KIM SIMMONDS
Kim Simmonds, born in Newbridge, Wales, in 1947, is considered a legendary blues guitarist by almost any musical standard. He has even been called one of the founding fathers of British blues by some.
Thanks to an older brother, Simmonds heard plenty of music when he was growing up. He favored everything from the Beatles to James Brown. "My brother, Harry, used to come home with all these records and I used to hear nothing but blues," he told Beat Instrumental. "I was hooked straight away." Among Kim's influences were Howlin' Wolf (and his guitarist Hubert Sumlin), Earl Hooker, Freddy King, Matt Murphy, Otis Rush and Muddy Waters. At age 13, Kim purchased his first guitar and taught himself to play Chuck Berry riffs. By age 15 he was still playing the guitar, though by then he had dropped out of school and taken a clerical job at the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall.
In 1966, when Simmonds was still in his teens, he formed a rock and blues group called Savoy Brown. Other members were bassist Ray Chappell, keyboardist Bob Hall, singer Bruce Portius, drummer Leo Manning, and guitarist Martin Stone. The band got its start performing in small pubs throughout London. In a year's time there was a Savoy Brown debut album, Shake Down. Throughout the decades, the list of members changed often around Simmonds, but he persisted, and the group released album after album.