I'd like to say A BIG THANK YOU to
everyone who came to support our inaugural Middleton Rock
'n' Blues Festival. I stress "inaugural", because, all being
well, we will do it again next year.
Thanks to the performers;
Steve Cooke, All Across the Arts, who compered the
day, holding it all together when it seemed it might fall
apart.
Kevin Farrell, a true professional who carried on
regardless when the PA stopped working
Asher & Ben, two young guys with just
the right attitude and the crowd loved them
Nick Dow & Dave Calvert, saved the day with humour
and great acoustic blues
Tony Auton Band, a typically fantastic set from Tony
& two very gifted sidemen. I never tire of watching Tony
Auton
Lol Goodman Band, finished the day with a blistering
set of (bar one) original songs from their two critically
acclaimed CDs, Won over a few new admirers, too
VICTOR BROX, four songs solo then ably accompanied by
Lol Goodman Band. What can I say about Victor. I've known
him since the sixties and had the pleasure of playing
alongside him on many occasions, Love the man to bits and,
in a day when the word
legend
is given to any upstart, Victor is TRULY a legend. He phoned
me on Monday specifically to say thanks for including him on
the bill and to pass on his thanks to everyone, especially
Phil Barrett for loaning the use of his keyboard. Just
typical.
Our sound engineer, young Ben
Calvert, half of Asher & Ben, spent all afternoon making
sure every act had just the right sound.
More thanks to Boarshaw Working
Men's Club who were so very helpful to me and are very keen
for us to go there next year.
Finally probably the biggest
thank you must go to Colin Jones who loaned us the speakers
& amps for the sound system, the idea being that we use our
own mixing desk & our own sound engineer Ben Calvert.
Luckily, Colin was still around when, during Kevin Farrell's
set, a pint of beer was accidentally knocked into our mixing
desk. This had the effect of cutting out the entire sound
system. Colin bound to the rescue and set up his mixing desk
so the proceedings could continue.
So, in the absence of any
complaints, (there truly haven't been any) I proclaim the
afternoon a resounding success. Worth every minute of all
the hard work that was put in to it.
So again. A MASSIVE BIG THANK
YOU.
See you all again; same time,
same place next year.
Jon |