A Mastro
Pictures Old and New
Millennium Blues
Big Deal
Where One Is
This That
The Solo Albums
A Lost Project: DIck and Duffy
Selected Music
Out and In

Chronology
Discography
CD Notes ...You Don't Know Dick
About Pete Grant

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read an essay on British saxophone stylists by Simon Spillett