I thought this particular urban legend had died a death some years ago, but it surfaced again down the pub last night. So, as a Public Service Announcement, let me make it clear that:
Bob Holness did not play saxophone on Gerry Rafferty‘s song Baker Street.
The musician responsible for the legendary riff was in fact Raphael Ravenscroft, and the whole Bob Holness thing started life as a joke by journalist and BBC presenter Stuart Maconie in the New Musical Express.
In other late-breaking news:
- The late Richard Whiteley did not play washboard with Slayer in their early days as a Doncaster skiffle band.
- Valerie Singleton and Muffin the Mule did not co-star in the series Lesbian Lavatory Lust Volumes I – XVIII.
- And, just to be positive for a change, Monkee Michael Nesmith‘s mother did, in fact, invent Liquid Paper.
Thank you. You may now return to consuming your Kentucky Fried Rat, with lashings of green cola. (This means you, Gaz.)