The Hat was queuing with the huddled masses in a 99p shop the other day wondering if the picky Cozy would turn his nose up at the three tins of Purrfect Special Offer when a Bargain Finder in front of me turned round and cheerfully opined "They're right, you know. There's no such thing as a free lunch!" Why he picked on The Hat to share this with, I don't know. Maybe he thought I was lonely and had bought the cat food for myself, or perhaps he had mistaken my glazed look as that of a Thinker who was in Desperate Need of a Thought. Either way though, the observation did kick start The Hat into doing some Thinking About Lunch and taking his recycled hessian carbon-free bag of bargains to a nearby hostelry where the lunch was not free but nevertheless wholesome.
I have been doing some travellin' (light) this week, lunching and scribbling and trying to shake off the paparazzi who, judging from the outbreak of photos on the Blues Festival Facebook page, have suddenly got on my case. (I fear the incident of the good looking Guitarist and the Alimony may have leaked out.). The 'Free Lunch' truism has been around for a while and any student economist will tell you that Milton Friedman sold a million books using it as springboard for his economic theories. I much prefer the supposed real origin which is that a heavily salted free lunch was offered by American drink companies to anyone who bought a beer...those were the days my friends....(and by the way, while we're talking lunch, whatever happened to that dodgy hot cabinet of Peter's Pies that used to sit on the counter in all good blues bars?)
The Hat has been checking out the lunch and entertainment possibilities at the 'Juke Joints' around town who are opening their doors to support the Festival. This brilliant idea was introduced at last year's festival and proved immensely popular. The name goes back well into the nineteenth century along with barrel houses and chock houses, often associated with a bit of low-down bad behaviour, a portion of disreputable rowdiness and always the place for original Afro-American blues based music. The juke-box came a long time after and was in some ways responsible for the disappearance of juke-joint musicians. Do look at the wonderful and charmingly eccentric Junior's Juke Joint website http://www.deltablues.net/index.html and say a prayer of thanks for our wonderful music heritage.
The point about the Hebden Bridge Juke Joints is that the music they are providing is all free. Yes. Free. I doff the chapeau to that one.
Marshall's Bar; Moyles; Nelson's Wine Bar; The White Swan and The Shoulder of Mutton. They are all within walking distance of each other and the two main venues. Throughout the festival you can walk into any of these venues and witness the finest musicians playing the finest blues. The fact that each venue is funding the artists is a quite delightful act of Mad Philanthropy and to be roundly applauded. The organisers of the festival, who facilitated this, see it both as a wonderful way of giving a cracking free gift to the supporters of the festival and giving a platform to much talent that might not otherwise get access to such a large and knowledgable audience. The word Serendipity should surely be in a blues song somewhere. There are at least ten top class soloists and bands appearing at the five juke joint venues over the Festival and The Hat can't recommend them highly enough. Every one of them is worth seeing – and you won't have to pay a penny to get in. I think that is a much better deal than a free lunch but you need to do a bit of planning to fit in every tasty course. Click the website link on this page and start making space for your freebee......
I am now off to try and explain the free lunch theory to the pennyless and ungrateful Cozy.
Pip Pip!
The Man in The Hat
Pic thanks to Lib of Congress