Monday, May 27, 2013

Day 3: Waddya Mean 'It's Over'?*?!*!.....But I Love You...I Really Really Love You..


 Oyez! Oyez! Brethren...This Is Truly The Bees Knees of Festivals!

One of the delights of the Hebden Bridge Blues Festival is that it evokes that childhood sweetshop fantasy for real. You can dash around indulging yourself, pickin, mixin', discovering new stuff, grabbing favourites and checking with your best mate to see what they've got. It's Christmas without the hassle, without the box of grandma's crystallised fruit and there's nobody to mess about with the tele. It's a three day party where you rub shoulders with hugely talented guests and nobody throws you out for behaving badly. Or, to put it simply...drink, music, mates, late nights and some shouting and hand waving...yes, it is quite a nice place for The Hat to go and live for a few days....


Opening the door to the Acoustic stage found The Hat in the company of Richard Townend - and what great company he is. 
Affable and cheerful, Richard seems to chat away to himself whilst cleverly including the attentive audience in his sometime dry assessment of what he is up to....but he is actually up to a totally absorbing set. Using a mix of guitars and some beautifully executed loops, double loops, backing lines and over-lays, he conjures a magical kaleidoscopic mix of rhythms, riffs and top lines which moved smoothly from self-penned blues numbers to complex jazz influenced instrumentals – or as he put it on one occasion “I have to put some chords in this bit”...and on another as he changed guitars mid track “and now I need a bass to play with”. Neither these delightful throw-aways or the technical gizmos do anything to disguise his undoubted musical skill and dexterity or his relaxed mellow singing which flowed through the room and warmly embraced an appreciative audience in a packed house. Although with his band The Mighty Boss Cats, as a soloist Richard was off the scene for a while and is now coming back with a vengeance. A Blues Award nomination and this set shows that there is clearly a lot more good stuff waiting for us...
 

Alex McKown, second time nominee for a British Blues Young Artist award has been lauded by The Hat before and I last saw him at the great Newark Blues Festival. Crikey - what a difference a few more months on the road can
make. Here was a cracking mature performance from an old pro. Having had not one, but two car calamities on the way to Hebden, Alex got the black cloud's Seriously Silver Lining with stand-in back line of Layla and Joey from Detroit Breakdown. Standing solidly on his right side was the Sheffield stellar saxophonist Simon Peat who has accompanied Rod Stewart, Joss Stone, Amy Winehouse and Tina Turner in the past when he is not fronting his own group. Far from being phased in such company, Alex fronted a fantastic energy pumped set with a new found voice and frequently swapped frenetic exchanges with all of his bandsmen that got the lively crowd hollering in appreciation. Exciting, breathless, uplifting, jaw dropping – and no, I'm not going to harp on about his age...suffice to say that, if this is the future then it's in pretty safe hands.



If there was ever a need for a new edition of the “How to Make Friends” or “How to Work A Room” manuals then The Hat would go straight to the lovely Lucy Zirins. Within moments of picking up her guitar, her worshipping audience were entranced by the 'wee lass who likes to make out she doesn't really know what's going on'...but on the other hand...
she might just be so smart that 'she's got you exactly where she wanted you and you didn't even notice'.

A Festival favourite, Lucy played a beautiful set where she ran through some well known numbers and a good few from her stunning new CD 'Chasing Clocks'. When The Hat reviewed Lucy at last year's festival, he came over all poetic and weepy about her song-writing and singing skills and that special magic she employs to make you laugh, smile, cry and beam with a warm glow. Nothing has changed there then. Lucy takes you into her world, where she has written about personal crises, happiness and fun and you dreamily go along with her as she sings beautifully to you, yes you, personally....and then....and then...just to let you know who is in charge here, she gets the whole audience barking like dogs and howling like wolves....what a star! Hebden loved her – again.


A squillion years ago, before The Hat needed help to lift an amplifier, there was a regularly used band expression "Watch Out For The Windows". It came back to him with a bang when blues rock band Northsyde kicked off on the Electric stage. Fortunately, Yorkshire mills are made of stern stuff and held on whilst Lorna Fothergill and band threw some of the best heavy blues and blues rock at them that the Hebden Festival has ever seen....plus a little
noisy soul funk goes in the mix as well. This was the real deal and the rammed room moved as one to shout/greet and punch air at every number. Singer Lorna has a raw and powerful voice and she seems to channel every rock and heavy blues singer straight from her spectacular heels to the top of her head. Dynamic doesn't really do it justice - it would be daft to reference Zep and Janis because her voice is nobody else's but hers - but her range and power would match anyone you can name. Somehow she effortlessly lifts it above her classy driving band of Jules Fothergill, Ian Mauricio and Hayden Doyle -  which in itself is some achievement when they are running at full tilt. Yes, they do a bit of slow and a bit of quiet - but I'm not going to mention that. Go see for yourself. Soon. This band is moving fast. 


There must be some Magic Dust sprinkled over the Hebden Main Stage evening opening slot. Day One, Blues Boy Dan rattled the walls; Day Two, L.R Phoenix took the roof off and on the final Day Three, John Crampton just about brought the whole building down.


This was a quite breath-taking performance by a phenomenal musician who
brought the clamouring audience to its feet on more than one occasion and had everyone shouting for more. John is a complete orchestra of sound. Voice, acoustic, national steel, pick, slide, banjo, harp...he picks you up, shakes you warmly by the throat and throws you around the room while you try and hang on to your seat. This was exciting blues and blue grass of the very top quality. John's intensity and furious attack is totally compelling and his skills totally beyond question. When a single artist sitting on a small chair on a big stage can get hundreds of blues fans off their heads with mad loud pleasure then he is pretty damn good. If you were at this gig you knew you were in the presence of a mighty talent. If you weren't? Rush to the next one.

Kyla Brox hails from not far from Hebden - her reputation got there a long time before she did and she was welcomed to the Hebden Bridge Festival Family with wide and rapturous open arms. Oh Lord, did she give back in plenty! This was a spell-binding set. Surrounded by a group of faultless musicians who were totally immersed, committed and involved in every number; absolutely top-rate arrangements with beautiful spacy solos  - it's called 'leaning-in' - as if you didn't know - Kyla's vocals became the glittering diamond dead centre stage. She Put A Spell On You from the moment that first Blue Note emerged. Kyla is an authentic soul and blues singer with a tremendous pedigree, coming from a musical family and singing from a very early age. She also plays a number of instruments and her wistful and haunting flute played an important role in her set often during numbers where the brilliant Tony Marshall on sax rolled smooth Mulligan style riffs and solos around the perfect sound chamber of the chapel.

When Kyla moved into pure soul mode a Breathless Hush descended on the place. The way she moves her hands and her body when singing numbers like the famous Etta James 'At Last' and the Nina Simone sensual 'Do I Move You' is totally at one with the mood and 'yes' was the rapturous shout when she got to 'and the answer had better be Yes'. This set brought Fine Art to the Festival stage and it was right and proper that it finished with a bang...or rather a 'Wang Dang Doodle'....and a standing ovation. A Master Class.

A short sentence to point you in the direction of the terrific Steve Fulsham Band playing at one of the free gigs to much acclaim. To walk in to a bar off the street and find a tight trio playing two Buddy Guys back to back with style and skill is always a thrill. Go look for them.

The Hat has written a good few words about Marcus Bonfanti and Paddy Milner - although not as many as the notes they hammer into a lot of their numbers - so they'll forgive him for this short paragraph. These two with their fantastic symbiotic musical relationship have played every Hebden Festival. They sit at the high table which is where you sit the big boys and girls. They play 'Take Five' for fun, 'Cheap Whisky' to thrill and everything for huge pleasure. You get picked up, carried along, get involved, open your mouth, gulp, dance the bad boogie and they'll never let you go once they've got you.They dedicated 'Grits ain't Groceries' to head honcho Jason for his graft in the kitchen. Proper nice blokes. Fabulous musicians. If you took them away The Hat worries that the building might fall down.

Finally a kind nod, if I may, to those missed out for space reasons and particularly the Juke Joints where eleven bands entertained hundreds and The Hat only caught a few. You, the organisers, the hard working crew and the fans are as much part of the festival as anyone else. We all play the blues. You are all part of our Family. Thank You. Or as the Town Cryer put it..Thank you! and Thank You!! and Thank You!!!

Like you..I gotta go lie down now..

Pip Pip!
The Man in The Hat

Pic thanks to Monica Mansell for the Town Cryer
Pic thanks to Craig Shaw who is a star for filling my gaps.