Many people would talk about how Dutch and his band (The Blues Club) used to play at the Station Hotel in Prahran and how it was an institution. That band was Dutch (guitar and vocals), Geoff Achison (guitar), Winston Galea (drums) and Barry Hills (bass). In 2001, I had the pleasure of seeing them in a one-off special reunion gig at the St Andrew's Hotel - being at that gig showed me exactly why so many people fell in love with the band back then and followed Dutch since then.

In 2006, Dutch's manager Lynne was having trouble with Dutch's website and I stepped in to create a new site and I have managed the site since then. I haven't been to see Dutch perform too many times, but when I have, it has been a pleasure.

Last year, Lynne told me about Dutch's illness and how it wouldn't be something that he'd recover from. Over the last few months, Dutch carried on performing until it was too painful to continue and since retiring earlier this year, it has just been a matter of time.

On Tuesday 3rd May, Dutch's funeral took place at the Mitcham Baptist Church and it was a celebration of the man's work.

It is a loss that Dutch has gone, but he leaves a huge legacy and the health of the local blues scene is the result of his work and the people that he encourages and inspired. Not to mention the music that he has left us with. He's gone but he won't be forgotten.

"It is with a heavy heart we say farewell to Australia's own 'Blues Master General'.

Our bandleader, mentor and friend Mathias 'Dutch' Tilders died this Easter weekend from cancer at the age of 69.

He was born in the Netherlands and his family emigrated to Australia in 1955. He played a unique style of blues inspired by the great guitarist singers such as Huddie Leadbetter, Big Bill Broonzy, Mississippi John Hurt and a man who later became a personal friend, Brownie McGhee.

In his long career Dutch's influence on the local Australian blues scene is immeasurable. So many of us speak of our first time seeing the Dutchman perfrom as a 'life changing' experience. I know it was for me. Like many blues fans I discovered the music after hearing American (and British!) blues records. When I saw Dutch Tilders at the Windsor Castle in the late 1980's it was the first time I'd actually witnessed a true blues master plying his trade in front of an enthusiastic audience. The records I'd been turned onto were one thing, but to experience the music live was a whole new level.

That's what Dutch gave us. There were many other terrific blues stylists and a lot of blues based bands on the scene but compared to Dutch the rest of us were more like conglomeration of fellow students and fans. Dutch was the real deal.

Playing with him was a real education. He commanded the stage, played for the moment and led the band with his guitar whilst fully engaging the audience. It was never scripted and we not once had a set-list. That taught us to listen and be on the ball ready for whatever Dutch felt like doing next.

Dutch was diagnosed with cancer about a year ago. Although very ill he continued to perform maintaining a busy tour schedule between hospital visits. After a tour in late January he was no longer physically able to sing. He passed away April 23rd in Wantirna, Melbourne.

He's gone on his final journey and we'll miss him dreadfully."

Born in the Netherlands in 1941, Dutch emigrated to Australia with his parents, four brothers and a sister in 1955.

At the age of ten, he was a member of a church choir, but by the time he was twelve, his alto voice broke. No more singing for the boy with the baritone voice. When he was thirteen, he joined a boys choir at a secondary school fooling the choir master into believing he was an alto by singing falsetto. He can still produce those high-pitched notes to this day.

His first year in Australia was spent in the Brooklyn Migrant Hostel where his first experience as a performer was in an amateur Black and White Minstrel Show. His very first paid gig, when just fifteen, was at the Collingwood Town Hall where he played the harmonica. On the same bill were Joff Allen and Johnny O'Keefe. Dutch was paid two pounds seven and sixpence, which at the time he was getting for half a weeks wages at Broons timberyard in Brooklyn. It only cost two pounds and sixpence for the taxi home.

He bought his first guitar in 1959 and by 1960 he was playing in the trendy coffee lounges of that time. Making up most of the songs as he went along, he found the blues was exactly the music in which to express his feelings. With no one to teach him, he developed his own style that remains unique to himself.

Dutch made his first record in 1972 and it was released one year later. His collaborators were Brian Cadd, Phil Manning, Barry Sullivan, Barry Harvey, Laurie Prior and Broderick Smith. In 1975 he started recording for an independent label, Eureka and consequently recorded two direct to disc records with greats Jimmy Conway and Kevin Borich.

During the seventies, Dutch fronted such Blues and Boogie bands as the Elks, the Cyril 'B' Bunter Band and Mickey Finn. In 1980 he formed the 'R&B Six', a band that included Charley Elul (drums), Peter Frazer (sax), Suzanne Petersen (flute and vocals), Mick Eliot (guitar) and Dave Murray (bass and vocals). This band toured Australia extensively.

In the meantime, Dutch also worked solo and toured with John Mayall, Taj Mahal, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry. In 1976, having only heard Dutch, B B King assumed that he was black. Brownie and Dutch became best mates simply because Browney believed that the Dutchman was a genuine bluesman, regardless of his racial origins.

Since then, Dutch has been honoured with many awards, most notedly for his performances with his band, 'The Blues Club'.

Nowadays he mainly performs as a solo artist, though he does enjoy getting together with Geoff Achison doing amazing duo chops.

Dutch ranks among his favourite guitarists; Geoff Achison, Kevin Borich and the Emmanuel brothers. He excuses himself by saying he only plays the guitar as he doesn't know what to do with his hands while he sings. He says that the blues is the song and the guitar is just the accompainment, like the banjo used to be and the lyre long ago.