These photos of Little Walter come to us courtesy of Dave Luxton & Al Thompson. Little Walter performed one night in 1964 at the Alley Club, Cambridge, England, which is where these photos were taken. Here are Dave Luxton’s recollections: “Firstly, Al and me aren’t musicians. We are blues record collectors! We contacted the guy who ran the “Alley” and suggested we play our R&B records when he didn’t have groups appearing. We just wanted to blast the blues sounds out! We did this once or twice a week when we weren’t working. We both had good downhome blues collections of import 45’s – all the Chicago labels plus plenty of Excello’s, etc., etc., and the Crown LP’s of Elmore, Wolf, Hooker, etc. It all went down well on the blues nights as most of it hadn’t been released in UK. Walter was in UK September/October 1964 for a month tour of one night stands (read his book for description of it, good and bad nights!). His gig at the “Alley” was a blast! He arrived early evening, no rehearsal, just told the band (The Worryin’ Kind) to play a Jimmy Reed riff, and then Al and me took him for a drink down at the pub (Still & Sugar Loaf). Once we mentioned guys he played with; Jimmy Rogers, Muddy, Baby Face Leroy, “You know Baby Face man!”, we got on fine. He was in fine form that night. I remember “My Babe” and several instrumentals….a night Al and I will never forget.” Some of these photos are in the booklet of the grammy winning Little Walter / The Complete Chess Masters on Hip-O Select, but some are previously unseen. Please enjoy these candid images of the greatest blues harmonica player that ever lived, courtesy of Dave and Al!

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