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Blues Festival: Taking its place in calendar
BLUES bands from all over have been contacting Shetland this week
seeking to come and play here next year.
It seems word is getting round the circuit and the success of the
weekend's second festival can only spread it further.
There will be a third event, that has already been decided, as
blues takes its place alongside folk and fiddle and accordion
weekends in the Shetland music calendar.
One of the organising committee, John Leach, said this week: "We
all love the music and whilst it's hard work we can see how much
enjoyment it brings all the people that come along.
"And if it encourages a few more local bands to go into the blues
then it's well worth it."
It is not the easiest music to market to non-believers. It's
certainly not fashionable, but after two years the Shetland festival
appears to be slowly winning people over.
"I would say that it probably was more successful this year
because we certainly got bigger audiences in bigger places than we
had last year. We're going to keep trying. It's all a learning
process and if we could ever get to be anything like as good as the
folk festival people then we will be happy!"
He reckoned the feedback from fans and bands indicated they had
enjoyed the slightly bigger-scale event this year with its wider
range of bands and venues.
"The standard of music was absolutely brilliant right across the
board. I can't single out anybody for not performing up to the
expectations that we had. Quite a few of them went way beyond our
expectations."
The Nine Below Zero/No Sweat combination who sold out the British
Legion in Lerwick on Saturday night will long be remembered by the
serious fans who crowded the venue.
The band were a bit taken aback by their Shetland experience.
Harmonica player Mark Feltham told their fans' forum the weekend had
been "a bit different, that's for sure". He had expected something
like Norway and found our lump of rock "rather bleak and it felt
extremely remote".
After the legion gig the band were dragged to a late-night bar
where Brendan, the former drummer with the Rory Gallagher Band,
joined in on snare with what Mark said were "some fabulous fiddle
players". "We had a fantastic night and stumbled into bed at
3.45am."
The next day saw two of them on a sightseeing boat trip. Remember
the weather on Sunday? No surprise then that poor Brendan felt
distinctly queasy.
It must all have been a bit of a culture shock from the 30°C
heatwave in London to 11°C simulated winter in Lerwick.
Elsewhere the Faroese band GoGo Blues and London heroes Joshua
Blue were receiving rave reviews. Mr Leach thought both were
fantastic.
"Joshua Blue were a surprise. They are an absolutely brilliant
band and I think everybody's general view on them was much the
same." So good were they that they were hastily added to the bill
for the Sunday night finale at the North Star, coming on after Nine
Below Zero.
"We wanted to give as many people as possible an opportunity to
catch them," he said. Nine Below Zero were impressed too. "The
comments came back from them that they thought the band were
excellent and that's a pretty good endorsement."
GoGo Blues was one of the bands he personally wanted to bring to
the festival and he thought they were better live than what he had
heard on record. "They are an exceptionally talented band and they
exceeded expectations."
The North Star finale was not as well attended as was hoped
although around 200 paid to get in. Many others had simply done too
much enjoying already for one weekend.
One or two of the events earlier in the weekend failed to attract
the crowds too. But, as Mr Leach said: "Obviously we're a young
festival and we're learning all the time."
While there were 15 visiting bands and solo artistes it turned
out that some of the local acts went down just as well if not
better.
On Sunday the bar in Baroc was packed for the six-piece sensation
Two Pot Screamers, some of whom are barely out of nappies! They got
two encores while the Jillian Isbister Blues Band stunned everyone
with their sheer class. Jamieson's Big Pockets wowed the crowd with
their anthem Ian Selbie. "They're a real fun band -
absolutely brilliant," Mr Leach said. And that was just the
youngsters on the bill.
Mr Leach described the gig as one of the other great events of
the weekend. "I've never seen anything like it. The whole place was
absolutely stowed for the whole afternoon."
Most of the events were free, which gave many people the chance
to sample the blues to see if they liked them. Mr Leach said that if
they could get the sponsorship they would have everything free.
"The organisation doesn't exist to make money. It exists to bring
blues to Shetland and make people more aware and expand the
audience. Break even is our aim."
Now the process of sifting through the pile of bands to book the
best for next year will get under way once again.
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