Thursday, March 06, 2008

Bo Diddley - Shaken not Stirred


Back in the '80s I saw Bo Diddley perform live at the Butetown Carnival, Cardiff. Spending hours in the sun drinking cheap beer ensured that I was totally inebriated by the time the legendary rhythm'n'bluesman arrived on stage. I can vaguely recall running around playing football whilst his classic track Hey Bo Diddley blasted from the speakers. I digress.

That wasn't his first visit to Wales. As the above advert for Cardiff Top Rank shows he was also in the capital in 1967. As luck would have it on the same day as his Welsh gig three "Bond Girls" were in town promoting the film Casino Royale. Obviously it was too good a photo opportunity to miss and an excellent chance to promote the venue.

The quality of the resultant photograph is not great but you can just about discern Bo Diddley shamelessly hamming it up while the Bond Girls point plastic guns at him. Not sure if the dickie bow is part of the act or whether those were the kind of threads he wore back then. Anyway, it's a nice piece of pop cultural ephemera.