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George Bruno “Zoot” Money

17 July 1942 – 8 September 2024

Zoot Money was a life long resident of Brighton and took his
nickname from jazz sax man Zoot Sims.

When Zoot was a teenager, Brighton was a core hub of
music in the south of England and had easy access by road

and rail to London.

Already hooked by the sounds of American blues and rock ‘n’
roll, Zoot soon started to marshal local musicians to form a

band. The first version of the
band was Zoot as vocalist,
Roger Collis on lead guitar,
pianist Al Kirtley, bassist Mike

"Monty" Montgomery and
drummer Johnny Hammond.

(The name 'Big Roll Band'
came from Money mis-hearing
the phrase "big old band" from
the third verse of Chuck

Berry's Johnny B. Goode.)

The band got a regular gig at
London’s Flamingo Club. By

then the band was bassist Paul
Williams (who also sang),
guitarist Andy Summers (later of the Police), saxophonists Nick Newall and Clive

Burrows and Colin Allen on drums.

From there on, with Zoot’s flamboyance much to the fore, the band started to record

for Decca and released a single that year before switching to EMI's Columbia label.
In 1965 four more singles were released and their first album, “It Should Have Been
Me” was released in October of the same year.

Zoot was also a character actor, known for regular TV appearances in Porridge (1979),
and appearing in the movies Supergirl (1984) and Bad Timing (1980).

During his lengthy musical career Zoot was associated with Rocket 88, Snowy White,
Mick Taylor, Spencer Davis, Geno Washington, Brian Joseph Friel, The Hard Travelers
and Widowmaker and served for a short while in The Animals.

He was also in a progressive band called Dantalian's Chariot in the early 70s. I
interviewed him for BiTS about six years ago. He was a delight to talk to.

Ian K McKenzie