The evening events take place in the Mariners Hall, which serves local real ales straight from the barrel, with other events being held at The Anchor and The Social Club.
Another year and another great Festival, providing a wide range of top Blues artists, good weather, good food, good beer and a financial success.
The evening events take place in the Mariners Hall, which serves local real ales straight from the barrel, with other events being held at The Anchor and The Social Club.
The Jellicle Cats made a welcome return to open the Festival on the Friday evening with their mix of Blues, early Jazz standards, Latin and Rock and Pop covers. Since last year they have added a great vocalist by the name of Gracie, who is backed up by Oliver Caute (aged 9) – bass, Jessica Caute (aged 11) - drums and vocals and Dan Caute (their dad) – guitar and vocals. Their set included “Layla”, Buddy Holly’s “I Guess It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” and “Stormy Weather”. We wait in anticipation for their developments next year.
Regular Festival attendee, Stuart Bligh – whether playing or not – took to the stage with his Blues/Rock outfit The Big Blue. It wasn’t long before the dancers were in full flow and the band performed a mixture of Hendrix, Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughan tracks. The band was Stuart Bligh, guitar and vocals, Andy Williams, bass and Ben Matthews, drums. The set included a long time favourite “They Call Me Guitar Hurricane” by Eddie Jones and recorded by SRV. Cream’s “White Room” got an airing to much applause and they wound up with a thirteen minute version of “Voodoo Chile”, into which there were an amazing number of different styles, accents and tempos.
Stuart is a truly masterful guitarist and a fine vocalist, and his band was first class. |
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| Soon, Giles Hedley took to the stage with the Aviators of Richard Sadler on bass and Pete Hedley on Drums. Giles kept the tempo up for the dancers and did “Right From Wrong”. “Sun Goin’ Down” recalled the early blues years. The “double harmonica” trick featured on “Long Ways From Home” but at the end of an awesome show, we called them back for two encores, which included stunning solos all round. |
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Up bright and breezy next morning for the “Full English” and then a stroll down through the village to Duckys, on the beach, to meet up with other Bluesers for coffee, crab sandwiches and to watch the waves roll in. There’s plenty to do if you’re down for the weekend, with cliff top walks, miniature trains and electric trams all in the vicinity. |
| However, the music starts again after lunchtime at the Social Club, with The Nigel Bagge Band featuring Eddie Armer. At the same time Robin Bibi ran a guitar workshop in the Mariners Hall and Britain’s oldest Wurlitzer Organ was being played in the Church (not part of the Festival). So while I enjoyed a medley of Judy Garland, Abba and some Charleston songs on the magnificently sounding Wurlitzer, my roving reporters were enjoying the Nigel Bagge gig, and inform me that |
Nigel and Eddie did some acoustic numbers from their new CD, “She Keeps My Tractor Clean”, which included Levon Helm's “Got Me A Woman”, and a Bagge original “Music of Your Heart”. |
Violinist Dave Sugarbeet got up to do “Lincoln Town” with the band and Eddie Armer did the vocals on “Good Morning Blues” The band played songs from the “Chinese Handbag Thief “ CD incl. “Blues As Blues Can Get” and “Cold Outside”. They had the dancers up and finished up with Eddie singing “T Bone Shuffle” (with Cheeky Tunbridge's wife on stage dancing with him) and (Delbert Mclinton's) “Why Me”. And a quote from Mr Bagge “A very good appreciative audience (honest!), lots of dancing and a very nice gig all in all”. |
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It was a double bill at the Mariners Hall on the Saturday evening and once again a sell out. The Robin Bibi Band opened up proceedings with Tony Marten bass, and for the second night running, Pete Hedley on drums. All the live concert favourites were there and the dancers were off to a flying start. The set included “Jelly On”, The Beatles song “One After 909”, sung by Tony, “Rock With Me Tonight”, “Long Grey Mare” and the gospel song “Down In The Valley”. The walkabout through the audience delighted many and the dancers danced on. Needless to say “Oh Well” rounded out the set. |  |
| Headlining the night was Vince Lee & The Big Combo, a new outfit to the Festival. They played their mix of Blues, R'n'B, Swing and Jazz, all with the good time feel. They played a number of the tracks to be found on they’re live CD called "Call It What Ya Wanna!" as well as a few tracks from a forthcoming album. The band was Vince Lee, vocals and guitars, Keith Russell, drums and Al Wallis, bass. Obviously the dancers were kept on their feet while the observers and guitarists in the audience were wowed by Vince’s dexterity on the fretboard. Songs included “Old Friends”, “Happy Hour”, “Calidonia” and as a finale a most remarkable version of “St James Infirmary” starting off with a very moving tempo and deep vocals to arrive at the end at top speed and scat vocals. “Snatch It Back” had everybody rocking and wound up a fantastic evening’s musical entertainment. |  |
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| For Sunday morning – see Saturday morning above – albeit at a slightly later time and slower pace! However by 1:00pm you had to split yourself into two parts. One half at The Anchor for a solo set from Tim Royce – a regular in these parts nowadays and the other half up at the Social Club for the “Monster” Jam Session. This year the Jam session had evolved into a partial “Open Mic” Session and a number of complete bands got up to do a few numbers. Sheila Riley’s band, Movin’ On started the session, it was good to see ex-Beer boy Mark Bond up with his band Brock & The Badgers after all these years as a regular Festival attendee. Mark’s son Bert Bond – bass, as well as being a “Badger” has his own band, The Walkhards. This three-piece met each other in the Jam Session last year and now have a great band – look out for a debut CD soon. Gracie, who sang with The Jellicle Cats on Friday, joined them for a couple of numbers as well. Stuart Bligh and Tim Royce joined in the Jam Session along with local musicians. The Beer, Curry and Chilli flowed and eventually brought the great Festival to a close. |
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| Book your accommodation now in readiness for next year’s Festival on 8, 9, 10 October 2010 – details on www.steppinout.info. I’ll see you there. | ||
| Paul Stiles | ||
| oxfordblues.info steppinout.info |
Thanks to Bob May for Photos of Jellicle Cats, The Big Blue, Giles Hedley, Robin Bibi Band and Vince Lee, thanks also to Nigel Bagge for photos of Nigel Bagge & Eddie Armer and Nigel Bagge Band |
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