Biography
Bert de Ruijter (born 1952), known as Leigh Blond, is a Dutch composer, singer and songwriter.
Born to musically gifted parents in a shipyard town called Hardinxveld. At young age exposed to the jukebox music of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and the Shadows. A little later there were John Mayall, Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Jeff Beck, Champion Jack Dupree, Otis Spann, Cuby + Blizzards and other first hour pioneering musicians who influenced teenagers in that era. So, the drum kit, guitar, piano and harmonica came around. The first bands were composed and his first self-written songs on his 17th.
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1969 took him to London to breathe the original sounds of the blues in the Marquee. Met with Long John Baldry, Christine Perfect, Chris Farlowe and several other British musicians and played with them randomly for a while as a guest guitarist and pianist.
Writing his own songs he started to record them in the late 70's and 80's. Two EP/LP's came out under his own label, i.e. KEYS and RIVER OF TEARS.
In 1990 a project was initiated that included the making of a CD together with famous sixties idols as Eelco Gelling, Kaz Lux, Herman Deinum, Hans laFaille. The first Leigh Blond CD was released named BLUESNESS on the Munich Record label.
The second CD SEE ME THRU (1996/1999) was recorded in England with Gerry Rafferty producer Hugh Murphy. Chris Farlowe, Pavel Rosak and Bryn Haworth contributed on the record. The title song became a top ten hit in several countries in the world with the aid of Sony Music.
A Tour was organized to back up the SEE ME THRU record with a band lining up Chris Farlowe, Eelco Gelling, Herman Deinum, Hans laFaille, Pavel Rosak, Kim Snelten, Arjan de Swart and Leigh Blond.
In 2004 the album TRIBUTE TO PCL came out. Next in 2006, BLUESIDE OF THE ROAD, in 2012 SUBTLE WAYS, in 2017 DIGNITY.
All released LB records contain songs written by himself only. DIGNITY, SUBTLE WAYS and BLUESNESS have been produced by Leigh Blond as well.
Chris Farlowe and a dozen other musicians recorded Leigh Blond songs between 1985 and today. Half of these covered songs have been copyrighted under other aliases of LB.
Involved record companies throughout the LB oeuvre are Sony Music, RM Records, Munich Records, Delicious Records, DMI Music, Texas Publishing and Polydor.
Wikipedia: Leigh Blond
Chris Farlowe (born John Henry Dighton, 13 October 1940) is an English rock, blues and soul singer. He is best known for his hit single "Out of Time", which rose to #1 in the UK Singles Chart in 1966 and his association with Colosseum and the Thunderbirds. Outside his music career, Farlowe collects war memorabilia.
Farlowe was born in Islington, North London. His musical career began with a skiffle group, the John Henry Skiffle Group, in 1957, before he joined the Johnny Burns Rhythm and Blues Quartet, in 1958. He met guitarist Bob Taylor in 1959 and, through Taylor, joined the Thunderbirds, who went on to record five singles for the Columbia label. On Island's Sue label, he released a version of "Stormy Monday Blues" under the pseudonym Little Joe Cook, which perpetuated the myth that he was a black singer.
Farlowe moved to Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate label and recorded eleven singles, five of which were cover versions of Rolling Stones songs including "Paint It, Black", "Think", "Ride On, Baby", "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", and "Out of Time", which reached no. 1 (1966) in the UK Singles Chart. He recorded four more singles, the best known of which is Mike d'Abo's "Handbags and Gladrags". and "My Way of Giving", a cover of a Small Faces album track written by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane.
He began an association with the jazz rock group Colosseum in September 1970, recording a live album and two studio albums including, Daughter of Time (1970). Later from Colosseum reunion in 1994 he appeared on all Colosseum albums released.
In February 1972 he joined Atomic Rooster,[5] and is featured on the albums Made in England (1972) and Nice 'n' Greasy (1973).
He sang vocals for the theme music written by Greenslade for the BBC Television series Gangsters. In 1978 he had a part in a play produced by BBC Birmingham, Curriculee Curricula, first shown on BBC Two and shot in its entirety on video at the University of Birmingham campus, with Magnus Magnusson as the narrator. Farlowe and Greenslade provided the music. He also sang on two tracks from Jimmy Page's Death Wish II soundtrack (1982), as well as the tracks "Hummingbird", "Prison Blues" and "Blues Anthem" on Page's album Outrider (1988).
Chris Farlowe toured for a long time with Hamburg Blues Band, mainly in Germany.
In 2009, Farlowe toured as a featured artist with Maggie Bell and Bobby Tench as part of the "Maximum Rhythm and Blues" tour of 32 UK theatres.
On 30 July 2016, Farlowe appeared at Wembley Arena, performing his 1966 hit "Out of Time" as part of a show marking the 50th anniversary of the England football team's victory in the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final.[citation needed]
Since 1999 Farlowe has appeared on stage a number of times alongside Van Morrison.
Wikipedia: Chris Farlowe
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.