John Gregory with Buddy Guy - click to enlarge

Blues fan, player, journalist and long term friend of the Festival John Gregory, of St John's, is pictured above with one of the greatest living Blues guitar players, Buddy Guy .

John said: 'This picture was taken at Buddy Guy's Blues Club, Legends , in Chicago, early May 2002 by my now wife Angela.

'We spent a few days in Chicago before going to Memphis and New Orleans and decided to go to Buddy's club. Not for one minute did I realise I would meet the great man himself.
'It was Angela who spotted him after John Primer , an excellent blues musician performing that night, had taken a break. Buddy was in the corner of the club chatting to a young blonde woman and I was reluctant to approach him at first. We had had a couple of drinks though and as everyone else was asking for a picture I finally decided to do the same.
'I'll always remember the two words he said to me when I asked him if he would allow us to take a picture. "Yep, sure" Ah, the bliss of those simple words, etched forever in my memory.
'Needless to say I had completely forgotten I had a bottle of Budweiser in my hand at the time, and because the club was so dark I believed there was no chance that the picture - taken on a normal film camera - would come out.

This photo of Stevie Ray Vaughan is from the image above and hangs on the wall of Buddy Guy's famous BLues Legends Club in Chicago - click to enlarge

'When we got the picture back I was gobsmacked. Not only did it come out crystal clear, but a photograph of one of Buddy's great friends, and another of my idols, Stevie Ray Vaughan was in the background (this can be clearly seen in the image above and in detail, right, ed.).
'If you look closely at Buddy's right hand you will see his famous "BG" ring. 'I've never seen the man perform live and if I met him again perhaps I would say something profound, but the picture and the memory will stay with me for a very long time - it was very special for me to meet one of my favourite all time great bluesmen."

John's stay in the States was to become something of a musical odyssey with one or two rather surreal moments particularly when tracking down the Rev Al Green. John Says:
'In Memphis we got a cab to Al Green's church and recording studio and our taxi driver barged into the studio, proclaiming to one and all that he knew Green himself. Needless to say we never saw him and were promptly booted off the premises.
'We also visited Graceland - would a visit to Memphis be complete without one?
"But we missed BB King performing in his own restaurant of the same name by a matter of weeks. However during our stay in Memphis the chef at the premises was shot during a robbery (luckily he survived and popped up on the local TV news and appeared to be relatively unscathed).
'In New Orleans we saw Big Al Carson perform - a huge man and character."

John reckons that although he was suffering from food poisoning for most of the time he and Angela were in the US it was,nevertheless, one of the great experiences and certainly the photo he has sent in is a real gem.