Daisley's Aussie flight fright

Bob Daisley has recalled how his 1971 relocation from Australia to England later seemed like a date with destiny – because his plans collapsed days before he was to leave.

The future Ozzy Osbourne, Rainbow and Chicken Shack bassist was 21 years old at the time. He’d been a member of heavy prog outfit Kahvas Jute, but didn’t go with them when they moved to London.

Daisley tells The Double Stop: “They phoned me up after they’d been there for about a month and said, ‘We’ve worked with some bass players – the band doesn’t sound the same without you. Would you come over here and rejoin us?’

“I thought, ‘I’ve got nothing to lose; just do it.’ I sold my car and I got my passport together. I had enough money for a ticket.

“About two days before I was supposed to leave they phoned and said, ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter – we’ve found someone!’ I was ready to get on the plane and had that little bomb dropped on me.”

He was grateful for the support of friends and family in that difficult moment – and it was his father who spurred his next move. “His words were: ‘Fuck them; you get over these and show them how it’s done,’” he recalls.

“So I ended up on a plane by myself. As I was going down the runway on this plane to London, I was like, ‘What have I done?’”

Clive Coulson, then a roadie with Led Zeppelin and later their tour manager, put Daisley up when he arrived in England. Seven months later he joined Chicken Shack. “That’s when the ball really started rolling,” says the bassist who went to co-found Blizzard Of Ozz with Osbourne in 1979.

The Double Stop: Bob Daisley

Not only is one-time online news editor Martin an established rock journalist and drummer, but he’s also penned several books on music history, including SAHB Story: The Tale of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, a band he once managed, and the best-selling Apollo Memories about the history of the legendary and infamous Glasgow Apollo. Martin has written for Classic Rock and Prog and at one time had written more articles for Louder than anyone else (we think he's second now). He’s appeared on TV and when not delving intro all things music, can be found travelling along the UK’s vast canal network.