Elliott’s living the dream fronting Cocker band
Hayes FM presenter Hughie Dixon reviews the live band scene
EVERYBODY has a musical hero and Hillingdon singer Elliott Tuffin’s was UK rock/ soul legend Joe Cocker from as far back as he can remember. Hearing ‘Delta Lady’ and ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’, the Beatles cover which rocketed Joe to stardom after his 1969 Woodstock performance, inspired the young Elliott to become a vocalist and consequently modeled his style on Joe’s.
Elliott’s huge admiration for Joe led him to meet his idol more than 10 times.
Although hugely respected locally as a singer Elliott’s enthusiasm for gigging waned after more than 25 years and he decided to call it a day around mid 2013.
Furthermore his world was shattered when Joe Cocker passed away in December 2014 and Elliott continued to maintain his Joe Cocker fan page on Facebook.
Then like a bolt out of the blue in January 2016 Elliott is messaged on social media by Deric Dyer who he knows to be Joe Cocker’s saxophonist residing in the USA.
Unbeknownst to Elliot, after seeing his faultless renditions of Joe Cocker songs on YouTube the ex-band members had conversed and decided to invite Elliott to join them for a one-off show in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.
To cut a long story short, Elliott was flown out on November 28 2016. The scheduled one-off show sold out in hours so another show was added, which also sold out. Elliott Tuffin returned to Hillingdon after performing three sold out gigs at the Bull Mansions Hotel in Massachusetts.
The events were filmed for an upcoming documentary and Mr Tuffin is now about to sign a contract for fronting Joe Cocker’s band for a tour of North America starting in May this year with UK and European gigs to follow.
Not many get to fill the shoes of their ultimate idol. Not many have the right credentials. Elliott obvious does, although he humbly insists “It’s all about Joe”. You can follow events on www.cockerrocks.com.
The moral of this story? Never give up on your dreams. Happy New Year.