BILLY Martin Junior, the compere for the fourth year running at the Philadelphia Blues Festival this weekend, doesn't forget his old dad.

He was a local pub and club turn in the Fifties but he never gave up the day job.

"Every time I do a gig I play a tribute to my father," says the singer, pictured, known as the Delta Blues Man of Sheffield.

The festival runs at the George IV pub on Infirmary Road on Friday and Saturday, where he will also be performing.

"My dad was a milkman when we lived on Lansdowne Road and he used to be on the streets before the binmen came.

"He covered Nether Edge and came home with all sorts of wonderful things, including a wind-up gramophone when we were little kids.

"This was the time they were knocking all the houses down and there were stacks of old records in the attics.

"We'd take them home to play rather than skim them against walls. It was the foundation of my musical education."

Page's summer seaside chapter

IF you're in Tenerife this summer drop by the Theatre bar in Playa de las Americas and you'll catch co-owner and resident singer Nik Page.

Nick is the son of former Sheffield clubland artist Barry Santana, now recovering after a road smash last December.

Nik performed at Sheffield Lane Top recently and, with wife Tanya Tevaro, starts a summer season in Blackpool in August.


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