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were a duo, and we made a cassette [laughs] and then we made a CD. Then when she broke her
wrist and couldn't play anymore, I had
to go solo again and I've made two
solo LP's and I've contributed to some
various charity CDs over the years as
well, you know.

BiTS: I didn't realise until I saw your
website that the name Blue Cee
related to you and your partner.

RC: Yeah, oh, yeah. Christine, yeah.
What happened was that I had come
out of the acoustic show. I'd been
singing in a jazz rock group in
Liverpool for about 18 months. Then
I went solo again. Then I did two and
a half years in a blues rock band in
Liverpool. Then I went solo again, and
I said to Christine, my ideal union
would be me and a bass player, and
she went and bought a bass!

BiTS: I take it that all of this time you
were managing yourself and arranging the gigs and all the rest of it. Is that right?

RC: Oh, absolutely. I've always done it. When Chris and I were in the duo, I mean, we played the
Burnley Blues Festival about ten times and Colne the big Midlands Blues Festival. We did that
three or four times. There were lots of gigs around and you could get them. Nowadays, it's harder

for the acoustic artists because there's lots of festivals around, but they seem to be concentrating
mainly on bands. Some of them might have acoustic stages, but then if you look closely, on the
acoustic stage, they've got artists who are actually on the main stage in a band. So the people
who are leading bands are doing acoustic sets on the acoustic stage, and that really cuts down
the number of slots available to the true solo acoustic artist like myself. I'm not taking anything
away from them because if they can get the gigs that's great. They're getting two bites of the
cherry. Maybe they get them a bit more cash as well. Good luck to them, but as I say, it does mean
that they’ve left less spots for the likes of me, you know.

BiTS: For people who are, and there are a few, believe me, who are still trying to find gigs as
acoustic artists, when you were really trying to do this, I mean you supported people like Geoff
Muldaur and Eric Bibb and Luther Grosvenor and Nine Below Zero, and so on and so forth. How
did you find those gigs? Did you just phone people up and say, can I come and do support, or
what?

RC: Oh, yeah, that’s what we did. We had three support slots at the Brewery Arts Centre in
Kendall. We did Nine Below Zero, Gina Washington and can't remember, and the Climax Blues
Band. We got them because we'd been booked for the Kendall Folk Festival over a weekend and
we went down really well, and the people there then got us these support slots. If you’re lucky.
I mean it's hard because I’ve played with Bonnie Raitt, and we actually became friends and we
meet up on every tour. In Manchester, partway through her set, she dedicated the song to us
from the stage. It was absolutely lovely. But not only that, she then said Raphael puts out records
that I love to hear.