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The greatest saxophonist you’ve never heard of.

Johnny Field. My first boss and one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. A gentle, kind and witty East Ender, John always had great stories but was so modest and unassuming, you almost had to prise them out of him. One was that he lost his virginity to Lulu and another was that he’d played sax in a local band. When a few colleagues were putting a band together to play at the Christmas party, they kept asking John to join them. Nah, he wasn’t keen, hadn’t played for years, etc. Finally they persuaded him and he was, of course, fantastic. That “local band” were The Small Faces. They decided they didn’t need a sax player and John left with no hard feelings. It’s exactly 50 years since their debut album was released and here’s a track from it. It’s okay but might have been better with Johnny Field on sax.

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