John Walker 1943-2011

[royclough]

Sadly it has been announced within last few hours that John Walker of The Walker Brothers has passed away, they were huge in UK in 60s though American.

John was a very accomplished guitarist and actually taught Beach Boys some licks.

Here is the last chart entry they ever had in 1976 after reforming for a while

[elreydlp]

Great group. Thanks Roy.

[JeffZ]

I heard the news on the BBC World Service this morning as I was getting ready for work. I didn't know he was ill. The BBC did a nice feature on him and Gary was interviewed.

Rather than rehash the hits, here's a couple of tracks featuring John. The first is his cover of "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" from 1969 which deserved to do better than it did. Introduced by no less than Sandie Shaw (sigh... ).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbpMDuUp1ao

The second is a track from the last Walker Brothers LP, Images. The song is "I Can't Let It Happen To You". This shows John at his best, and also has a very nice trumpet solo. This is from mid 1967.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LEv9KIDtkY

John did have a minor solo hit "Annabella" which was produced by Graham Nash but I haven't been able to dig it up on the net.

[royclough]

Jeff I'll stand corrected but I don't think John Walker ever recorded By The Time etc, here is Annabella his one and only solo chart entry

[winston]

Thanks for posting this Roy. One of the iconic duos of the 60's IMO. I did not even know he was ill. R.I.P. John.

[royclough]

There were three of them Brian but due to contractural reasons or at least that was reason given Gary Walker(Leeds) did not play on any recordings in 60s, so in essence duo was perhaps correct.

[JeffZ]

Thanks for posting "Annabella" Roy. I've always wanted to hear it. Looks like I was wrong about "Phoenix" being a single. I checked a discography on a Walkers website and it didn't come up. Must have been something he did just for Sandie's show.