Britian is still a country for and says "Happy Birthday" to an old guitarist called Jeff Beck, singer Colin Blunstone and drummer Mick Fleetwood

Jeff is 69 years old today, Colin is 68 and Mick is 6
6 giving them a collective age of 143 years.






So what do these three old musicians have in common ?

1. They all came to music in their teens in the 1960s.

Jeff :

* grew up in Wallington, South London, as a ten-year-old, sang in a church choir and as a teenager he learned to play a borrowed guitar and made several attempts to build his own by gluing and bolting together cigar boxes for the body and a fence-post for the neck, model aircraft control-lines for strings and frets simply painted on.

* at 19 joined 'The Rumbles', a Croydon band, in 1963 for a short period as lead guitarist, playing Gene Vincent and Buddy Holly songs, displaying a talent for mimicking guitar styles and two years later was recruited by 'The Yardbirds'  to replace Eric Clapton on the recommendation of fellow session man Jimmy Page.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn6cxaKRwtk

Colin :

* was born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire and went to school in St. Albans where 'The Zombies' were formed when he was 17 in 1962 and the group scored a British and US hit when he was 19 with 'She's not There' .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5IRI4oHKNU

* in his early twenties had further success with 'Tell Her No' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezSMbQKQEJI
and in 1969 ,'Time of the Season' .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqnuI9K5ct4

Mick :
* was born in Redruth, Cornwall, went to a number of schools including a boarding school in Gloucestershire, performed badly in exams, dropped out of school at 15 and, in 1963, at 16, moved to London to pursue a career as a drummer.

* began his career with 'The Cheynes'  (left), followed by stints stints in the 'Bo Street Runners', 'Peter Bs', 'Shotgun Express' with Rod Stewart and John Mayall & the Bluesbreakes'.

2. They are all still working in their 60s :

Jeff :
at the Madison Square Garden in April :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GinnrHB0wLA

Mick :
interviewed in February and talking about his forthcoming tour in Britain in September :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPlK7nPJpA0

Colin :
on his website talking about his tour in Britain this year after returning from the USA : ' I think because we'd been working so much I hadn't really realised how many dates we were due to play, 24 dates in 33 days, followed by a trip to Holland to play at the wonderful Paradiso and then one day off before flying back to the States. I love to work, but even I was a bit intimidated by this schedule which seemed even tougher than when we started in the 60's.'

singing  'Old and Wise' when he was 66 in 2011 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUv3PNDPyEU