BB King: The Life Of Riley, DVD review Of course, growing up in pre-war Mississippi meant being exposed to a world where racism was a deadly, daily threat. King says that seeing a Ku Klux Klan mob hang a young black boy "was something I never forgot." The film pieces together his path to success, from the Memphis musicians who were willing to help him learn; to his time as a disc jockey at WDIA, America's first all black radio station. His nickname there - Blues Boy - was soon shortened to B.B. The tributes are fulsome and varied but what stays in the memory are two touching scenes. The first is when the Governor of Mississippi declares a B.B. King Day (in the state in which he saw a lynching, don't forget) and King is moved to deep tears. There is also a wonderful clip from a concert King gave at the White House with Mick Jagger, in which Barack Obama joins them on stage. Another affecting part of the film is when Morgan Freeman steps out of his role as narrator to offer his own eloquent tribute to King straight to camera. King, who turned 87 in September, is a fine singer, and one of the greatest guitarists in history, but he is also a genuine and warm person. I've been fortunate enough to meet him on several occasions. The first, when I was a teenager, was at a jazz festival in Alexander Palace in 1979 and (luckily for me) the esteemed jazz photographer Val Wilmer took a picture of us talking. It's a treasured possession. I met him again in 1985, when I skipped my graduation ceremony to see him in concert at the Hammersmith Odeon. I bumped into an old family friend called Ray Bolden, who had run the blues and jazz section at Dobell's Record Shop in Charing Cross Road for decades and looked after B.B. when he first came to London. Wanna go and say hello to BB? Ray asked. King's face lit up to see Ray. King asked me what music I was keen on. When I praised Lonnie Johnson, he hugged me, took a tape cassette out of his top jacket pocket and said: "I never go anywhere without Lonnie's music." It was a typically generous reaction from a musician whom even stars such as Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Bono and Bonnie Raitt praise to the skies. The consensus is that King is so original that you can tell his guitar playing from "one note." Bill Wyman says that King tried to teach him that magnificent 'trill' sound, even lending him his treasured 'Lucille' guitar on which to master the effect. "Buggered if I could do it," says Wyman on The Life Of Riley. The accompanying soundtrack CD has some great songs - including The Thrill Is Gone and Three O'Clock In The Morning - but if you really want to feast on his music, then I recommend the 10-CD, 194 track collection celebrating the 50th Anniversary of his signing to ABC-Paramount Records, which features classics, great collaborations and previously unreleased recordings. With B.B., after all, the thrill is never gone. The Life Of Riley, DVD (Boulevard Entertainment) The Life Of Riley, CD (Universal Import) Ladies and Gentlemen . . . Mr. B. B. King Boxset (Universal Music)