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  #16  
Old 03-17-2006, 08:14 AM
dansven dansven is offline
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Hi

The Guitar Magazine Vol 5 No 6 (June 1995) has an informative article about the Egg and Potato Man. The word about this "Peter Green" started in 1992.

Patrick Hinfen (Essex farmer, purveyor of eggs and potatoes) started hanging around guitar shops, introducing himself as "Jimi Hendrix" and "Beetroot". After a while people started thinking that it might be Peter Green....

David Edwards, then guitarist with the band National Gold and also manager of KME Guitars (guitar shop in Ilford) was contacted by "Peter Green", who was interested in guitars and guitar sounds. Edwards had met the real Peter in the early 80s, and says that Hinfens hands were very similar to Peter's: "....his hands were unusually large and porcelain-like."

Hinfen and Edwards started to visit the Gibson A&R Centre in London's Denmark Street, and the manager there, Jamie Crompton, says that Hinfen had "the same toothy smile as Peter - the shape of his mouth and teeth were very similar - and he had the big hands as well. It all seemed plausible." Gibson A&R Centre offered "Peter Green" to loan a red dot-neck 335.

Hinfen then wrote the foreword to the Gibson book "'Burst 1958-'60 Les Paul Standard."

Even Neville Martin (ex-Guitarist editor) was also fooled. Hinfen said that he would play with the National Gold on their new album. Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Queen's Roger Taylor were also contacted and asked if they wanted to play on the album with "Peter Green", but only Roger Taylor were available. So Taylor donated studio time....

Hinfen's wierd appearance was accepted, as it was well known that the real Peter Green had psychological problems.

The recording sessions went on with Edwards doing most of the solos .. Hinfen did a poor version of "Jigsaw Puzzle Blues"!!! Hinfen also expressed interest in playing at Gibson's "Night Of 100 Guitars" centenary gig which Crompton was co-ordinating), but stressed that he had to be home and in bed by 9!!!

In the end Peter's brother Michael was contacted, and could confirm that Peter hadn't been playing with anybody. (In fact the real Peter was at Michael's home at the moment.)

So later Michael phoned Hinfen asking to speak to Peter. "Speaking", Hinfen replied. "You aren't Peter", said Michael. "I'm his brother". Hinfen told him then that he was just a fan of Peter.............. THE END.

Daniel
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  #17  
Old 03-17-2006, 08:21 AM
dansven dansven is offline
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Here are two photos from the article......
Attached Images
File Type: jpg The Egg And Potato Man.jpg (97.9 KB, 57 views)
File Type: jpg Foreword.jpg (98.5 KB, 52 views)
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  #18  
Old 03-17-2006, 08:46 AM
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bretonbanquet bretonbanquet is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sharksfan2000
The edition of Brunning's book that I have has a publication date of 1990 & 1998 - maybe that's a later edition than yours, bretonbanquet? So it's possible that the edition I have could have been updated to discuss the "Egg & Potato Man".
Yes, it's later than mine - mine's an early edition. This whole thing is just the weirdest affair ever - why do these things always happen to Fleetwood Mac? I'd like to think I'd recognise any member of the band if I saw them, or met someone claiming to be them, but now I'm not so sure
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  #19  
Old 03-17-2006, 10:18 AM
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So it seems like there must have been another Peter Green imposter, before the Egg & Potato Man, that Bob Brunning talks about in his book.

Makes me think I should grow a beard, move to England.........nahhhh
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  #20  
Old 03-17-2006, 01:35 PM
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I remember reading the "warning" about the "Egg & Potato Man" on the Splinter Group site back in the early days of the PGSG.
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Among God's creations, two, the dog and the guitar, have taken all the sizes and all the shapes in order not to be separated from the man.---Andres Segovia
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  #21  
Old 03-17-2006, 03:43 PM
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aleuzzi aleuzzi is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bretonbanquet
The Spencer fake is an interesting story - Brunning talks about it briefly. He says that in the early 1980s he begn to receive phone calls from his musician friends saying that Spencer had reappeared. The were were also reports to this effect in the London Evening Standard newspaper. Brunning contacted the guy and met him in a pub. He says, "I wasn't wholly convinced, but he went a long way towards persuading me that he was Spencer with his astonishingly authentic recollection of the most intimate details of early Fleetwood Mac experiences. He certainly had far more than a passing resemblance to Spencer."

Still "extremely suspicious", Brunning contacted the Evening Standard, whose reporter grilled "Jeremy" for two hours before finally assuring Brunning that this was the right guy. Brunning then organised a gig with his De Luxe Blues band and "Jeremy" in London. They played three songs, and "Jeremy" insisted on playing with his back to the stage. In the audience were Jeremy Spencer's parents, plus their solicitor, who insisted after the show that Brunning go back on to tell the audience that the guitarist was not the real Spencer. Brunning elected to get drunk instead.

The Evening Standard hauled the fake Jeremy into their offices and confronted him with an ex-girlfriend of the real Jeremy's, and she confirmed the hoax. The guy's name was Andrew Clarke, and he'd been impersonating Jeremy for over a decade jamming with Rory Gallagher at Montreux, and earning a fortune for the Children of God. He claimed that the organisation forced him to do it to capitalise on Jeremy's fame. Brunning found the whole thing very strange... unsurprisingly

Maybe if this guy was forced to do it by the Children of God, it might explain how he knew so many intimate details. Maybe Jeremy was in on it!

This is certainly an interesting story. But how could Brunning, who supposedly had been so close to the original Mac line-up not know if this was Jeremy or not? If an ex-girlfriend could know, why coouldn't he? This confirms my suspicions that Bob Brunning will do anything to capitalize on his association with the British blues line-up of the Mac. And, like the details in his book, he is frequently wrong.
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  #22  
Old 03-19-2006, 03:40 PM
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Neb-Maat-Re Neb-Maat-Re is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bretonbanquet
The guy's name was Andrew Clarke, and he'd been impersonating Jeremy for over a decade jamming with Rory Gallagher at Montreux, and earning a fortune for the Children of God. He claimed that the organisation forced him to do it to capitalise on Jeremy's fame. Brunning found the whole thing very strange... unsurprisingly

Maybe if this guy was forced to do it by the Children of God, it might explain how he knew so many intimate details. Maybe Jeremy was in on it!
I'd forgotten the CoG connection. In that case, the poor guy is probably travelling around Sth America still being passed off by the Family as Jeremy.

On the other hand, how do we know that the JS currently recording in Norway is the REAL Jeremy at all?
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  #23  
Old 03-19-2006, 06:24 PM
dansven dansven is offline
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Originally Posted by Neb-Maat-Re
On the other hand, how do we know that the JS currently recording in Norway is the REAL Jeremy at all?
Well Neb-Maat-Re, the truth is: WE DON'T KNOW!!!

........but we could buy the album... 'cause this dude recording in Norway is a damn good slide guitar player!!!!


Daniel
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  #24  
Old 03-20-2006, 11:21 PM
jeremy spencer jeremy spencer is offline
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Exclamation From 'the horse'

This is hilarious. Andrew Clarke was never in the CoG. I don't know him, and I never met him in Latin America posing as me. My parents met him in England at a concert after he had taken off running! The guy was nuts.
Hope this clears it up a little.
Yes, that's me recording in Norway.
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  #25  
Old 03-20-2006, 11:24 PM
jeremy spencer jeremy spencer is offline
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Smile one more from the horse

and how do you know it's really me posting this message?:
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  #26  
Old 03-20-2006, 11:32 PM
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sharksfan2000 sharksfan2000 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jeremy spencer
This is hilarious. Andrew Clarke was never in the CoG. I don't know him, and I never met him in Latin America posing as me. My parents met him in England at a concert after he had taken off running! The guy was nuts.
Hope this clears it up a little.
Yes, that's me recording in Norway.
WOW - if that really is you, Jeremy, welcome and hope to see more posts from you! Just ordered the new CD yesterday.
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  #27  
Old 03-20-2006, 11:42 PM
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Neb-Maat-Re Neb-Maat-Re is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jeremy spencer
This is hilarious. Andrew Clarke was never in the CoG. I don't know him, and I never met him in Latin America posing as me. My parents met him in England at a concert after he had taken off running! The guy was nuts.
Hope this clears it up a little.
Yes, that's me recording in Norway.
Hi Jeremy.

The "is that the real Jeremy" comment was intended to be light-hearted with no offence meant, so I hope none was taken.

Thanks for clearing up Mr Clarke's claim about the CoG.

Congratulations on the new album.
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  #28  
Old 03-21-2006, 02:18 AM
jeremy spencer jeremy spencer is offline
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Default No offence taken.

Thank you! Hope you enjoy the cd at least a tenth as much as I enjoyed making it. Those Norwegians had the right feel. No muss, no fuss, one take and it was done! No redo's! (We had a tight budget!) That's what I like. Ah! The goood old days!!!
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  #29  
Old 03-21-2006, 04:09 AM
dansven dansven is offline
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Hi Mr Jeremy Spencer, and welcome to the Ledge!

Unfortunately I didn't have the chance to go and see you at Notodden last year, even though I live in Norway. Hope you do more live gigs in Norway. Your new album is absolutely fantastic! And the title track "Precious Little" is in my favourite. Your coice and guitar has been missed...

Best wishes,
Daniel
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  #30  
Old 03-21-2006, 09:01 AM
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bretonbanquet bretonbanquet is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jeremy spencer
This is hilarious. Andrew Clarke was never in the CoG. I don't know him, and I never met him in Latin America posing as me. My parents met him in England at a concert after he had taken off running! The guy was nuts.
Hope this clears it up a little.
Yes, that's me recording in Norway.
Wow, there's nothing like hearing it from "the horse's mouth" !!!

Just goes to show that you can't trust everything you read, and this guy clearly fooled Bob Brunning pretty completely.

Welcome to The Ledge, Jeremy! I hope you come back from time to time to clear up any further mysteries! I'm another one who's ordered the new album and I'm looking forward to it big time
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