Zoot Money obituary | Blues

When Georgie Fame called his old friend Zoot Money up on stage to sing at Ronnie Scott’s Club one autumn night in London in 2022 – “Come on Zoot, I can’t do this without you” – they tore the house down.

It was a moving moment for both performers, as they joined forces with the Guy Barker Big Band to sing Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag, that brought back memories of the days when Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band vied for popularity with Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames at the height of the British R&B boom.

Money, who has died aged 82, was a charismatic personality, a soulful singer and an excellent Hammond organist. He was much loved by the mods who flocked to his band’s shows at London clubs such as the Flamingo in the swinging 60s. Members of the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the Animals were also among his greatest fans.

The son of Italian parents, Mary (nee Repitti) and Oscar Money, George was born in Bournemouth,

where his father worked as a waiter. At Portchester school he learned to play the piano and french horn and sang in the choir. However, it was not long before he discovered rock’n’roll, Jerry Lee Lewis and Ray Charles, and began singing and playing in local clubs. His stage name was inspired by the American jazz saxophonist Zoot Sims.

On leaving school Money trained to be an optician but lost his job when he kept turning up late for work after nights gigging with his Big Roll Band, formed in 1961. By 1963 the Big Rollers featured Andy Summers on guitar, Nick Newall on saxophone and Colin Allen on drums. Money also switched from piano to the funkier sounding Hammond organ.

When spotted by Alexis Korner’s manager, Money was invited to play with Alexis in Blues Incorporated and moved to London. The Big Rollers rejoined him and began to play regularly at the Flamingo, where they replaced Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames as the resident band in 1964. Summers recalled: “Fraught with unemployment and hunger, we were living on borrowed time and the dole queue. But when we replaced Georgie Fame at the Flamingo we were ecstatic.”

The Rollers, with a new member, the singer and bassist Paul Williams, began touring extensively and released a debut single, The Uncle Willie (1964), followed by an album, It Should’ve Been Me (1965). On stage, they would play a popular James Brown medley. Money recalled the Flamingo as “a really groovy place … We loved playing to black American servicemen that came to the club and were familiar with the soul and R&B music we were trying to play. For them, it was like being at home. We also backed visiting American blues men like John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson. They were surprised we were so good.”

Another former US serviceman and musician, the young Jimi Hendrix, arrived at Money’s house in Fulham, west London, in September 1966 escorted by his British manager, Chas Chandler, formerly of the Animals. Money had an Italian-made acoustic guitar lying around which Jimi instantly picked up and played.

The Big Rollers packed out clubs such as Klooks Kleek in West Hampstead, where they recorded their live album Zoot! in May 1966. Money loved to entertain the crowds with his extrovert showmanship, pulling fans’ shoes off while singing Barefootin’ and dropping his trousers on stage; but it was difficult to crack the all important singles charts and his only hit was Big Time Operator, which got to No 25 in 1966.

Nevertheless Money was always in the music press gossip columns. One night at the Olympia in Paris, the Big Rollers performed their James Brown medley. It caused a sensation with young French fans, but did not go down well with the star of the show – James Brown.

A year later R&B was on the wane, fashions had changed and the Big Roll Band broke up to be replaced by Dantalian’s Chariot, a band more in tune with the Summer of Love. A Melody Maker headline in August 1967 proclaimed “Zoot drops the trouser dropping – for psychedelia”. Although tracks like Madman Running Through the Fields proved impressive when played live at the Speakeasy Club with a psychedelic light show, the new direction was difficult to maintain and the band broke up in April 1968.

Thereafter Zoot divided his time between various groups and artists, notably Eric Burdon’s New Animals, GRIMMS, Kevin Coyne and Kevin Ayers. He also turned to acting and had screen roles in a host of TV shows, and films including Breaking Glass (1980), Absolute Beginners (1986) and Mona Lisa (1986), and developed a career as a record producer and songwriter.

He released his final solo album, The Book of Life … I’ve Read It, in 2016, and the following year Repertoire Records released Big Time Operator, a celebratory four-CD box set of live Big Roll Band recordings.

Money married Ronni (Veronica) McCann in 1967. She died from dementia in 2017 and in recent years he had suffered from ill-health himself.

He is survived by a daughter and two sons.