So, another year is upon us Yardbird fans. I doubt very much if you read it anywhere else, so it is with great sadness that I have to report the passing of my very good friend Hamish Grimes. He was hospitalized last year for a minor check up, but unfortunately whilst there he suffered a heart attack which proved fatal. My sympathy goes to Lynn and all that were close to this dear man.

Hamish was such an important asset to the story of the Yardbirds. As well as being Giorgio's right hand man, his is the first voice you hear on the classic "Five Live" Yardbirds album. All those crazy-brilliant yard-moralizing sayings were Hamish's, along with the excellent way in which he wrote down the Yardbirds. In such an artistic way that all future albums etc. had to use that same style that we now take for granted. This was all down to Hamish.

I remember Hamish telling me that at an early stage in the Yardbirds, he & Giorgio wanted to issue singles here in the U. K. with picture covers on the singles, instead of the dreadful usual sleeves, we were used to. After all, this was very much the norm in countries like America. The record company refused, Hamish later mentioned it to Brian Epstein, who with his pulling power managed to get one of his group's singles released in a picture sleeve. Some band called, "The Beatles".