Anthony 'Duster' Bennett (born 23
September 1943,
in Welshpool,
Powys, Mid Wales
died 26
March 1976,
in Warwickshire),
was a British blues singer and musician. He was a session
musician in the early 1960s playing harmonica. Based around London, his first
album Smiling Like I'm Happy saw him playing in an
almost one-man
band type scenario, playing a bass drum with his foot, a harmonica and
guitar. With his girlfriend Stella Sutton and backed by the original Fleetwood
Mac on three tracks, the album was well-received among blues
fans. He was very popular on the local blues club scene but died in a
car crash in 1976.
The musician
Emerging in the late sixties from the Kingston/Guildford art
school music scene, Tony 'Duster' Bennett was a one-man blues band
whose virtuosity and co-ordination on drums, guitar and harp was as
riveting as it was unique. His live sets would combine his own
compositions with Jimmy Reed-style blues standards often
aided and abetted by friends Peter Green and Top
Topham. Between 1968 and 1970 he seemed ever-present on John Peel's
Top Gear and Sunday-repeated-on-Wednesday shows, gigged prodigiously
and eventually joined John Mayall's
Bluesbreakers as band member/solo act on a US tour in 1970. Drifted off
in the Seventies into more whimsical mainstream material, never landed
the hit record his catchy and accessible tunes deserved.
The music
Country blues with the occasional gospel offering. Recorded
three albums and a string of singles for Blue
Horizon. Bright Lights, recorded live at his beloved Gin Mill Club, is
a powerful testimony to his popularity among the blues cognoscenti
while his legacy on Smiling Like I'm Happy is the haunting 'Jumping at
Shadows', covered by Fleetwood Mac and recently
revived by Gary
Moore - surely the best blues composition ever penned this side of the
Atlantic. 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 in the
CD public domain until the 2006 first-time CD release of the Complete
Blue Horizon Sessions reminded us all of what we had lost.
Where is he now?
Died in a car crash after performing with Memphis Slim on March 26, 1976. He was asleep at
the wheel. (Info: Roygover@gcgconsulting.co.uk)
For info about the authorised Duster Bennett biography
published in June 2007, visit www.jetmartin.co.uk
