I understand that the Yardbirds' first lead guitarist, Top Topham, has also passed on in the last few days at the age of 75. Younger than the other founder members, parental pressure forced him to quit the band before they became famous, and he was replaced by Eric Clapton. Many years later he played with the reformed Yardbirds and I had the pleasure of seeing him perform with them at the Eel Pie Club in Twickenham. My impression was that he was a fine player and quite deserving of comparisons with his successors Clapton, Beck and Page. I was speaking with one of the Eel Pie Club organisers in December and he told me that Topham's health had declined recently and he was in a bad way, and sadly he has now gone to join Beck (and their fellow-Yardbird Keith Relf) in the supergroup in the sky.
Richard Greenhough ● 1335d