High Voltage-Sunday

I’d bought a couple of tickets, for Sunday, so Billie came along.

The first band that we saw was Curved Air, a band that both of us remember from our youth. What a bloody disaster, they were just shit! Big style! Self indulgent, old-fashioned up-their-own-arse bollox-no I didn’t like them!

This crap performance was soon forgotten as we watched a “Border Morris” dance.

Morris dancing is quintessentially English, and has traditions that go back to at least the 16th century and probably before.
Most people who have seen Morris Dancers have seen the "Cotswold" type-typified by white shirts and trousers and flowers in their hats
These are "Border Morris" dancers. The border in question being the one between England and Wales.
They wear black and always disguise their faces with masks or makeup. According to the troupe leader, this was so that employers couldn't tell if their staff were making a few extra pennies in a part time job
Originally, the face paint was similar to the "Black and White Minstrel" look, but this has now been changed, as people misinterpreted the makeup as being racist-which it wasn't
Of course at a festival where everyone wears black t-shirts, this style is much more in keeping with the environment.

However the next band, Thunder were just stunning! I didn’t know that they had made so many good songs!(i.e. I knew lots of the tracks, but didn’t know that they were by Thunder.

Now, there was a large Ferris Wheel quite close to the stage, so I took the opportunity to see them and many other things from on high…

Thunder from the Ferris wheel

 

And , of course after a few beers, you need to go to the loo!

But the highlight was, of course Jo Bonamassa-my guitar hero!

He was playing in Black Country Communion, a band with Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham, Derek Sherinian, joining him.

They are really good, and whilst I have to say that I prefer Joe when he is doing his solo, more bluesy stuff more, they are very, very good!

Even in the slightly upmarket, safe environment of High Voltage folk like to strut their funky stuff. Rockers/metalheads-call 'em what you will, may look fearsome, but they aren't.Fights rarely break out at Rock Festivals.One of the reasons for this is that they are all broadly into the same music, so there is a point of commonality that instantly breaks down barriers.
It's really common to start up a conversation with a complete stranger because you notice that they are wearing a t-shirt from an event that you went to, or that, they like the same band.
So, in this case DO judge a book by it's cover, it's there to be read!

It was a really hot day and whilst Billie and I enjoyed every minute(almost), we thought that we would leave early, but it was a really good day.

Black Rock

Last night was my annual homage to Joe Bonamassa. Shaun and Michael Jackson (No, not the dead one), had kindly got tickets for the Hammersmith Apollo, and off we went. The evening started in classical style with a Thai meal on Hammersmith Broadway with, of course, copious beer, and then we sallied forth to the Apollo.

That was where the first shock happened, there was a HUGE queue. When I first heard Bonamassa 3 years ago, he was a niche blues player that no-one had heard of. This was clearly not the case now as the Apollo was sold out to it’s capacity of 5,250

The support act was Sandi Thom, She was very good, but it wasn’t my style as it was Country Blues, nevertheless, well performed.

 

I’d managed to get pretty close to the front and when Sandi was on, it was very comfortable.

Set complete, roadies did their bit and in less than 20 minutes a roar went up from the crowd as Joe got on the stage, and started the gig with “John Henry”

The gig continued with tracks old and new, and by about 30 minutes in the band was really rocking, and the atmosphere was great.

As I mentioned earlier, I was right at the front, next to the bass stack, and was becoming aware of the combination of gut thumping bass, heat, and crushing bodies was make me feel a bit odd. However, it was sooooo good that I let those feelings pass

Bonamassa did a great job as he went through his current and back catalogue, with hardly a seconds gap as he went from perfectly executed song to another.

The only time that he really spoke was to comment on the fact that almost exactly 10 years ago he was supporting Jethro Tull, and thought that Ian Anderson was a nice guy. This, of course, was just a lead up to Ian joining him on stage for 3 numbers

      

An audible laugh went up when Anderson’s leg started to come up and do this weird circling motion. I remember him doing it during the “Aqualung” period, he still does it now.

By this point, the crushing sensation was starting to get to me, so I forced my way to the back of the hall to try a get away from the heat, the bass bins and the bodies. This alone must have taken 5-10 minutes.

I listened to a few more tracks from the entrance hall, but just couldn’t face more crushing, so decided to leave 25 minutes from the end..

It was a great evening, Bonamassa continues his meteoric rise, Shaun and Mike were great company – all in all a really good evening.

(We are) The Roadcrew

The UK music festival season is in full swing with at least one festival happening every weekend. James and I decided to visit Guilfest(err, at Guildford, hence the name....)

Over this festival season, James and I had fine tuned our festival logistics, and one of the best investments that we had made was to purchase a 4-wheel gardening truck from eBay (Type

Garden Trolley Hand Utility Truck Wheelbarrow Innerbag into eBay, and you'll see the type I bought) So, rather than struggling with all the stuff that you need for a 3 day camping trip by using wheelbarrows, sack trolleys and backpacks, we were able to roadcrew our kit without the usual pain.

Guilfest is delightfully British affair. Aimed at kids and families, it is an odd sight to see smartly dressed middle aged taxpayers sitting on expensive fold up seats reading the Sunday Times, whilst the bands crack out lyrics where every other word starts with F, C, B or A (You go figure!)
Guilfest has more than the usual 3 stages, and, whilst this means that there are opportunities to see lots of bands, there is also a high chance of seeing complete dross as any band with a GU postcode seems to have a right to play there.

Whinge over, here are some of my highlights.

Friday was a lovely day, no rain and just the right temperature to watch one of the funniest acts this year. Tragedy, are an American band that do Bee Gee’s songs with an odd combination of 70's glitz and a very heavy metal style. The combination sounds awful, but was in fact so totally over-the-top that it really put a smile on my face - and, at least the guys could play!



Tragedy, being camp, loud, and over the top all at once

Just before Tragedy , Ginger did a good job with his particular mix of Punk and Rock
Ginger (ex- Wildhearts and Quireboys) doing his bit

Friday night headline band were Motorhead.
Lemmy and the boys did a stunning job in getting the crowd going. Even middle England managed to rattle their jewellery and stomp their Hunters in time

Lemmy doing “Ace of Spades”
Saturday was a bit more miserable with drizzle coming down most of the day, but that didn’t matter when my hero Joe Bonamassa got up and headlined on stage 2.

Joe doing Sloe Gin
Joe, as always was stunning! And even though by this time we were soaked to the skin, we really enjoyed him and his style of timeless blues given a new twist

Funkier than a mosquito's Tweeler

Joe Bonamassa at the Royal Albert Hall playing Sloe Gin

I love the way that music progresses. As each new generation comes along, they take their musical influences, add their own magic, and create something that is rooted with the greats, but adds and augments.

So, it was with great excitement that I went to see Joe Bonamassa at the Royal Albert Hall last night. Joe is one of the new generation of bluesmen that have taken up the challenge to move one of the most clearly defined musical styles onto the next rung.

He did a great job.

As well as a great practitioner in his own right, he took classic blues numbers and moved them on. For example the Muddy Waters classic, Rollin' and Tumblin', is almost a rite of Blues passage with versions recorded by Clapton, Johnny Winter, Bob, Dylan,Robert Johnson, Jeff Beck and many more. Joe's version is Last Kiss, and a very fine version it is too.

Joe is a fine singer with clear influences from John Mayall(noticeable on "Another kind of love", where he mixes Mayall back of throat singing with Johnny Winter "Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo" style guitar playing.

There were many other influences, but one clear one is Clapton. So it was a real joy when Eric joined him on stage for "Further on up the road", and I reckon that Joe actually blew Eric off the stage - maybe the Padawan is becoming the Master.

One innovation was the use of two drummers. They were very tight, and sometimes played the same, sometimes contrapuntal rhythms, a great idea.

it was a great evening slightly marred by the acoustics (we were in the standing area right at the top - an area which is very echoey), but the combination of great conversation with some buddies that I hadn't seen for some time, beer(Naturally!) and great Blues made for a very fine evening.

Thanks To Darren H for putting it all together.