Jeff Beck is 80 this week.

He was born in Surrey and grew up singing in church. After hearing Les Paul’s How High the Moon, he was inspired to learn guitar and, in the sixties, got his break as a member of the Yardbirds. In 1967, he began working with the producer Mickie Most and recorded Hi-Ho Silver Lining which he hated and had first been recorded by The Attack in 1966.

He formed his own Jeff Beck group which had Rod Stewart on vocals and Ronnie Wood on bass. After the group broke up, he was considered as Syd Barrett’s replacement in Pink Floyd, but Nick Mason said, “No one was brave enough to ask him.”

He had played with every musician worth playing with as well as a few who maybe are not. In 2020, he even collaborated with Johnny Depp.

In January 2023, he contracted meningitis in hospital and died aged 78.

In 2010, he recorded the album Emotion & Commotion which had a wonderful cover of Lilac Wine with Imelda May on vocals.

Let’s enjoy that version.