Duster Bennett
Encyclopedia
Anthony "Duster" Bennett (23 September 1946 – 26 March 1976) was a British
blues
singer and musician. Based around London
, his first album Smiling Like I'm Happy saw him playing as a one-man band
, playing a bass drum with his foot and blowing a harmonica on a rack while strumming a 1952 Les Paul
Goldtop guitar given to him in 1968 by Peter Green. Backed by his girlfriend Stella Sutton and the original Fleetwood Mac
on three tracks, the album was well-received. He was remained popular on the local blues club scene until his death in a car crash in 1976.
, Powys
, Mid Wales
. Emerging in the late 1960s from the art school music scene of Kingston-upon-Thames and Guildford
, Bennett was a one-man blues band with virtuosity and co-ordination on drums, guitar
and harmonica
. His live sets combined his own compositions with Jimmy Reed
-style blues standards often aided by friends Peter Green
and Top Topham
. He was a session musician
in the early 1960s playing harmonica
. Between 1968 and 1970 he was played on John Peel
's Top Gear, toured and eventually joined John Mayall's Bluesbreakers as band member/solo act on a US tour in 1970. In the 1970s he drifted off into more mainstream material.
with the occasional gospel music
offering, but his last album
Fingertips (1975) differentiate from more early records, it was made with influence of soul
and funk
. Bennett recorded three albums and a string of singles for Blue Horizon
. Bright Lights was recorded live at the Gin Mill Club. Bennett's "Jumping at Shadows" was subsequently covered by Fleetwood Mac
and revived in 1992 by Gary Moore
, who covered it in his After Hours album. Attempts to gain wider appeal with Mickie Most
were unsuccessful. For decades, a clutch of live and home recordings on Indigo seemed to be all that remained of his work until the 2006 release of the Complete Blue Horizon Sessions.
on 26 March 1976, Bennett was driving home in a Ford Transit
van in Warwickshire
when he apparently fell asleep at the wheel. The van collided with a truck and Bennett was killed.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
singer and musician. Based around London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, his first album Smiling Like I'm Happy saw him playing as a one-man band
One-man band
A one-man band is a musician who plays a number of musical instruments simultaneously using their hands, feet, limbs, and various mechanical contraptions. The simplest type of "one-man band" — a singer accompanying themselves on acoustic guitar and harmonica mounted in a metal "harp rack" below the...
, playing a bass drum with his foot and blowing a harmonica on a rack while strumming a 1952 Les Paul
Gibson Les Paul
The Gibson Les Paul was the result of a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar Corporation and the late jazz guitarist and electronics inventor Les Paul. In 1950, with the introduction of the Fender Telecaster to the musical market, electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction, Gibson...
Goldtop guitar given to him in 1968 by Peter Green. Backed by his girlfriend Stella Sutton and the original Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
on three tracks, the album was well-received. He was remained popular on the local blues club scene until his death in a car crash in 1976.
Early career
Bennett was born in WelshpoolWelshpool
Welshpool is a town in Powys, Wales, or ancient county Montgomeryshire, from the Wales-England border. The town is low-lying on the River Severn; the Welsh language name Y Trallwng literally meaning 'the marshy or sinking land'...
, Powys
Powys
Powys is a local-government county and preserved county in Wales.-Geography:Powys covers the historic counties of Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire, most of Brecknockshire , and a small part of Denbighshire — an area of 5,179 km², making it the largest county in Wales by land area.It is...
, Mid Wales
Mid Wales
Mid Wales is the name given to the central region of Wales. The Mid Wales Regional Committee of the National Assembly for Wales covered the counties of Ceredigion and Powys and the area of Gwynedd that had previously been the district of Meirionydd. A similar definition is used by the BBC...
. Emerging in the late 1960s from the art school music scene of Kingston-upon-Thames and Guildford
Guildford
Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...
, Bennett was a one-man blues band with virtuosity and co-ordination on drums, guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
. His live sets combined his own compositions with Jimmy Reed
Jimmy Reed
Mathis James "Jimmy" Reed was an American blues musician and songwriter, notable for bringing his distinctive style of blues to mainstream audiences. Reed was a major player in the field of electric blues, as opposed to the more acoustic-based sound of many of his contemporaries...
-style blues standards often aided by friends Peter Green
Peter Green (musician)
Peter Green is a British blues-rock guitarist and the founder of the band Fleetwood Mac...
and Top Topham
Top Topham
Anthony "Top" Topham , is an English musician, and artist. He is best known as a blues guitarist, and also for being the first lead guitarist of The Yardbirds...
. He was a session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
in the early 1960s playing harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
. Between 1968 and 1970 he was played on John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
's Top Gear, toured and eventually joined John Mayall's Bluesbreakers as band member/solo act on a US tour in 1970. In the 1970s he drifted off into more mainstream material.
Musical style
Bennett's music was country bluesCountry blues
Country blues is a general term that refers to all the acoustic, mainly guitar-driven forms of the blues. It often incorporated elements of rural gospel, ragtime, hillbilly, and dixieland jazz...
with the occasional gospel music
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
offering, but his last album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
Fingertips (1975) differentiate from more early records, it was made with influence of soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
and funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
. Bennett recorded three albums and a string of singles for Blue Horizon
Blue Horizon
Blue Horizon was a British blues record label founded by Mike Vernon in the mid 1960s.Its roots lay in Vernon's mail order label Purdah Records, which released just four 7" singles; including "Flapjacks" by Stone's Masonry ; and another by John Mayall and Eric Clapton "Bernard Jenkins", and...
. Bright Lights was recorded live at the Gin Mill Club. Bennett's "Jumping at Shadows" was subsequently covered by Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
and revived in 1992 by Gary Moore
Gary Moore
Robert William Gary Moore , better known simply as Gary Moore, was a Northern Irish musician from Belfast, best recognised as a blues rock guitarist and singer....
, who covered it in his After Hours album. Attempts to gain wider appeal with Mickie Most
Mickie Most
Mickie Most was an English record producer, with a string of hit singles with acts such as The Animals, Arrows, Herman's Hermits, Donovan, Suzi Quatro and the Jeff Beck Group often issued on his own RAK Records label....
were unsuccessful. For decades, a clutch of live and home recordings on Indigo seemed to be all that remained of his work until the 2006 release of the Complete Blue Horizon Sessions.
Death
After performing with Memphis SlimMemphis Slim
Memphis Slim was an American blues pianist, singer, and composer. He led a series of bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues, included saxophones, bass, drums, and piano. A song he first cut in 1947, "Every Day I Have the Blues", has become a blues standard, recorded by many other...
on 26 March 1976, Bennett was driving home in a Ford Transit
Ford Transit
The Ford Transit is a range of panel vans, minibuses, and pickup trucks, produced by the Ford Motor Company in Europe.The Transit has been the best-selling light commercial vehicle in Europe for 40 years, and in some countries the term "Transit" has passed into common usage as a generic term...
van in Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
when he apparently fell asleep at the wheel. The van collided with a truck and Bennett was killed.
Selected discography
- 2006: Complete Blues Horizon Sessions (a collection of the first three albums plus early singles)
- 2000: Shady Little Baby (Rare & Unreleased Recordings Vol 3) (on Indigo Records)
- 1999: Comin' Home (Rare & Unreleased Recordings Vol 2) (on Indigo Records)
- 1998: I Choose to Sing the Blues (Rare & Unreleased Recordings 1968-71 Vol 1) (on Indigo Records)
- 1975: Fingertips (on Toadstool Records)
- 1970: 12dbs (on Blue Horizon Records)
- 1969: Justa Duster (on Blue Horizon Records)
- 1969: Bright Lights (live session), "I'm gonna wind up ending up or I'm gonna end up winding up with you" (45rpm single)
- 1968: Smiling Like I'm Happy (on Blue Horizon Records)