32-504: Paul Francis Kossoff (14 September 1950 – 19 March 1976) was an English guitarist, best known as the co-founder and guitarist of the rock band Free . In 2010, he was ranked number 51 in Rolling Stone ' s list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Kossoff was born on 14 September 1950 in Hampstead , London, the son of Margaret (née Jenkins) and actor David Kossoff . His uncle
64-733: A Gibson Les Paul guitar. During 1966, Kossoff worked as a junior salesman at Selmer's Music Shop in Charing Cross Road . He received lessons from session guitarist Colin Falconer, who worked in the guitar department at Selmer's. In 1966 Kossoff joined the Chicago-style blues band Black Cat Bones . The band played with touring blues piano player Champion Jack Dupree , often supporting Fleetwood Mac and other gigs with Fleetwood Mac co-founder Peter Green . Kossoff's bandmate in Black Cat Bones
96-621: A "gorgeous knockabout" of a song. Record World said it was "their best since ' Alright Now '." The band performed the song on BBC's Top of the Pops on 13 May 1971. The band disbanded in 1971 because of differences between Fraser and Rodgers, who felt he was not being listened to. This led to the release of the live album called Free Live! In early 1972 the band set aside their differences and reformed in an effort to save Kossoff from his growing drug addiction, and released Free at Last in June of
128-600: A blood clot in his leg moved to his lung, while touring America with Back Street Crawler. His body was returned to England and cremated at Golders Green Crematorium in North West London. His epitaph in the Summerhouse there reads: "All right now". One of Kossoff's signature guitars, a 1957 Fender Stratocaster , was bought by English guitarist Dave Murray of the English heavy metal band Iron Maiden ; Murray paid £1,400 for
160-418: A defence, his excuse". Kossoff's unhappiness following the break-up of Free and his drug addictions contributed to a drastic decline in his health. In a BBC website page about the 1970 death of Jimi Hendrix , Simon Kirke said that Kossoff idolised Hendrix and never really recovered from his death. Kossoff died on a flight from Los Angeles to New York City on 19 March 1976 from a pulmonary embolism after
192-504: A predisposition." He used Mandrax among other drugs. Paul Rodgers has said Kossoff was healthy and playing well in 1973 although this is disputed, but that he wonders about the company that Kossoff kept, and felt that "Koss was just too sensitive for this world." Kossoff's drug use made him unreliable in the latter stages of Free. Andy Fraser noted "he felt intimidated by those other guitarists, and when people began speaking of him in terms of Clapton and so on, it frightened him. Drugs were
224-526: A split. The live album Free Live! was recorded in 1970 and released in 1971 as a farewell record. Kossoff and Kirke teamed up with Texan keyboard player John "Rabbit" Bundrick and Japanese bass player Tetsu Yamauchi to release the 1971 album Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu and Rabbit . Rodgers and Fraser pursued unsuccessful solo projects. Free reformed and released the album Free at Last (1972). Following its release, Fraser decided he had had enough and quit to form Sharks. Free drafted Tetsu and Rabbit for
256-424: A staple of R&B and rock , and has entered ASCAP 's "One Million" airplay singles club. Andy Fraser left the band in 1972 and formed Sharks . Free recorded one more album, Heartbreaker , before disbanding in 1973; Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke went on to co-form the more successful rock supergroup Bad Company . Paul Kossoff formed Back Street Crawler in 1973, but died from a pulmonary embolism at
288-581: A style that was in contrast to some of their progressive and heavier counterparts at the time. Success came in 1970 when their third album, Fire and Water (1970), spawned the hit " All Right Now ". The band played the Isle of Wight festival to both audience and critical acclaim, followed by sold-out tours in the United Kingdom, Europe and Japan. However, after the release of the next album, Highway (1970) and its relatively poor sales, band pressures led to
320-625: The British Music Industry when "All Right Now" passed 2 million radio plays in the UK. Despite its name, Free was the only advertised band who would not perform for free for the ailing Phun City festival in July 1970. Promoter Mick Farren said that when they learned there would be no payment, they left "without even getting out of the car." Kirke's replacement in Black Cat's Bones, Phil Lenoir, played
352-568: The R&;B band Black Cat Bones , but they wanted to move on. When Kossoff saw Paul Rodgers singing with his band Brown Sugar at the Fickle Pickle, an R&B club in London's Finsbury Park , he was immediately impressed and asked to jam onstage with Rodgers. Along with Kirke, they began the search for a fourth member. Alexis Korner recommended Andy Fraser , who had been playing with John Mayall &
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#1732891698648384-556: The UK singles chart and No. 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100 . The album reached No. 2 in the UK charts and No. 17 on the U.S charts, making it the most successful Free album. "All Right Now" became a No. 1 hit in over 20 territories and was recognised by ASCAP in 1990 for garnering 1 million plus radio plays in the US by late 1989. In 2000 an award was given to Paul Rodgers by
416-463: The article wizard to submit a draft for review, or request a new article . Search for " Live at Croydon Fairfield Halls 15 " in existing articles. Look for pages within Misplaced Pages that link to this title . Other reasons this message may be displayed: If a page was recently created here, it may not be visible yet because of a delay in updating the database; wait a few minutes or try
448-688: The 'stripped' Gibson Les Paul that Kossoff played at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 . Kossoff sold the guitar to Mike Gooch and in May 1994 it was sold for £12,000 at Christie's . Free (band) Free were an English rock band formed in London in 1968 by Paul Rodgers (vocals), Paul Kossoff (guitar), Andy Fraser (bass, piano) and Simon Kirke (drums, percussion). They are best known for their hit songs " All Right Now " and " Wishing Well ". Although renowned for their live performances and non-stop touring, their music did not sell well until their third studio album, Fire and Water (1970), which featured
480-518: The 1994 album titled From Time to Time ), and three tracks that appear on the CD-only issue of John Martyn's Live at Leeds album from 1975. In 1977 career retrospective Koss was released and in 1986 Blue Soul . The late 1990s saw a renewed interest in Kossoff and Blue Soul was re-released, as well as the five-disc Free box set Songs of Yesterday . In 2006, an unreleased guitar solo surfaced on
512-814: The Bluesbreakers . Korner also provided the name "Free" to the new band. The group played their first gig on 19 April 1968 at the Nag's Head pub, at the junction of York Road and Plough Road in Battersea , London. They were all teenagers – bass player Fraser was 15 years old, lead guitarist Kossoff was 17, and lead singer Rodgers and drummer Kirke were 18. By November they had recorded their first album, Tons of Sobs , for Island Records , it being released in March 1969. The album documented their first six months together and contains studio renditions of much of their early live set. To promote
544-525: The age of 25 in 1976. Andy Fraser died on 16 March 2015 at 62. Rolling Stone has referred to the band as "British hard rock pioneers". The magazine ranked Rodgers No. 55 on its list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time", and Kossoff at No. 51 on its list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Free were signed to Island Records in the UK and A&M Records in North America . Paul Kossoff and Simon Kirke became friends while in
576-581: The album Heartbreaker (1973) after which the group disbanded. Kossoff co-wrote several Free songs, including "Oh I Wept" and "Mr Big" on the Fire and Water album. Rodgers and Kirke went on to form the successful supergroup Bad Company . Kossoff released a solo album, Back Street Crawler (1973). He then accompanied John Martyn on a 1975 tour. Kossoff then assembled a group called Back Street Crawler , which released two albums: The Band Plays On in 1975 and 2nd Street in 1976. Recordings from one of
608-640: The band's UK concerts in 1975 were first released in 1983 on the album Live at Croydon Fairfield Halls 15/6/75 . Kossoff's guitar playing was also much in demand for session work and he contributed solos on several albums including: Martha Veléz 's Fiends and Angels (1969); Michael Gately's Gately's Cafe (1971) and Mike Vernon 's 1971 album Bring It Back Home ; Uncle Dog 's Old Hat (1972); Jim Capaldi 's Oh How We Danced (1972) and Short Cut Draw Blood (1975); The Amazing Blondel 's Mulgrave Street (1974). He also played on four demos by Ken Hensley of Uriah Heep (band) , (eventually released on
640-542: The festival as drummer for Shagrat . Highway was their fourth studio album, recorded extremely quickly in September 1970. It performed poorly in the charts, reaching No. 41 in the UK and No. 190 in the US. In April 1971 they released the single " My Brother Jake ", which reached number four in the UK Singles Chart and remained in the chart for 11 weeks. It was described by Dave Thompson of AllMusic as
672-487: The forthcoming album they opened some shows at the end of 1968 for the Who , who played a short theatre tour with Arthur Brown . The group's second studio album, Free , was recorded and released in 1969 on Island Records. While their first two albums were not greatly successful, their third album Fire and Water , released in 1970, was a huge success, largely due to its hit single " All Right Now ", which reached No. 2 on
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#1732891698648704-945: The 💕 Look for Live at Croydon Fairfield Halls 15 on one of Misplaced Pages's sister projects : [REDACTED] Wiktionary (dictionary) [REDACTED] Wikibooks (textbooks) [REDACTED] Wikiquote (quotations) [REDACTED] Wikisource (library) [REDACTED] Wikiversity (learning resources) [REDACTED] Commons (media) [REDACTED] Wikivoyage (travel guide) [REDACTED] Wikinews (news source) [REDACTED] Wikidata (linked database) [REDACTED] Wikispecies (species directory) Misplaced Pages does not have an article with this exact name. Please search for Live at Croydon Fairfield Halls 15 in Misplaced Pages to check for alternative titles or spellings. You need to log in or create an account and be autoconfirmed to create new articles. Alternatively, you can use
736-485: The guitar in 1976 (equivalent to £12,728 in 2023). In 2012, one of his most famous and iconic guitars, a 1959 Gibson Les Paul (the Kossoff Burst ), was recreated and made into a limited edition reissue by Gibson and named the 'Paul Kossoff 1959 Les Paul Standard'. In December 2015 Bonhams listed for auction a Gibson Les Paul Standard owned by Kossoff from 1970 to 1976. In April 2017 Guitar magazine featured
768-442: The heavy blues stylings of Free again in his solo career during the 1980s and 1990s, and in the bands The Firm and The Law . Subsequently, he teamed up as vocalist with two of the three remaining members of Queen ( Brian May and Roger Taylor ). In September 2008, Queen + Paul Rodgers released their first studio album The Cosmos Rocks . Rodgers also performed Free and Bad Company songs while on tour with Queen, in addition to
800-411: The hit "All Right Now". The song helped secure them a performance at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival , where they played to an audience of 600,000 people. In the early 1970s they became one of the best-selling British blues rock groups; by the time they disbanded, they had sold more than 20 million records worldwide and had played in more than 700 arenas and festival concerts. "All Right Now" remains
832-446: The same year. Fraser left the band in mid-1972, frustrated by Kossoff's unreliability at being able to perform at shows or even at showing up. The remaining members recruited Japanese bass player Tetsu Yamauchi and keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick , who had worked with Kossoff and Kirke during Free's initial split, recording Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu and Rabbit and recorded what would be Free's final album, Heartbreaker . Kossoff
864-552: The title track to the album All One by David Elliot, who recorded with Kossoff in the 1970s. In 2011 a selection of early recordings Kossoff made with Black Cat Bones was released on the album Paul's Blues . In 2000 a Free biography entitled Heavy Load: The Story of Free was published. 2017 saw publication of the Paul Kossoff biography entitled Paul Kossoff: All Right Now – The Guitars, The Gear, The Music. Kossoff used drugs from age 15. Simon Kirke has said "he clearly had
896-610: The traditional Queen songs and new cuts from their most recently released album. Rodgers and Kirke toured again with Bad Company from 2012 to 2016. Andy Fraser died on 16 March 2015. In 2017, Paul Rodgers embarked on a Free Spirit UK Tour in May 2017 to celebrate the music of Free by performing songs strictly from the Free catalogue. In 2019 Bad Company reformed to tour in support of the first leg on Lynyrd Skynyrd 's Last Of The Street Survivors Tour. Original members Later members Live at Croydon Fairfield Halls 15 From Misplaced Pages,
928-486: Was drummer Simon Kirke and the two went on to play on Dupree's April 1968 album When You Feel the Feeling You Was Feeling . In April 1968, Kossoff and Kirke teamed up with Paul Rodgers (vocals) and Andy Fraser (bass) to form Free . They toured for two years, during which they recorded two albums: Tons of Sobs (1968) and Free (1969). Both albums showcased the band's blues- and soul-influenced sound,
960-505: Was replaced by ex- Osibisa guitarist Wendell Richardson for a US tour in 1973, but shortly thereafter Free disbanded for good. Rodgers and Kirke went on to form Bad Company , Fraser formed Sharks and later the Andy Fraser Band, and Kossoff formed Back Street Crawler . With Kossoff in better health again in late 1975, he was delighted that ex-colleagues Rodgers and Kirke asked him to join them on stage for two nights. A British tour
992-424: Was set to begin on 25 April 1976 with Back Street Crawler headlining with Bad Company in support of Back Street Crawler's second album, but again Kossoff's drug addictions contributed to a drastic decline in the guitarist's health. On a flight from Los Angeles to New York City on 19 March 1976, Kossoff died from a pulmonary embolism at the age of 25. After parting with Bad Company in 1982, Rodgers went on to explore
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1024-416: Was the broadcaster Alan Keith and he was a cousin of the judge Brian Keith and the model Linda Keith . At age nine, Kossoff started classical guitar lessons with Blanche Monroe. His classical guitar training continued until he was fifteen. In December 1965, he saw Eric Clapton with John Mayall 's Bluesbreakers at The Refectory, Golders Green , North West London. This encounter inspired him to purchase
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