Albert Collins

On Stage, London 1989. Photo copyright marc marnie.

Albert Collins

The Iceman cometh, and sadly, the Iceman went, but before he checked out, Albert Collins laid down an unforgettable blues legacy. A cousin of Lightnin' Hopkins, he tapped directly into the mainline of the Texas blues guitar tradition of Lightnin' and T-Bone Walker. A big regional hit with "The Freeze" in 1958, and his spare, allegedly "icy" guitar sound saw him dubbed with the Iceman tag, but there was no shortage of either heat or feeling in his playing. He dabbled in a blues-funk crossover style in the late 1960s, but his career really revived when he went back to his roots for Alligator Records in 1977, and he enjoyed a lot of success in the so-called blues revival of the 1980s. Born: 1932, in Leona, Texas. Died: 1993
Kenny Mathieson

The great Albert Collins stole the stage wherever he appeared, with his unmistakable telecaster sound. Collins' influences included Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown, a fellow Texan. I gave up waiting for my favourite living blues man to tour Scotland and travelled to London to see him for the first and last time.
marc marnie