Pictures and stories of some of my fondest memories of...

John Entwistle

I remember sitting on the couch in the front room

of my studio back in 1975, and staring at this cover 

for hours and thinking , "How cool is this guy?".

Quadrophenia and Who By Numbers were almost 

always on the turntable. The previous year, the same week of my high school graduation, I had seen the Who live for the first time, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. They played 4 nights, but I only saw one show. 

I did, however go down to the Garden every night and hang out where the limos came out after the show. You can imagine the awe of a 17 year old Who fan, personally getting to meet each one of his heroes. Life as I knew it, had been changed forever.  Little did I know what would be in store for me 20 years later...

The very first time I went to John's home to do some recording, I brought along this picture that I tore out of a Who book with the intention of having him autograph it for me. It was one of my favorite pictures of John. I was a little embarrassed, so I told him it was for a friend. At the time, we were sitting at the bar in his house. Upon seeing the photo, he pointed to one of the shelves behind the bar, and there was the skull that he was holding in the picture, sitting up on the shelf. He went over and picked it up and brought it over to me while he explained that Keith had bought this for him as a present. He had told him that he had found it in an antique shop, and that he had used up the last of his per diem to get it. John then told me that Keith had forgotten to take the price tag off . He turned it over, revealing a sticker that said $5.00...

John said, "Big spender, eh?"

This is one of the photos that was featured in a 

huge spread for the October 25th, 1997 issue of "Hello!"magazine in the UK. We were at the house recording when they came to do the photo shoot and the interview.

Behind John are the black Ford Thunderbird 

convertible (my favorite), the Rolls Wagon, and the 

red '59 Cadillac Eldorado convertible. We got to 

drive them around the estate before we brought them down to the lawn to be photographed.

Also in the picture: John & Lisa, Scarlet the Irish Wolfhound, some of the  Rottweiler pups, and a side view of Quarwood.

(10/20/01)

This photo was taken backstage at BB King's 

Blues Club in NYC, on the same night as the 

"Concert For New York City".

After John played at the Garden with The Who, 

he came over to BB's and played a show with  

The John Entwistle Band.

That's Chris Clarke in the middle, 

our keyboardist at the time.

             I have a good story about the eagle's head belt buckle that John is wearing. While we were on one of the JEB tours, we had a day off in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I was put in charge to "mind" John for the day. He decided he wanted to go shopping for turquoise and jewelry in a very upscale part of town. I was told to not let him spend too much money. I remember going in and out of this one shop where the belt buckle was, and John scratching his head and looking undecided and concerned.  

    So, I said to him, "What are you thinking over?...

you're John Entwistle, if you can't buy yourself a few expensive things, what's the point of being you?" 

Needless to say, we got back to the hotel with the belt buckle and a few other things totaling about $3,000

and  I was never put in charge of "minding" John again.

These pictures were taken the first night I ever played with John. He came over to the  

China Club in New York City, (2/23/94) after having played Carnegie Hall 

for the "Daltrey Sings Townshend" birthday tribute concert.

(...YOU SHALL PLAY, AT CARNEGIE HALL)

Eddie Vedder, "Rabbit" Bundrick, Phil Palmer, Linda Perry and Pino Paladino 

came along with him and also sat in. We played an impromptu 2 hour long set of 

Who songs to a packed house. Earlier that evening, Steve Lukather

of Toto and Jason Bonham also sat in. Also sitting in that night were 

Jon Paris, Steve Murphy and Greg Gruber. Is John giving me the finger ?

  China Club, again...this time (8/10/94?) John brought along Simon Townshend,

Geoff Whitehorn and "Rabbit". I was playing there that night with

Martin Briley ("Salt In My Tears"). I can't remember why John was in town.

Considering who he had with him, I would assume it was a Who gig, but there was no tour in 1994.

Can someone help me on this?

Thanks to Lauren for e-mailing to me that the Daltrey Sings Townshend tour was still going...duh

Le Bar Bat, NYC (7/18/96) The Who had just played at Madison Square Garden,

(they were there for 6 nights) and John came by to jam with us

with Simon, Geoff Whitehorn, "Rabbit" and John Karan.

We had played a set earlier with Joe Lynn Turner on lead vocals and

Mark Clarke on bass. Also in the house jamming that night were, Noel Redding,

Jason Bonham, Steve Conte and Frank Guella.

With Gary Richrath, original guitarist from

REO Speedwagon after a JEB gig at the

Ventura Theater, California. (7/24/98)

John with Alan Parsons, Ann Wilson &

Todd Rundgren, posing for the first publicity photos for "A Walk Down Abbey Road".

Taken during our mere 2 days of rehearsal

at Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon.

This is a baritone guitar that

Paul Chandler

gave to John at a NAMM show.

This photo was taken at one of  3 shows we did

with A Walk Down Abbey Road at the

Villa Montalvo Winery in Saratoga, CA

in June of 2001.

John makes a face in the dressing room

at BB King's, sitting with Jimmy Archey

& his wife. (formerly of Gibson Guitars)

John doing the "big arms" thing.

You'll have to refer to Eddie Izzard's,

"Dressed To Kill" standup comedy video/dvd.

Synergy, West Chicago with the JEB.

John's birthday, 1998...we were kidding

him about the fact that his zebra print

leather jacket matched the backdrop

onstage.

Sometimes I had the task of waking him up

while we were on tour. He always

climbed aboard the tour bus in the 

morning much more chipper than the 

rest of us.

John and I doing an interview after our

performance at Woodstock '99.

Rome, NY (7/25/99)

On tour with the 

John Entwistle Band

in 1996. A meet and greet and 

signing at a record store. 

( record store ?)

John signs someone's 

Fender Precision bass.

Who should I make it out to ?

...eBay ?

John cutting his birthday cake 

at sound check for our show

 at Synergy's in West Chicago.

(10/9/98)

Chris Clarke, myself and John at another

meet & greet and signing at the Stone Pony

in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

John looks rather bored. How many

signings do you think he's done ?

May 2001

John and I with radio DJ, Brian Cosgrove

at 92.9 WEHM in Long Island.

We were performing right down the street at

Stephen's Talkhouse.

August 1999

Did you know that this guy in the football helmet on the back cover of Odds & Sods was Bob Pridden ?

Bob has told me some AMAZING stories.

I got a kick out of teasing 

John about this.

"Gee, John...was this YOUR idea?...

that was really nice of you, but you didn't have to do it..."

February 1996

Bob Pridden and I

(and a very stoned photographer)

backstage at the Garden.

August 2002

John posing with his

Rainsong acoustic bass

outside the House Of Blues

on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.

These Rainsong instruments

are made of graphite as were most

 of the Status 'Buzzard' basses

John designed.

The Rainsong company

generously gave me a beautiful

12 string that I used

the few times  we performed

"When The Sun Comes Up".

These photos were taken at the Moondance Jam Festival in Walker, Minnesota

on July 7th, 1998. The day we performed, the other acts on the bill were

The Alan Parsons Project and Yes. ( little did I know then...)

I was fortunate enough to be invited

to attend the memorial service

 that was held for John at

St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London

back in October of 2002.

Special thanks to Gigi Barlowe,

Nicola Joss, Bill Curbishley and

Victoria Hawkes for making

it all possible.

Okay...time for some fun.

Here's a guy from Ontario, Canada

who goes by the name of Ranger Rick.

He posted this on a site because

he thinks he looks like John Entwistle.

Whaddya think?

...and what about this ?

Pete

Joe Satriani

I saw this sitting in John's fax machine one day and asked him if I could have it. It was a fax he was sending to Noel Redding with a quote for his book.

It reads as follows:

"My first contact with Noel was back in the mid-sixties. He phoned me to tell me that he

had just said yes to the job I'd just said no to...playing bass with the Jimmy Hendrix

Experience. He was a lead guitarist at the

time and he asked me for a list of the

equipment I used. I gave it to him and the

next time I saw him was at the Monterey Festival. He was using that equipment and I was using a

heap of borrowed Vox stuff !!

Thanks Noel for trying to teach me (I still can't get it) the Bass part to Hey Joe (right). Anyway good luck with this book. I hope you send me a copy along with the negatives of the photographs you blackmailed me with. Will be in the post soon.

P.S. I still think you're really Charles Hawtrey

with a wig !

...and look, he was right !

Noel Redding

Charles Hawtrey

Well, I could go on forever and never get tired

of telling stories about John. I loved to tease

him because he was such a good sport. We got

along famously and always looked forward to

each other's company for a laugh. He made fun

of how neat and particular I was, only because

he was exactly the same way. For the 8 years

we knew each other, we never had one quarrel

or disagreement. As a matter of fact, he would

always stick up for me in such instances.

The last time I spoke with John was on

my cell phone from a tour bus. I was out

with "A Walk Down Abbey Road" 2002.

We were playing the following week at the

Greek Theater in LA, and John was meant

to play at the Verizon Amphitheater the

same night. We made plans to meet up at

his hotel after our shows. We were going

to hang out and, also discuss the future of

the John Entwistle Band.

That meeting never took place...

Thanks for listening, Godfrey \