2004 press

Press - 2004

First Blues Festival

THE FIRST Shetland Blues Festival drew to an explosive close on Sunday night in Islesburgh after a weekend of events left few doubting its success.

Although attendance could have been better, organisers were pleasantly surprised at the diverse mix of people in the audiences and the fact that numbers picked up as the festival rolled on.

Treasurer Steven MacLean said: “What really helped us was the pier on Saturday. A lot of people have this perception of blues as this old black man strumming away on a guitar, and OK, that’s it in its rawest form, but we deliberately tried to get a whole range of blues bands up here so folk could see how wide-ranging it actually is.

“Blues music has influenced people such as Eric Clapton, Cream, and even a lot of rock and RnB bands. People who walked past the Noost or were on the pier had a chance to hear something they wouldn’t normally go out of their way to hear, and after Saturday afternoon we saw interest go way up.

“If people didn’t hear these bands for free they would probably not make the effort to go along later on.

“Word of mouth also helped us out a lot and can sometimes be the best means of advertising. We were inundated with requests for tickets on Sunday and a lot of people were left disappointed.”

There were jazzy blues from Mama’s Brand New Bag, country-flavoured blues from our very own Borderline Blues Band and hard-rocking beats from The Tony Dowler Band, meaning something for everyone.

The festival opened with the first gig in Captain Flint’s.

Steven said it was a complete cracker: “Flints was pretty busy for that and one of the best blues artists (Steve Phillips) was there, so it went very well. Rory Gillies from RMS was playing some really raw blues stuff and they were just fantastic, really good.

“There were some Norwegians guys up dancing on their chairs by the end of it all so the whole committee were really pleased with the way the whole festival all kicked off.”

Playing with one of the “greatest acoustic guitarists in Europe” at the opening gig of the first ever Shetland Blues Festival can’t have been easy, but Rory Gillies’ nerves didn’t come through in the performance.

Later that night festival favourites The Spikedrivers appeared at Norscot Angling Club with Mama’s Brand New Bag and local talent Borderline Blues Band and Red Hot & Blue.

One of the few snags was on Saturday evening when a breakdown in communication meant local band The Superstitions had to bow out of their Flint’s gig because a drum kit was not available.

“By the time we realised it was too late but luckily The Vinyls were fantastic about it and played on, going down really well with the crowd. It was absolutely mobbed and almost uncomfortably busy, but the crowds meant that a lot of younger people who would not normally have listened to blues found out they actually enjoyed it.”

Mama’s Brand New Bag played at Da Noost during the day and also managed to attract people who would not necessarily have considered themselves blues fans.

Moonies Wake that evening was another highlight for those who managed to squeeze themselves in. For a very reasonable £3, folk were treated to The Tony Dowler Band, Al Hughes and Red Hot and Blue.

Steven said that they eventually had to turn people away and operate a one out, one in policy, although he admitted it was a “problem” they wouldn’t mind having at other gigs.

Most of the gigs were free and unticketed, but the festival committee did have responsibility for selling tickets for three gigs and venues, Cullivoe on Friday night, Collafirth on Saturday and Islesburgh on Sunday.

Steven said Islesburgh on Sunday night – the blues festival version of Da Final Fling, was a complete sellout and folk without tickets actually turned up in the hope they could get in.

“In the end we had to draft in more tables and chairs and people did have to stand at the door but there was no complaints from anyone and they all seemed to have a ball. It was advertised as our child friendly night and there was the brucks of 20 kids there, not a large number in the scheme of things, but more than you’d get in a normal gig.

“Islesburgh is just the perfect place to have something like that. It has a fantastic atmosphere and if the children get bored listening to the music they can wander down stairs to the games room.”

One of the most memorable parts of the concert was when Steve Phillips got up on stage with The Spikedrivers and did a track with them. Although The Spikedrivers always jump at the chance of any form of collaboration or jamming session, it is a rare occurrence for Steve Phillips to play with anyone else.

Another successful partnership occurred on Saturday night in Collafirth when a Spikedriver got up to play with Mama’s Brand New Bag, much to the delight of the audience.

The Cullivoe concert on Friday was described as the committee’s biggest disappointment. Despite a good turnout of people from Fetlar (a late ferry to Unst and Fetlar was put on) only about 40 people turned up and the concert was moved from the hall into the lounge.

Souvenir festival T-shirts completely sold out apart from two which were kept back and signed by all the artists. The first of these was won by A. Thomson from Mossbank in the last 100 club draw and the last one is to be auctioned at a later date and all proceeds given to Children In Need.

The commemorative badges also sold like hot cakes – when the committee members remembered to take them to the gigs they were at.

Before the festival kicked off the organisers anticipated problems with travel, especially as so many artists were travelling up. As it was, the only hitch in the proceedings was the fact that a couple of musicians found they couldn’t quite locate their sea legs on the fairly rough boat journey north.

One of the Witchdoctors had had a particularly uncomfortable night and was not best pleased to discover that Friday night’s gig involved another ferry crossing.

Bands and artists really enjoyed the whole festival experience. Steven said: “We drew up feedback forms for the bands along the lines of the folk festival ones. If there were any problems with anything we wanted to be able to pick it up straight away and get it sorted for next year.

“As it was the bands were struggling to get anything negative on them at all which was great. We were almost completely on the dark because it was our first festival, so it was fantastic to hear that the bands had all enjoyed themselves.”

Steven was quite tight-lipped about the possibility of a second blues festival although you couldn’t really blame him as the first one had finished only days before. Despite this the interview was littered with “next years” so it is obviously on the agenda.

He said that there are definitely things that they would do differently second time around. He said: “Well for one we would have more people on the committee. We stretched ourselves too thin on the ground and it was quite tough sometimes.

The Tony Dowler Band and The Spikedrivers, two of the festival’s most popular bands, stayed for a couple of extra days to recover after the weekend’s excesses.

They were mightily impressed with the whole festival and were all delighted that they could say they were in right from the start. Staying with local people was wonderful, “a lot more personal” and they had all added new friends to the Christmas card list.

The Spikedrivers have been up for the folk festival before and went to visit the family they stayed with – a new baby has been born into the family since they were last here.

Tony Dowler said: “We got the chance to meet with all the other people and play with most of them, so it was a bit different from usual. Very good though.”

Californian Constance Redgrave, who plays bass guitar, percussion and sings with the Spikedrivers was particularly impressed with Shetland audiences.

She said: “You have an incredibly musically literate audience here. They are really respectful. It’s great to be in a place where people know what they are listening to. They listen really hard.”

Both bands were amazed at the amount, and quality of musical talent in Shetland. Several of the band members picked out young local band Nomad for particular praise.

Ben Tyzack from the Spikedrivers said they got a bit of a shock when they turned up at the Collafirth Brig. “Where I hail from (South Carolina) a marina club is something completely different, but we were met with this big shack and I have to admit we were a little apprehensive. We got a fantastic sound though so it turned out we had nothing to worry about.”

All the musicians praised the work of all the sound and lighting engineers – “they worked so hard.”

And one of the highlights for the Spikedrivers had nothing to do with music. They were all raving about the sunrise they saw on the way back from one of the country gigs.

First Shetland Blues Festival

THE FIRST ever Shetland Blues Festival kicks off tonight with a gig at Captain Flint’s in Lerwick.

Like many of the gigs it is free and an excellent chance to see some fantastic musicians.

The organisers came up with the idea for a blues festival after attending the Orkney Blues Festival last September. They enjoyed it so much that they started planning this weekend’s events while they were still in Orkney.

Secretary John Leach said they approached members of Mama’s Brand New Bag to see if they would be interested in playing here. John is delighted that MBNB are one of the headliners.

The festival committee has done a phenomenal amount of work over the past few months to get the festival up and running.

A free, limited edition, pre-promotional CD to attract sponsors was distributed and a web site (www.bluesfestival.shetland.co.uk) was quickly launched to help satisfy requests for information.

The CD was so well received that they are considering producing one for future festivals.

Sixteen or 17 bands played in Orkney last year but Shetland has started out with a more modest 13, although a second festival could easily have been held given the number of interested bands who contacted them.

Nearly 20 visiting artists were due to arrive yesterday and today, most off the boat this morning and with all the local blues talent the total number of artists appearing is closer to 40.
The committee has organised free accommodation and transport for all the bands and has had a lot of support from the organisers of the folk festival and the Orkney Blues Festival.

Treasurer Steven MacLean said the biggest worry they have is a problem with travel arrangements for any of the south bands, but so far everything has been running very smoothly, with only one minor hitch.

“There is one local band who have double booked but it’s not a huge problem and we think we have managed to get another support band. RMS were supposed to be playing on Friday night but two of their members play in Rock Bottom and it slipped their minds that they are playing in Brae that night. We had to do a bit of jiggery pokery there but I think it’s all been sorted out.”

John and Steven are both hoping that there will be enough of a gap in the market for a blues festival, especially as there are so many other events at this time of year.

John said: “We have no idea how many people are going to turn up, that’s one of our main worries. We’re hopeful that the Shetland public will respond well and some of the tourists as well.

“We’ve had a lot of people expressing an interest but until the concerts it’s very hard to gauge how successful it’s going to be.”

The festival was originally planned to fit in with the end of music week, coincide with the Bergen race and not clash with any other music festival, but as it turns out this weekend was the only one they could possibly have had.

One hundred badges (£4 each) have been made and as they are one-offs they are sure to become collectors items when the festival draws to a close in the early hours of Monday. T-shirts (£10) have also been produced and are sure to be snapped up as reminders of a good spree.

As well as several pubs in Lerwick, there are several gigs outside town and an opportunity to hear blues as far north as Collafirth.

At the first gig tonight at Flint’s, as well as a local support band, there will be a rare chance to catch Steve Philips – acclaimed as Europe’s finest acoustic blues artist – free.

After hearing legendary masters such as Robert Johnson, Blind Blake, Big Bill Broonzy and Lonnie Johnson, Steve embarked on a long self-tutored course in the intricate art of country blues and folk guitar playing.

It obviously paid off because in 1968 Mark Knopfler was a journalist sent to review his playing; he came away with a review and a new band which they called The Duolian String Pickers.

Later Steve, Mark and Brendan Croker formed the hugely popular Notting Hillbillies. Steve is playing several gigs over the weekend so be sure to catch one of you can.

Another south artist is Al Hughes, who blends traditional Delta and East Coast Blues with his own compositions to make classic sound original and original sound classic.

He combines guitar and harmonica to produce a variety of sounds and moods from fiery to mellow, raucous to gentle. Recent reviews have been excellent, but you have a chance to make up your own mind at the Wind Dog Cafe in Yell tonight, Moonies Wake tomorrow or the Legion on Sunday.

Manchester-based Tony Dowler Band is a blues-rock trio formed by guitarist and singer Tony Dowler in 1989. The band released its first CD Get on the Bus in 1994 and a half studio, half live CD Boogie Mashine in January 2001.

A recent review said: “Tony Dowler Band is solid, tight and driven by belief, enthusiasm and passion. The band gets their inspiration from great musicians such as, Jimi Hendrix, Rory Gallager and Cream. Guitarist and singer Tony Dowler impresses with genuine guitar playing, and with two like-minded musicians in the rhythm section, this band are the ultimate blues rock power trio.”

The Witchdoctors are the furthest travelled, hailing from the south of England. One of the band members has a brother who lives in Shetland so they are all taking the opportunity to stay up for an extra couple of days.

The Doctors are a highly accomplished blues band which has been together for three years and have developed its own brand of Witchdoctor blues.

Mama’s Brand New Bag concentrate mainly on acoustic blues from the American barrelhouse era, but the repertoire extends to mainstream blues, traditional jazz and gypsy swing. They were one of the favourites from the Orkney festival.

The Spikedrivers are an eagerly anticipated. They take inspiration from their American roots and the country’s rich musical heritage, and their songwriting, vocal harmonies and unique instrumentation make their sound fresh and exciting.

The band is based in London and members hail from South Carolina, California and Belfast.

They already have several albums under their belts.

Music fans may have caught them before at the folk festival, and the Spikedrivers are another band who have organised a holiday here after the festival.

The other bands are based in Shetland – The Vinyls formed in the early 90s as Matt Vinyl and the Decorators. They need no introduction to most in Shetland, but visitors should make the effort to see the band when they appear in Flint’s tomorrow evening.

The Borderline Blues Band is an acoustic version of the Vinyls. They play mostly original material with a country/blues flavour and have released and album of their own tunes called Sleeping in the Devil’s Bed.

Their musical style has been described as falling between Steve Earle and the Faces and they can be caught at the Norscot Angling Club tonight.

Three of the four members of Hook Van Cluny were in the country blues outfit The Red Vans, who split up in 2001 with three albums under their belt. The final blend is described as blues with a hefty slab of funk, to keep you dancing all night long.

They are playing at Cullivoe tonight and Collafirth tomorrow.

RMS, Nomad, Red Hot & Blue and The Superstitions are all local bands dedicated to promoting the Blues.

Both John and Steven agreed that the most eagerly anticipated gig is Sunday night at Isleburgh. Because it’s the only family orientated event tickets are almost sold out.

The Spikedrivers, The Tony Dowler Band, The Witchdoctors and Steve Philips will all be playing and organisers are hoping that the other artists will turn up and impromptu jamming sessions will crop up.

John said: “We’re looking forward to it, not just because it’s the last one, but because it’s such a good musical environment, the bands are really good and it is sure to be a bit of a spree.”

With all the work which has been done over the past few months, members of the small committee will probably need a holiday to recover next week.
Steven said: “This year we have really, I wouldn’t say struggled, but we are conscious of the fact that we really only had six months to organise everything.”

John said: “We are quite naive not having done this before. We have tried to predict what might happen and what might go wrong and have tried to plan for it but there’s only so much we can do.”

If this years event goes as well as everyone is hoping it will, the connections with Scandinavia and Norway will be exploited and the festival can grow and develop.

Steven said: “Once the south bands have been up once word will hopefully spread fast how good it is. If they enjoy it, because the blues community is very small in the scheme of things and word of mouth should boost next years festival.

“Orkney’s organisers said it is the best type of promotion, they all go to the other festivals and rave about the good ones. If all goes well, hopefully next years festival will be even bigger and better.”

Tickets are going fast and organisers are expecting a last minute rush for all the gigs – if you haven’t got yours already you can get them from High Level Music and Clive’s Record Shop in Lerwick or the local shops in Ollaberry, Yell, Unst and Fetlar.

1 July 2004
By John Robertson

MAYBE there ain’t no cure for these summertime blues except to get out there and party.

Sure, thermal hosiery is still required but the combination of abysmal weather and a blues festival at least provides the perfect excuse to wear a snazzy hat. We don’t have a tradion of worshipping the blues but we are learning and it seems that a big hat is a fairly essential aide to digging the vibe.

Coolest promenader of the weekend had to be Binnaness bluesman David Smith seen gliding along Victoria Pier on Saturday under a dashing cream fedora.

Better get yours sorted for next year – if there is to be a second fest.

Which brings me to the surprisingly poor attendance at festival gigs outside the town on what is one of Shetland’s wildest party weekends.

Stumbling into the cavernous shed at Collafirth Pier on Saturday night there was nobody at the bar or on the dancefloor. A thin scattering of life along the wall benches was all there was to be seen.

Admittedly, Collafirth is a long way from many places and probably £50 each way from Lerwick by taxi, in the absence of a bus put on for the occasion. True also that £10 is a fair whack for three bands you had probably never heard of.

“There must be a lot of things on,” everyone kept saying. Or was it all simply a turn off?

“I don’t really like the blues,” was a view put forward as people claiming to be music-lovers said why they would be giving it a miss.

Fair enough if the menu offers only poor British simulations of the sparse Delta Blues of Blind Bill Jellybelly circa 1925. But the blues are everywhere and in everything in popular music from Hank to Hendrix, BB King to ZZ Top, Gershwin to The King of Funk.

On Friday there was not a bluesman in sight in The Lounge but an excellent night of blues-based rock and acoustic sounds made it one of the best music nights I’ve had in there in years.

Sven McAlpine of Junk De Luxe is an amazingly versatile musician and one of the important new talents to emerge on the Shetland music scene since his family returned from South Africa.

On this night he had a brand new Gibson guitar to play with and he was in love. Behind him ace bassist Dave Sjoberg and drummer Victor Carlin proved a far funkier groove machine than Jimi’s Noel and Mitch.

Sven and band play in Nomad too, with sex kitten singer Seth Gittens and guitarist Michael Williamson – best known for terrorising local goalkeepers. They also showed an affilliation to the blues when they took a turn on Friday, sending some of the Norwegian sailors into rapture.

Heading back into Lerwick the next day it was clear the town was gearing up to party. The cash machines had mostly been stripped of their readies at an early hour, bank bosses having failed to anticipate there might be a few quid spent.

In the dark corners of Da Noost, Saturday afternoon was taking on a Sunday kind of feeling as Mama’s Brand New Bag smoked up some slow jazz-flavoured blues. Through the door spilled the sun and fun-seekers of all descriptions.

This was mellow acoustic blues with laid-back double bass and a yard or two of velvety sax. Singer Kate Kershaw led the four well-seasoned performers with a voice not unlike a Highland version of Irish chanteuse Mary Coughlan.

In search of some rays and a rockier sound Victoria Pier appeared a better bet and right enough, the summer finally started coming together for an hour or two.

The Witchdoctors pumped out meaty riffs by the truckload from the back of a Northwards artic lorry as a crowd of three to four hundred began feeling almost warm. Shiny Norski yachts packed the Small Boat Harbour and the colourful theatre ship Fitzcarraldo sat ready to put on a show. Now where’s the beer tent . . . ?

Suddenly the roar of giant pistons and rotors drowned out the blues as Oscar Charlie swooped and tilted among the masts, hanging still at crazy angles as someone caught us all on film.

Next, the crowd had to scatter as the pipe band and a horde of multi-coloured vikings thundered down the pier. It reminded me of being caught up in an orange march in Glasgow. The various jarls’ squads from town and country formed a circle, cheered a few times and made a pretty feeble go at the Up-Helly-A’ song. At last they dispersed to the pubs.

Who knows what they were doing or for whom but it meant half an hour lost for The Tony Dowler Band, an ultra-tight three-piece who were the heaviest of the visiting blues acts. They only had time for a handful of hard-rocking songs, including a couple of early ZZ Top classics, before the curtain came down on Pier Pressure for another year.

The music ended as the sun departed and the pubs began to heave. In the Lounge, Willie Barker’s acoustic folk-blues supergroup The Borderline Blues Band were packing up after what the lucky ones said had been a great set beautifully embroidered by the likes of Garry Peterson and JJ. Willie and the boys packed and made straight for Captain Flints to join his other band Matt Vinyl.

For the evening’s entertainment Collafirth was calling. But the music had to wait for King Henrik’s heroes in Portugal and by the time we crossed the Mavis Grind cuddly local blues-funk band Hook Van Cluny had come and gone on stage.

It is easy to forget both how far away from the central belt Collafirth lies and just what a neglected treasure Northmavine is, welcoming us tonight with a striking purple and pink-stripped sky.

The Collafirth shed is an excellent no-nonsense venue and a refreshing departure from those plush ambience-free country halls that some committees don’t want soiled by rock ‘n’ roll.

On stage, the growling Witchdoctors and Irish-American Spikedrivers delivered solid entertainment greatly enjoyed by dancers and onlookers. But sadly the details I do not recall – too many distractions and alcopops.

Great weekend. Well done the team. And by the way, I was never bored by the blues nor did I meet a blues bore all weekend.

First Shetland Blues Festival
By Kerry Hooker

THERE was a very relaxed air around my first experience of the Shetland Blues Festival.

Despite a rush to get to The Pierhead in Voe on Sunday so we would get a seat, when we arrived just after 12.30 we found the bar fairly busy and The Superstitions warming up in the back area.

Apparently the lack of crowds was a fairly common occurrence at the festival, but luckily the 20 or so folk who were there at the start soon swelled to about 40. Hopefully next year word will spread as what I saw of the festival was fantastic.

When we first arrived we were not sure we had got the time right since there was no equipment set up, but we managed to keep ourselves busy with huge plates of fish and chips until Steve Phillips finally came on at 2.15pm.

I had heard really good reviews of his gig at the Skeld Sail Loft the night before so I knew we were in for a treat.

I don’t know much about blues music and probably like a lots of it without realising it’s blues I am listening to, so I was surprised when I recognised his first number. One of my companions told me it was because all blues music sounds the same, but someone else said she knew that Eric Clapton had covered the song.

She was right, it was a Big Bill Broonzy number made famous by Clapton on his Unplugged album – Hey, Hey, Hey . It was a good way to start off.

Next was a song by Willie Brown called Mississippi Blues – again one which I thought I wouldn’t recognise. He said he tries to play it pretty much like the original and when he first tried to play it, it gave him a whole new perspective on how you can play the guitar.

When he strummed the first notes I couldn’t believe that it was another one I knew – one that my Dad used to play when I was little but never knew the name of. It was really spooky, especially as it is such a gorgeous tune. I got quite a shock but at least I can try to get hold of the tune on CD now.

He upped the tempo a bit for the next tune and played a rag-time piece which I think was called Baton Rouge Rag. He had to perform some very intricate fret movements and and finger picking for this one, so it was fantastic to see it being played live instead of just listening to it.

A couple of people near me remarked on the “very shiny guitar” he used for his next song. It was a tin guitar (worth £14,000 if you believe the Shetland grapevine) and he used a bottleneck to play a bit of slide music by Muddy Waters, called Can’t Be Satisfied .

He told us that a lot of the R ‘n’ B bands that we listen to now are based on the music that Muddy Waters and his band played, and you could definitely hear the similarity.
Phillips sang along to a lot of the songs he played, although my shorthand has very few notes about it, probably because the guitar playing was so fantastic. In one song, Mean Ol’ Frisco, he picked the strings so hard I thought he was going to break them.

He played a bit of what he called “dance music” and if it was a night-time gig, or there were more folk there, I think there would definitely have been dancing.

“I’m not sure if you can do any audience participation because you have all got hangovers,” he said. “I’ve got the half-steel helmet on myself.”

He said he had been playing Boogie Woogie Dance for over 30 years and it keeps changing. “If there are any purists out there you will not be pleased with what I have done with it.” I’m obviously not a purist.

He also played a tune with riffs which were like “the left hand of boogie woogie barrel house piano,” but it sounded like the basis for much of Status Quo’s songs to me. It certainly set toes tapping.

He finished off with a couple more excellent tunes, and left us all blown away by his guitar skills. Comments on the way out the door included “Wow” and “I could listen to him play all day”. As I bought one of his CDs (the artwork on it is from one of his own paintings) I asked if he’ll be coming back next year. “If they’ll have me,” he said. Oh good.

Steve Phillips was quite an act to follow, but despite seeming quite nervous, The Superstitions came on and managed admirably. Paul Mullay (16) on drums and Thomas Jones (17) and Christopher Silver (17) on guitar have only been playing together as The Superstitions for a couple of weeks.

They asked a more experien-ced player and singer, David Smith, up on stage to ease them into their set but they tended to fade into the background as he sang and played. Mr Smith was very enthusiastic (but good) and not surprisingly it took them a little while to get the feel of each song before they got up to speed.

They played three songs with David Smith and one song on their own. I think if they had had more time to practise, had been able to play when they were ready to and had not been so nervous, they would have been really good.

They had been scheduled to play two gigs the day before but for some reason only played at the Lerwick Boating Club. Unfortunately, the Jarl Squad turned up in the middle of their set and everything had to grind to a halt.

I reckon as they are at the moment, The Superstitions would be best in a pub or party jamming session. With a bit of Dutch courage (when they turn 18 of course), and when they feel the spotlight is not completely on them, I think they would really come into their own. Watch out for them in The Lounge in a couple of years.