Ageing giants of rock'n'roll prove to be far from retiring: David Lister meets the man who put the bop in Awopbopaloobopalopbamboom

CONFIRMATION that rock'n'roll really was a long time ago came yesterday when Little Richard said: 'You must come and see me at Wembley on Saturday; it will be my 60th birthday.'

Richard, who gave rock'n'roll its most celebrated word, Awopbopaloobopalopbamboom, will be topping a Giants of Rock'n'Roll bill at three British concerts with a supporting cast that most of us thought were either dead, in Bill Clinton's cabinet or in prison.

There is Richard's rival for 35 years, Jerry Lee Lewis, who gave rock'n'roll its second-best known phrase, 'Goodness gracious great balls of fire.' Richard found religion and Lewis showed him what religion was up against. Richard encouraged those urging that homosexuality be made legal, while Jerry Lee did his best to have heterosexuality declared illegal.

Yesterday the two and a host of others were scheduled to gather for the press at a west London club. Jerry Lee didn't show.

The excuse was 'flu, but this sounded a little diplomatic for a man known to throw fits when not topping the bill. In 1958, when it was decreed that Chuck Berry and not he close a show, Lewis opened it, played for three minutes, poured lighter fuel on the piano and set fire to it, saying: 'I'd like to see any son of a bitch follow that.'

His spokesman was quick to remind us yesterday that he was a victim of the establishment's backlash against rock'n'roll in the Fifties; though that backlash did also owe a little to the fact that he made his 13-year-old cousin his third wife, neglecting to divorce his second en route.

But we did at least have his props yesterday. 'This is Jerry's piano,' Little Richard said, perhaps noticing footprints on it, before playing a couple of numbers and showing what a hefty punch his voice still packed.

Then Richard, still with his long black curls, eye make-up and gleaming white teeth, looked in disbelief at some of his co-stars: Little Eva, who it can be revealed ought now to trade just under the name Eva; Bobby Vee and Lloyd Price in reasonably good shape; Duane Eddy with white hair and white beard; Johnny Preston, white-haired and stout; Chris Montez, dark hair and likewise.

Little Richard was most gob-smacked at the sight of Montez. 'Chris, I always thought you were black,' he exclaimed, before remembering his calling. 'Of course you don't have to be black to have soul. God gave it to all of us. I never thought I would see 60. God has been merciful to a person like me. We are God's bouquet.'

Those who did not praise the Lord praised themselves instead. When one of the more sycophantic members of the press asked Lloyd Price: 'Do you think you have been neglected because you are so great?', Mr Price responded: 'Well, in some sense I would say that, yes.'

Little Richard too had a cool line in self-adulation. 'Prince, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger - they have all stolen from me. I am the architect of rock'n'roll, I am the emancipator. I am the quasar. You know why they gave Tutti Frutti to Pat Boone? Because they didn't want white women screaming at a black man; and when they saw it was a great-looking black man they knew they had trouble.'

Only Little Eva, barely known since The Locomotion in 1962, and out of the business for 20 years on welfare and 'slinging hash' (cooking and waitressing), looked forlorn. 'I used to weigh 98 pounds,' she said, 'I don't any more. I did used to be little.'

'You don't have to worry, honey,' soothed Little Richard. 'I used to have a little head; now I have a big one.'

(Photograph omitted)