"Listen .......listen to the Bluebird sing"
From "Bluebird" off In City Dreams
James Dewar
( This page was put up while Jimmy was still with us. Some of his friends and aquaintences offered to share some stories about Jimmy for his fans. Since Jimmy's passing in May this page has become more of a tribute now.
I'm sitting here searching for just the right words on how to start this page on Jimmy Dewar. My intent, as with my whole site, is to be able to share my admiration (but I think it is closer to respect) for the great music that a certain group of musicians have created, that has continued to lift my spirits over a great many years.
I learned a long time ago from my then soon to be wife, that the music isn't just the guitar. Now as a guitarist, I thought that she was wrong, mainly because she was a performing vocalist at the time and you know, vocalists aren't really musicians.....they are there to fill the gaps the guitar can't handle.........right??
I was young and you know how us musicians can have this thing called an ego, so forgive me, I was wrong! Jimmy is so much a part of the essence of what I feel makes up such a large part of Robin's music, that you just can't help putting the two names together when you think about the beginnings of the Robin Trower Band .
In the music world, few would argue that Jimmy possesses one of the best voices in the business. Apparently Jimmy suffered a stroke during an operation which has left him requiring constant care.
I have read many stories and heard different versions of what exactly happened, or what may have led up to what happened, to cause his unfortunate condition. I, for one, am not going to delve into the reasons why, because the purpose for this page is to celebrate and pay respect to a very talented and gifted singer, songwriter and bassist. A man who has given so much of himself to provide us with such soulful, listening pleasure.
I have been fortunate enough to be able to meet and to do interviews with some of the musicians I truly admire.
Obviously I knew this was not going to be possible with Jimmy.
I thought, in order to find out a bit more about him, the best way was to go to the people who knew him best during the heydays of Gold Records, Arena Shows, and World Tours, and ask them to share a few stories or thoughts about Jimmy with us.
From Henry Wright ...
Jimmy and I used to room together for a bit when we toured with Lulu. He was always quiet but had a great sense of humour and was an avid reader. His favourite books at the time were" I am Legend "by Ray Bradbury and "The Martian Chronicles" by Isaac Asimov. With Lulu he only really did backing vocals and wouldn't sing lead, once we played in Aberdeen when Lulu had a sore throat so we went on without her. This was the first time I really heard him sing and you cam imagine my and the band's reaction. Jimmy finished with the Luvvers before me and I didn't see him again until we formed Sockem JB which became The Power and eventually Stone the Crows which by then I had left. By this time he was very much a great vocalist. The last time we met he was working in a small factory on the west side of the city of Glasgow. He was singing with a local band which I went to see and of course he still sounded great. He gave me a demo tape of which I believe became Stumbledown Romancer which is as good as you will get. When he died I was on a plane going on holiday and couldn't get back for his funeral so to see such support for him is just tremendous.
From Bill Lordan...
While living in Southern California, (Jimmy and his family were living in Encinitas, CA, near my home in Del Mar, CA) I asked Jimmy to be best man at my wedding. As you can see from the picture of Jimmy and I together taken after the wedding, he wore a short leather jacket and tucked his tie into his belt which I think is an old Scottish way of keeping Your tie from blowing in your face.
The night before the wedding, Jimmy took our wedding party out to dinner at a place like a Bennhihana in San Diego. He tried to get me drunk as is the usual Scottish tradition to do for the groom before the wedding.
I remember we had quite a drive home that night, and it was lucky that we were not pulled over or we both would not have made it to the wedding.
From "Funky Paul" Olsen...
I first met Jimmy through extraordinary circumstances: I had just moved to England from the Haight-Ashbury Christmas of 1979, having met Robin with Procol in San Francisco in 1968. After 5 months living with friends in Portobello Road (muso's alley) I found a flat in Barnes, just over Hammersmith Bridge.
Shortly after I moved there, I waltzed around the corner on a Sunday morning to get the paper from the newsagent's and some eggs from the dairy (that was when Sundays were Sundays....EVERYTHING was closed...only the dairy and the newsagents were open, and then only from 8 to 10 am).
A car screeched to a halt behind me amidst mad honking of horns on this quiet, idyllic Sunday morning. I turned around to see who was causing all this racket and there was Robin and his manager at the time, Ronnie Lyons, beaming huge smiles.
Robin was mixing his first album, Twice Removed from Yesterday, and it was decided then and there I would do the cover. I was introduced to Jimmy (I already knew Reggie, the drummer...he used to rehearse in the basement of the house in Portobello Road with a band called Quiver) in the control room and sat and listened to his incredible vocals. I reckon there have been three great, classic rock voices from England: Paul Rogers, Gary Brooker, and Jimmy Dewar ....with Robert Plant and Roger Daltry close behind. But Jimmy's definitely one of the three kings.
I was blown away with his voice....Robin scored a bulls eye when he found Jimmy.
In the course of doing covers for Robin in England, and dropping in on recording sessions, I got to know Jimmy a little better...but I really got to know him when I went on a tour of the midwest with Robin (doing a light show) and we were all thrown together. Jimmy was a delightful character....slightly built, but made of Scottish titanium and hard as nails if anyone ever crossed him or his friends.
We were staying at a fancy hotel in Chicago just off the lake and went into the bar after the gig. There were two huge guys who looked like football linemen sitting at a small table and some contretemps or other developed between them and little Jimmy. I remember Jimmy leaned over to these two brutes and pretty much told them where they could shove the proverbial "it" and if they didn't like it, Jimmy would sort it out with them then and there. His fists were balled up and he meant business....and these guys knew it. The bartender broke it up before Jimmy wasted these two behemoths (and he would have done) and we were asked politely to leave to avoid further trouble.
I was agape at this little fireball who was totally fearless ....the embodiment of the tough guys Joe Pesci is so good at portraying. Jimmy was not to be trifled with. A real tough cookie.
I loved spending time with him because he had a very witty sense of humour and was always a delight to be with. Just before going on stage, he would wink and smile and say, "Right, let's go knock 'em dead!" and bound up on the stage ready to let fly. He threw everything into his singing and was riveting to watch. Robin smiled a lot when Jimmy was singing his heart out and Robin was tearing up the fretboard...I'm sure it's the happiest Robin has ever been on stage. Bill Lordan complemented the band perfectly and they were a real powerhouse. Jimmy had such a bluesey delivery that came from deep within the harsh, rough and ready environs of Glasgow. It was all there in Jimmy's voice and he belted it out with authority.
Matthew Fisher took me over to Jimmy's house once (they lived near each other outside London) and I remember a huge three storey pile filled with kids....I think he had 37 of them, plus a stunning wife in charge of it all.
He was quite the family man and loved his kids.
Here's to you, Jimmy!
Love, Funky Paul
From Paul Dewar (Jimmy's nephew)...
My memories of him are sketchy. He was 10 years younger than my Dad and the two of them, although almost identical in facial features etc., could not be more different sort of people.
My Dad was a teacher. I remember being taken by my Dad along with my Mum and sister to see Robin Trower at the Glasgow Apollo in 1975, John Miles was the support. My Dad, although obviously very proud of his kid bother, just could not handle the noise and more especially Robin's facial expressions! (laughs)
As a kid, Jim was always great with me and great fun to be around. I remember being at a boy scout camp in London in 1979 and going to visit Jim in Croydon and meeting Bill Lordan. Happy days.
From Bill Lordan...
Our tour bus pulled up to the concert hall and people were standing lined up around the building waiting to get in. Next to the hall was a hardware store where Jimmy and I went to get something he needed. When we passed through the crowd to get into the hardware store, no one recognized us and
Jimmy said "You see Big Yin. When you're on the stage you're a big rock star, but when you're on the street , you're just another creep in the crowd".
When the bus had pulled up and the people saw us through the windows, they all cheered. But when Jimmy and I got off the bus and were walking down the street, the same people who were cheering were quiet as we walked by. ( An insight to Jimmy Dewar's way of thinking and his observation).
From Davey Pattison...
My Mother died when I was only six, and I was brought up, or as they say in America, "raised", by an uncle. I only tell you this because it is important to the story. When I was nineteen years old, I started hanging around this bar in Glasgow called "Burn's Cottage", which is where I first met Jimmy. The guitar player in the band that Jimmy played in was named Bill Simpson. Bill, who was also a lovely guy, had this really cool Gibson 335. Now I absolutely fell in love with the idea of owning one myself, so I had Jimmy talk to Bill, and the three of us set off to my house to try to talk my dear Uncle into buying me one. Jimmy, God bless him, was trying so hard to sweet talk my Uncle (who was having enough trouble just putting food on the table) into buying this guitar for me, extolling my talents, to telling him how fast I would improve with a good guitar etc. etc. My dear old Uncle Hugh, who wouldn't have known the difference between a Gibson 335 and a tennis racket, listened very patiently, never said a word until Jimmy and Bill left my house. Then he burst out laughing so hard, there were tears running down his face. Needless to say, I never got my guitar, but I never forgot Jimmy for giving it his best shot!!
From Matthew Fisher...
Although I've racked my brains about this, I've not been able to come up with anything. There are no particular incidents I remember about Jimmy. He has a lovely droll, understated sense of humour and often said things I thought were incredibly funny, but I can't remember any of them word for
word.
I seem to remember one of the roadies (Kenny?) recounting a story of a particularly aerobatic flight they were on (during which Reg Isadore turned various shades of green) which took place over Texas. Apparently Jimmy made some remark
about expecting to see the pilot come out of the cockpit wearing a ten-gallon hat and spurs...
Matthew.
From Bill Lordan...
While Jimmy was living in Encinitas, he was experiencing a period of personal spiritual growth. He met a Christian friend of mine, named Big John, who Jimmy especially took a liking to. Big John shared with Jimmy the Bible and invited him to a home Bible study at his house. Big John lived right down the street from Jimmy and his family. As a result of the teaching and the study at Big John's, Jimmy had a spiritual awakening and decided that the next step to take was to be baptized. John decided to do the baptism in Jimmy's backyard pool. We all gathered together around the pool as Big John took Jimmy in the pool and prayed with him before Jimmy was dipped into the water for the baptism. It was a happy and joyous occasion and his wife and kids were very happy for him and Jimmy was aglow. This marked a period in Jimmy's life which signified clarity and enthusiasm for his new found Christianity.
My Jimmy Dewar Story by Richard Devlin...
( I don't know Richard, but he had written me a long time ago and was telling me about meeting Jimmy, so I asked him to put it down for us to read)
I used to go and see a band in my hometown of Glasgow Scotland...Big George and the Business. They played, and still do, blues based rock. George, the guitar player , was very much the classic rocker on and offstage...influenced by the likes of Hendrix, Rory Gallagher and Robin Trower.
I was talking to a few pals at one of the gigs one night (must have been around 1983) about Robin Trower and that I was more into Jimmy's singing than Robin's guitar playing. They mentioned that Jimmy had been known to sit in with George on occasion and that in fact he had just walked in the door of the pub.... imagine my surprise! He was the most non rock star looking guy you could imagine....don’t think I'd ever seen a photo of him at that point....he just looked like your average Glasgow pub dweller. It only became apparent when he got up to sing....
Next thing I know, I'm on the road with the band doing small gigs around Scotland, working along with Jim Dewar junior. After a while, the band was re-jigged to become a short lived outfit called ”Adults Only” adding a keyboard player and playing a mixture of Jimmy and George's tunes and blues and soul standards and the odd Trower tune..."Bridge of Sighs" and "Long Misty Days" were the ones I remember. I took a cassette machine to some of the gigs but these recordings are long since lost...in fact, I remember the machine
being stolen with a freshly recorded gig still on the tape inside. I was
more upset about the tape than the machine.
The set up didn't last long and George went back to being Big George and The Business and Jimmy began working with another guitar player called Alan Wheeler , but not a lot seemed to come of it as far as I remember. Jimmy did come and play with George on a few more occasions after that...one night he brought a vintage 57 Strat with him and entrusted its safety to me “If there's any bother in here tonight," he said “Never mind about us...make sure you get that guitar out of here”. I also remember vividly carrying his huge by fifteen bass speaker cabinet (only one of the four that he used to use on stage, still had RTB stencilled on the side) up and down various pub and club staircases.
Alas, the only memento I have of the whole thing is a four track recording of a Judy Collins song called “My Father” which Jimmy and George recorded on a small cassette recorder in a flat in a high rise block in Glasgow.
I always remember him as a truly nice guy. He gave me my first ever rock’n’roll wage and made sure that I had got the right amount.
Young Jim was just as good a singer as his Father, but he tragically died a few years back aged about 34...just a couple of years older than me I think.
I was so sad to hear about his illness when George told me. He's been to visit him on a few occasions since and he says that although he seems to be totally withdrawn a lot of the time...the old Jimmy's wicked sense of humour still gets through.
I must have a word with George and see if he has any memories, as he was great pals with Jimmy and I know Jimmy really rated him as a guitar player and songwriter.
Hope this is all of interest to you...I really think Trower sites on the web should give Jimmy a lot more credit for his contribution, both in writing and performance terms to the Robin Trower sound over all those years .
Cheers
From Bill Lordan...
The band was booked to play the Oakland Coliseum for Bill Graham, The First Day on the Green. Jimmy and I had suites on the top floor of the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco. The limousines came to pick us up in the afternoon to take us to the stadium. Jimmy and I drove together to the stadium and he was in good spirits for the daytime concert. When we arrived, we went to our private dressing rooms behind the stage that had our personalized nameplates on the doors.
The bands that were on before us were; Gary Wright, FleetWood Mac, Dave Mason and Peter Frampton. Jimmy and I went up to the stage to survey the 60,000-plus crowd that was there. Jimmy turned to me and made the comment, "For fxxx sake. Look at all the punters". Jimmy used the word "punters", because in England, fans are referred to as "punters".
Then he said to me, "Are you ready for this Big Yin?" ("Big Yin" is the nickname that Jimmy gave to me which is a Scottish way of saying `big one'), I said to Jimmy, "Nay bothah to the Big Yin." It was my way of saying to Jimmy, "No problem, I can handle it." Then we went back to the dressing room and put on our stage clothes.
As Jimmy and I came out over the stage, we walked across the drawbridge with the British Guard standing there, as the British Anthem played through the P.A. system. Jimmy was in great voice that day and played solid bass and when Robin introduced us to the crowd in the middle of the set, Jimmy turned to me as I took my bow and said, "Good one, Big Yin."
When our set was over, I gave Jimmy a pat on the back as we were going off stage. Later that night we had a great party with all the band members and friends at the Mark Hopkins Hotel and it was a wonderful way to end the Day On The Green.
From Davey Pattison (excerpt from our interview)...
James Dewar is the best white rock and roll singer I have ever heard in my life! He turned me on to a lot of great music in the early days.
There was this little bar in Glasgow called "Burns Cottage", and I was just starting out playing there five nights a week with a bar band playing cover songs, top forty kind of thing. On a Saturday afternoon though, they had a band that was drawing every good musician in town, bit of a jam session. This is where I met Jimmy, (this would be around 1965 or so) who was playing bass and doing some of the singing. Frankie
Miller was there, Maggie Bell was there, the late Leslie Harvey (both of whom later worked with Jimmy in a band called "Stone the Crows").
We would all go to Jimmy's house after the gig and we would listen to all this great music, Solomon Burke, Brooke Benton, Bobby Bland. The guitars would always come out and we would be singing away, man we had so much fun.
Everybody was broke, but I tell you, I look back at those days as some of the best of my life. I will always be grateful to Jimmy for all the help he offered me.
From Dave Bronze...
Unfortunately, I only had the pleasure and honour of working with Jimmy Dewar on the Back It Up sessions. My recollections are simply that he was a very humble and nice guy, and that when he opened his mouth to sing, pure heaven came out. What a voice! And you are correct, he has never been given the recognition he deserves.
