I had the privilege of playing piano in the Odyssey Blues Band from its very beginning until John L left the band. It all started as the result of a phone call from bassist Pete Duke, a friend of mine since the mid-1980s. He asked if I was available to play a live Radio 1 session in a few days' time with only one rehearsal. I was taken aback - "I don't know if I'm good enough!". "*I* think you are!" Pete replied. We rehearsed on Friday; essentially a group of musicians, several of whom had never played together before, and got up to speed on three songs. On Monday we met up in the BBC Radio Theatre in the basement of Broadcasting House and got ready to play. After playing all three songs, interspersed with records, presenter Andy Kershaw said casually to John L, "Well, is that all you've got for us?". And John L Watson says "No, man - we're gonna do another one!". We all stared at each other. How can an 8-piece ad-hoc band, including a horn section, rehearse and play three songs and then play a fourth one? John L thought for a few seconds and then suggested "Every Day I Have the Blues". While Andy was playing a few records, we ran through the old standard, which we luckily all knew, and we were able to play it live on air a few minutes later (and, as it happens, even better than the rehearsed songs). To this day, I don't know how he had the guts to set us up like that and the coolness to resolve the situation. I'll miss him a lot