Yesterday brought the news of the passing of my favourite performer from the great days of Rockn'Roll -

Antoine "Fats" Domino, and it took me straight back to my 1950s boyhood when the Hit Parade had a

new Number One virtually every week and a wealth of talent competing for a place in the Top Twenty

in the Melody Maker and the New Musical Express charts...every pop lover's' "bibles" of the day.

No one brought to me the sheer visceral thrill in those times more than Fats Domino...with hit after hit

trademarked by his pounding piano, rasping voice and wailing saxes!  The rest seemed positively

anaemic compared to him and even now, over sixty years on, I have a collection of 100 of his

recordings on disc in a landmark set from his "Imperial" label.  Last night, in a personal tribute, I

I played 50 of them straight off - and they still worked for me, man and boy!  And they always will.

"I found my thrill on Blueberry Hill"...and in SO much more to remember him by.

To quote the title of another of his songs - and I hear its rolling arrangement now in my mind -

"So Long"...Fats!  You meant so much to a juke-box kid back then - and just as much now.  Can any

performer claim a better way of being remembered?  I like to think not.

Fats Domino...dead?  The Big Beat...gone? Ain't That A Shame!

RIP (Rock In Perpetuity)...

 MC