Page 23 - BiTS_07_JULY_2024_Neat

THE BiTS INTERVIEW: RAPHAEL CALLAGHAN

Raphael Callaghan is a singer, harmonica and slide guitar player, a songwriter
- and above all, a music enthusiast! He's from Liverpool, UK and has his own

style of acoustic blues, gospel and roots. He's had years of experience playing
solo and in various groups and bands, and has played with such luminaries

as Alexis Korner, Bonnie Raitt and Eric Bibb.

Depite his ubiquitous presence, he remains strangely unknown.

Ian McKenzie spoke to him on the telephone at his home.

RC: Hello.

BiTS: Raphael. Hello. How nice to speak to you.

RC: We speak at last [laughs]. I've heard your voice so often, but
we've never spoken.

BiTS: Well, I never did. Yes, of course, I forgot you were a listener
to my show on a fairly regular basis, I think?

RC: Yeah. Exactly, yeah. Ian, first of all, thanking you so much on
behalf of myself and many, many others for your support for us. It's
absolutely fantastic.

BiTS: My pleasure, and I always believe in supporting
talent. I know you've been at the game for a long time,
but what you do is outstanding.

RC: Ah, great. What I like about your programmes are
that you don't just concentrate on the new releases
like most shows do. They play it once and then that's
it. But you constantly go back and it's fantastic.

BiTS: Glad to hear it. Raphael, let’s talk about that
history of yours. You've been involved or interested

in the blues for a long time, since you were a
teenager, in fact.
RC: Yeah, I mean, growing up in Liverpool,

obviously I was surrounded by the big groups
of the early 60s because I was born in 1948
and I came up like in the 1950s with the rock
and roll stuff. We didn't have electricity yet
in our house and we used to go down to my
grandmother's house where my dad and his
brother would play their 78s. They had Little
Richard’s 78s and one that stood out to me was also
‘Blue Moon’ by Elvis Presley with all that beautiful