BACKSTREET CRAWLER: PAUL KOSSOFF

Paul Kossoff died of a heart ailment after years of drug addiction. So I guess he isn’t really a hero of anything. Probably closer of being a fool, or yet another person with a death wish. As a guitarist I preferred him to may of his better contempories; that had everything to do with a love of imperfection. Kossoffs second band, Free, fell flat on their faces through their first two albums. Were considered a poor man’s Cream. Couldn’t get in the charts to save their life. But watching them in ’68 at Manchester’s Twisted Wheel, tagging along with my big brother, it was...love.

Kossoffs playing wasn’t that tremendous, I realize; his use of the whole neck of the guitar and fast chord changes a not so good Clapton try, his extended riffs a harbinger of the ghost of HM yet to come. All that said, for a 12-year-old kid having his first taste of beer, the experience was somewhat akin to the second coming of Christ. I remained a fan of Free and Kossoff to the point where I even bought a Backstreet Crawler LP—though that was ’76 and I was a fully paid-up punk by then.

But I’m jumping the gun. Simon Kirke and Paul Kossoff used to play with a pub circuit blues cover band Black Cat Bones when they became friends with blues singer Paul Rodgers. Grabbing John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers bassist Andy Fraser, they formed a group. Originally called the Heavy Metal Kids, they came to the attention of Alexis Korner and changed their name to Free. The first coupla albums went nowhere fast; they didn’t have the flair of Cream or the brilliance of a Peter Green. A self-penned single, “All Right Now,” in 1970 changed all that, however. A smash hit on both sides of the Atlantic, it led the way for their next hit “My Brother Jake.” The band dissolved for the first time soon after that.

Paul started on a solo career and recorded the iffy Kossoff Kirke Tetsu Rabbit. The platter went nowhere. In ’72, Free reformed and cut an album—another hit single followed, “A Little Bit Of Love.” Soon after, Fraser left and was replaced by Tetsu (who would later be in the Faces— god this stuff is incestuous!). Still having problems with his hopeless heroin addiction, Kosoff eventually quit. He recorded his solo album Backstreet Crawler (as opposed to the later band I mentioned) in ’72 and then disappeared after a serious heart attack nearly killed him. In ’75, just before his band Backstreet Crawler were to tour, he suffered another heart attack but made a swift recovery. In the process of setting up a huge tour for his band, and a grand return to the stage, Kossoff died.

I met Paul Kossoff once, two weeks before his death. I’d spent the night with my girlfriend at the Manchester Airport Hotel, drinking and watching TV. We’d watched Paul on the Old Grey Test, saying how much better he was, how he was looking forward to getting back to the audience. The next morning, Pat and I are having a late breakfast of brandy and bacon sandwiches, when she points to a man sitting opposite us. “Wasn’t he on TV last night?” she asks me. “Yeah, I know," I murmur. Then she shouts across the dining room, “'Ere, we saw you last night.” Paul looked up in embarrassment, smiled shyly and nodded his head. I could take it no more, and walked across the aisle. “Please excuse my friend. I’m really a big fan of yours.” He sez thanks quietly. “When’s the new album coming then?” I ask, cringing inside. “Real soon.”

“Any chance of getting Free back together?”

“No, not right now. But the new band is rather good.”

“Well, I’ll certainly buy the album.”

And that was it. My hero? No. No more heroes anymore.

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First emerging with the Moving Sidewalks, Gibbons fled psychedelia for 11 Top's gritty, down-home blues stylings and ended up as lead guitarist with one of America's greatest touring attractions.

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