Chuck Berry Red

Don't try this at home

Chuck Berry celebrated his 86th. birthday yesterday. The man who all but invented rock and roll has lived. I mean really lived. When you've seen life from both sides of the prison bars it can't not have had an impact on you. Be it for having sex with a minor or just plain old tax evasion, Berry's spells of incarceration have never dulled his lust for life.

We were lucky enough to catch him live a few years back. His lateness was both two-fold and predictable: waiting to be weighed in (in cash - obviously) by the promoter before he's even plugged his cherry red Gibson in, and talking his backing band for the night (he'd never met them before the gig) through his illustrious back catalogue, meant that a 9.00 p.m. start was never on the cards.

But, when he finally did take to the stage, it soon became apparent why he was the first inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Happy Birthday Chuck.

  Chuck Berry: Night Beat