“I know good music and Trev Turley makes great music.”

I don’t know about you but, for me, listening to Organic British Blues conjures an almost irresistible urge to chew gravel and gargle it down with smouldering lava. I am compelled to arrange my limbs into anarchic poses suggesting magnificent sexual prowess. Hardcore, but giving less of a shit – simmered in poetic juices since ’75.

Frankly, to a 17-year-old privileged white kid, there was nothing sexier, more depraved, and compulsive than a frothy-haired girl’s singing voice growling, soaring, straining, imploring her man playing throbbing bass or her man picking sweet fruit from the strings of his guitar or beating hardship, lost love and living pain from the skins of his drums. I loved the Blues then and now.

But it got complicated.

Weedy chaps in roll-neck sweaters, banging away on creaky typewriters, their desks cluttered with overflowing ashtrays and well-thumbed stacks of Viz, Mad, NME, and Melody Maker, sought to justify their existence. For want of anything better to do, they dreamed up words and categories for the intangible – Rhythm and Blues, Psychedelic Blues, Blues Rock, Blue Blues, Progressive Blues, Hard Rock, Street Punk, Drunk Punk, Pink Blues, and Dinky Pop. Dammit, they could complicate a butter dish! Just like people, music is either good or it’s not. I don’t care if it has a beat or a blush, a rush, or a tremble – whatever! – I could not give a damn what label they stick on it.

Trev is now the bassist with a group of individuals called Mojo Preachers. His heritage is long. So long, in fact, they sent a probe to Mars and even then, NASA couldn’t find the beginning of it. Such is the distinguished legacy he has built since 1968.

I won’t embarrass him with a eulogy, mainly because I have only recently come to know him and it would be other people’s words I’d have to Google and copy. And, I also sense he’s just not that kind of guy. So, all I can say is that his passion for music, music of almost any variety, is without limit and his own music speaks for itself.

If you don’t pester him to buy a very, very limited-edition legacy album called Cherish Ever, then you are utterly mad. It features all the great musicians he’s played with over the years and it is brilliant!

You can contact Trev Turley himself: @trev_turley on Instagram.

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Music: Mojo Preachers
Picture: Mojo Preachers at The 100 Club, Oxford Street, London, England
Photo by: Chris Furness

© Rod McRiven 2021