Yoss Baker

Yoss Baker, a school chum and member of the St Luke's boy's church group I attended, played lead guitar at my stage debut at a large Saturday night dance held in a hall in North London when I was fifteen. My first ever number on stage as a saxophonist was Rudy's Rock. It brought the house down.

Steve Howe (later a lead guitarist in his own right) was in the audience, and greatly impressed by what he saw. He would mimic some of the mannerisms of Yoss when performing as a world renowned musician in later years. Being a couple of years younger than Yoss and I, he was still learning chords on an inexpensive acoustic guitar, but went on to acquire a solid electric guitar from me, which I used as a second instrument. Eventually keyboards became my second instrument. Musicians back then had to be able to play at least two instruments. I played sax and three others.

You can listen to the original Rudy's Rock by clicking on any of the images.