Didn't It Rain - When The Blues Came To Britain

Craig Charles tells the incredible tale of a piece of largely forgotten music history - the moment in Manchester in early 1964 when some of America's legendary Blues performers played at Chorlton Railway Station!

The tour played... Bristol, Portsmouth, Liverpool, Birmingham, Hammersmith, Leicester, Sheffield, London, Croydon, Brighton and the Free Trade Hall Manchester. The Blues and Gospel Show of 1964 was part of a movement which influenced a whole generation of musicians, and while they were over here, the performers were persuaded by ITV's 'Granada Television' franchise to take part in a special TV show produced by the legendary Johnnie Hamp.

Using a disused railway station in Chorlton, South Manchester, Johnnie re-created the 'travelled in on a boxcar' image of the old 1920s blues players - and he achieved it, much to the delight of the several hundred people who were there but also to the joy of the millions watching this seminal moment in music history nationwide.

Cousin Joe Pleasant, Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee, Sister Rosetta Thorpe, Otis Span, Willie Smith and Ransome Knowling all did the show, and for British Blues fans the 'Blues Train' event was a dream come true.

Craig Charles on the moment when legendary blues singers played Chorlton Railway Station.