Hi, my name is Ray Baisden. When I met Ian Samwell, back in 1980, I had no idea that he had played a pivotal role in the earliest days of British rock and roll, and had changed music history in many other important ways.

Because our pop culture tends to limit our attention span to the media sensation of the moment we too rarely get to see the totality of any one artist's work, especially in the case of one whose gift was often given to helping other artists to realize their own, and whose career spanned not years but decades.

It's like the blind men and the elephant parable; a lot of people had experience of Ian Samwell. His career was perceived in the light of different stars and different times, but very few people saw enough of it to appreciate the real value of his lifelong contribution.

That's what this is about.

I met Ian when he came to Sacramento, California to work with a couple of friends of mine, from a band called Uncle Rainbow, named Brent Bourgeois and Larry Tagg.

More recently I was privileged to collaborate with Ian on a manuscript for a possible book about the early years with Cliff Richard. Much of the information on these pages stems from those discussions, and excerpts from the book have been posted here with Ian's permission. His insights into the origins of British rock 'n' roll, in addition to his own uniquely important contributions, are priceless. You can go directly to the book chapters by clicking here.

Ian generously cooperated with the development of this project, and he kept coming up with additional material and with more and more remarkable stories up to within weeks of the end of his life.

Ian was a legendary figure in the world of music, but he was also a great and special friend.

I'm still learning how many people will miss him. Please feel free to write to the address below.

Ray

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