B.C. Williamson - The Official Website

This represents the second installment in the Blues Bar 12 newsletter excerpts series, as created by club owner Blind Orange Peel. On This Day looks back on what B.C. was doing on this date in history, many years ago. More will come soon, so stay tuned!



The year is 1979. For the new wave of punk-rock, it is a year of Trojan importance, frequented with landmarks and tragedies. Sid Vicious, the "bassist" of The Sex Pistols, has passed away under mysterious circumstances. Elvis Costello has released his second record, This Year's Model, revolutionising punk that sounds American but is actually English. London Calling, The Clash's masterpiece, is soon to be released. The Ramones' universally panned collaboration with Phil Spector, End Of The Century, is on the way. These albums would all change the face of needlessly aggressive guitar music in their own way, as well as efforts by contemporaries Blondie, Adam and The Ants, The Buzzcocks, Joy Division, Talking Heads, Siouxsie and The Banshees, The Patti Smith Group, and many others.

Meanwhile, B.C. Williamson, the undisputed King of Traditional Folk-Based Blues, had recorded the interminable 'Me and The Blues', an ill-advised tribute album to the very music that once made him a star. Unconvinced that the product would shift satisfactory quantities, Atlantic Records released the collection only through mail order, spending roughly $200 on marketing costs. One critic reviewed the album in a brief sentence: "Never has the statement of stagnance been shouted so clearly and efficiently." After the album's failure, B.C. realised he was perhaps behind his own times, and advertised the beginning of a new tour, deciding to reference punk rock, with its poster mocking The Sex Pistols' one and only release, the similarly titled "Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols." After threatened lawsuits and complaints, the tour was swiftly cancelled, and B.C. would not reappear on stage until a one-off benefit concert in 1997 with Tick-Tock Turner, in support of diabetic blues musicians.