John Goodsall
I can’t remember where I first met him I think it was at Cat and Fiddle around 1985. I had always been a fan of Brand X and we rapped for a while, and I found out he played with Atomic Rooster under a alias. I had really dug that band in High School a incredible unsung unit. He said he had a band called Zoo Drive and was doing session work.
Then a few years later I went to Trader Joes off Santa Monica Blvd and noticed a familiar looking guy sitting in a yellow cab, it was Goodsall! He was looking worse for wear, the kind of look of hard liquor, depressants, or opiates.
He looked like he was in his 70's! We rapped about our favorite fusion guitarists, and I saw him several times parked in the same spot waiting for fares. I remember feeling a weird feeling when I saw him once driving the cab down Sunset, here was a pioneer of jazz fusion, perhaps one of the top guys out of the UK. But after all I was working as a security guard at the time LOL. Then in 1989 he rose like a phoenix and formed a band called the Fire Merchants one of the greatest fusion power trios of all time.
On drums was the legendary Chester Thompson. I was in attendance for a gig at the Music Machine which is now up on YouTube. John went on to tour in the reformed Brand X. I ran into him again at The Cat and Fiddle around 2003 when my Celtic Band: Sally’s Gap played there, and we had a laugh about the cabdriver era. I went to the computer on my birthday last year and saw he had passed.
Rest in peace, John. I encourage everyone to explore the videos of the Fire Merchants—a testament to his musical legacy.
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