Kim Maiden Simmonds (5 December 1947 – 13 December 2022) was a British musician. He was the founder, guitarist, primary songwriter and only consistent member of the blues rock band Savoy Brown. Simmonds led Savoy Brown since its inception in 1965 to its peak and multi-sales. He performed and appeared on every album the band recorded.

Career[edit]

When still a young teenager, Simmonds learned to play from listening to his brother’s blues records. Considered one of the architects of British blues, he started the Savoy Brown Blues Band in October 1965,^[1] who began playing gigs at the Nags Head in 1966 in London. Early gigs included performing with Cream at Klooks Kleek and accompanying John Lee Hooker.

Live performances led to Savoy Brown signing with Decca. But it was 1969 before its classic line-up gelled around Simmonds, rhythm guitarist Lonesome Dave Peverett, and the monocle and bowler hat-wearing vocalist Chris Youlden. That year’s Blue Matter and A Step Further albums conjured up at least three classics heard on The Best of Savoy Brown (20th Century Masters/The Millennium Collection): “Train To Nowhere”, the live show-stopper “Louisiana Blues” (a Muddy Waters number), and “I’m Tired”.

Since its first US visit, Savoy Brown has criss-crossed the country, and “I’m Tired” became the group’s first hit single across the ocean. The band would find a greater following in America than in its native England throughout its career.^{[citation needed]}

1970’s Raw Sienna followed, featuring “A Hard Way To Go” and “Stay While The Night Is Still Young”. When Youlden then departed for a solo career, Lonesome Dave took over the lead vocals. Looking In, also in 1970, featured not only “Poor Girl” and “Money Can’t Save Your Soul” but one of the era’s memorable LP covers, a troglodyte-like savage staring into an eye socket of a monstrous skull. Later, Peverett, bassist Tony Stevens and drummer Roger Earl left to form the successful but decidedly rock band Foghat. Simmonds soldiered on, recruiting from blues band Chicken Shack keyboardist Paul Raymond, bassist Andy Silvester and drummer Dave Bidwell, and from the Birmingham club circuit the vocalist Dave Walker.

The new line-up was a hit. On stage in America, the group was supported by Rod Stewart and the Faces. On the album Street Corner Talking (1971) and Hellbound Train (1972) launched favourites “Tell Mama”, “Street Corner Talking”, a cover of the Temptations‘ Motown standard “I Can’t Get Next To You” and the nine-minute epic “Hellbound Train” (decades later Love & Rockets adapted it as “Bound For Hell”). Walker then quit to join Fleetwood Mac, pre-Buckingham/Nicks.^[2]

In 1997, Simmonds released his first solo acoustic album, entitled Solitaire. He toured worldwide with various configurations of Savoy Brown. The 2004 live set you should Have Been There, recorded in early 2003 in Vancouver with Simmonds handling lead vocals – and also as a solo acoustic act. In 2011 he celebrated 45 years of touring with the Savoy Brown album Voodoo Moon.

In 2017, his album with Savoy Brown, Witchy Feeling, reached number one on the Billboard blues charts.

As a soloist and leader of Savoy Brown, Simmonds released over 47 albums through 2016. He was also a painter; the cover of his 2008 solo release, Out of the Blue, featured his original art. In 2008, Simmonds appeared in the Rockumentary “American Music: OFF THE RECORD”, Dir. by Benjamin Meade of Cosmic Cowboy Studio in Fayetteville, Arkansas, alongside Jackson Browne, Noam Chomsky, Douglas Rushkoff, Les Paul, Johnny and Edgar Winter and countless other musicians and musical acts.

Personal[edit]

On 15 August 2022, Simmonds announced via the Savoy Brown website that he has been receiving chemotherapy for stage four colon cancer. Due to the side effects of his treatment, all scheduled live performances have been cancelled.^[3] On 15 December 2022, it was stated via the Savoy Brown fanpage that Simmonds lost his battle with cancer on 13 December. ^[4]

Discography[edit]

Simmonds performing with Savoy Brown in 1975

with Savoy Brown[edit]

• Shake Down (1967)
• Getting to the Point (1968)
• Blue Matter (1969)
• A Step Further (1969)
• Raw Sienna (1970)
• Looking In (1970)
• Street Corner Talking (1971)
• Hellbound Train (1972)
• Lion’s Share (1972)
• Jack the Toad (1973)
• Boogie Brothers (1974)
• Wire Fire (1975)
• Skin ‘n’ Bone (1976)
• Savage Return (1978)
• Rock ‘n’ Roll Warriors (1981)
• Slow Train (1986)
• Make Me Sweat (1988)
• Kings of Boogie (1989)
• Let It Ride (1992)
• Bring It Home (1994)
• The Blues Keep Me Holding On (1999)
• Strange Dreams (2003)
• You Should Have Been There! (2005)
• Steel (2007)
• Train to Nowhere (2010)
• Voodoo Moon (2011)
• Songs From The Road (2013)
• Goin’ to the Delta (2014)
• The Devil to Pay (2015)
• Still Live After 50 Years – Volume 1 (2015)
• Still Live After 50 Years – Volume 2 (2017)
• Witchy Feelin´ (2017)
• City Night (2019)
• Ain’t Done Yet (2020)
• Taking the Blues Back Home (2020)

Solo[edit]

• Solitaire (1997)
• Blues Like Midnight (2001)
• Struck by Lightning (2004)
• Out of the Blue (2008)
• Jazzin’ on the Blues (2015)

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kim Simmonds.

• Savoy Brown website
• Kim Simmonds discography at Discogs
• Kim Simmonds at IMDb