Brendan Croker & the 5 O'Clock Shadows - Live 1988

This month we lost a great musician and friend in Brendan Croker; a guitar hero, artist, former binman and all-round lovable lunatic. My heart goes out to his loved ones.

As a sort of commemoration, I'm sharing a small chunk of a gem from my collection. The BBC recorded Brendan and the 5 O'Clock Shadows at the Cambridge Folk Festival in September 1988 as part of their "In Concert" series; this is a very good representation of the heavily "Africanised" sound Brendan tried for the '88 tour, especially this version of Railroad Blues which owes quite a bit to the Bhundu Boys. One of the things I always admired the most about Brendan was his wide-ranging musical palette and his ear for sounds from other cultures, and that's on great display here.

The band on this tour featured Brendan (guitar and vocals), Mark Cresswell (guitar), Marcus Cliffe (bass) and Cliff Lee (drums).

00:00 - Railroad Blues
04:30 - Who Am I Gonna Turn To
07:19 - Send Me An Angel
11:58 - This Man

Shared for non-commercial purposes; I will happily remove upon request.