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Rhythm And Blues

Kinloch, Missouri, Hi Records

Ann Peebles

Ann Peebles was born in Kinloch, Missouri, in 1947, the seventh of eleven children, and sang in her family's gospel group, the Peebles Choir, which opened for Mahalia Jackson. In 1968 trumpeter Gene "Bowlegs" Miller heard her in a Memphis club and took her to Willie Mitchell, who signed her to Hi Records. Backed by the Hi Rhythm Section, she made a run of records with a hard, bluesy edge, including Straight from the Heart, and had several R&B hits in the early 1970s. In 1974 she married Hi songwriter Don Bryant, who co-wrote some of her best-known songs. She kept recording into the 1990s, and stopped performing after a stroke in 2012.

Belfast, the Maritime Hotel, 1964

Them

Them were formed in Belfast in April 1964 to play at the opening of a rhythm and blues club in the Maritime Hotel. Van Morrison sang, with Billy Harrison, Alan Henderson, Ronnie Milling and Eric Wrixon. Decca's Dick Rowe signed them after hearing a fan's tape, Bert Berns wrote and produced for them, and Jimmy Page played guitar on some of their sessions. They made two albums, The Angry Young Them and Them Again, both in the 1960s. In 1966 they had a residency at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles with the Doors opening for them in the final week, and the two groups jammed together. Morrison left later that year after arguments over money. Morrison later said that Them lived and died on the stage of the Maritime Hotel.

The Collection