What I'm about to write is more opinion than review, more a statement than a document and the chances are that it will bore you silly (until we get to the last bit, that is!!), so you've been warned.......
I've never really taken the Dundee Blues Festival seriously before - by that, I mean I've been to bits of it, but never felt the need to review it - and this year ended up being no exception - not that it started out that way - and, in fact, whatever I'd thought I was going to do, went completely to pot.
I suppose, because I'd had such an amazing experience only a week or two before with "Go North!" festival, I kind of had it in mind to do the same for the Dundee Blues Festival, that is, go around the venues, sample 15 minutes of each band and write up what I enjoyed, presuming I would actually enjoy a fair bit of what I saw. So, I caught a bus into town, and dived into Deja Vu, only to catch the final half of the final number from a band called the King B'z who were playing trad blues that rocked with a huge guy on sax dressed in this yellow suit that loked more like something David Byrne would have worn in the Talking Heads "Stop Making Sense" DVD. They sounded good and although 5 minutes wasn't enough to judge, it whetted my appetite for more. I loked around expecting to find the place packed out - and it wasn't! Around 80 or 90 people there, but it was early afternoon, so I let it pass. So, it was around the corner to a venue called "Allstarz". At the top of the street you could hear what was coming out of the venue, and so I wandered down to find the place packed and a trio playing called Heavy Mama who were just sensational. Playing seventies blues-rock that numbered Cream and other seventies gems, the trio not only rocked, they rocked with feeling and the guitar playing was stunning. I just stood there thinking "now THIS is a band we should get to play our Mermaid Rock events at Hustlers". I stayed for longer than I'd planned.
Now, at this point - and speaking of Hustlers - I'd helped out Dave who runs the place by liasing with one of the bands he'd got on that night. You see, Hustlers was a new venue addition to the Blues Festival, with three gigs that afternoon, but finishing at 8pm, so he'd decided to run a free gig to follow on from the festival, just to keep things going, presuming that all the festival goers would want to at least see what was on. By way of a kind of concession, he'd arranged for the remarkable Montrose band, Ghosts of Progress, to play, with their off-the-wall kind of bluesy whatever it is you bracket its as, that they play. In contrast, but not as odd a choice as it might seem, the support were The Peski Kings, Dundee's indie-pop climbers. In between, Dave had got Scott, ex-Blinshall, to do a solo set, while I'd brought in Paula Knight, to do the same. So, as the afternoon wore on, Hustlers became my base.
As a result, after the delights of Heavy Mama, I decided to go round to Hustlers and experience the delights of whatever band was playing, and as it turned out the place was decently populated, although hardly full, as this kind of unremarkable brand of blues-rock played its part - now, if someone on the Festival committee had got any sense by being aware of the seventies-eighties-styled rock gigs that have been so succcessful at the venue, they'd have put Heavy Mama on here instead of some sardine of a venue in the centre of town, but "c'est la vie". Later on there, a band called, if I recall, The Flaming Strats, were playing. So, to get a preview I went to The Social to witness their first afternoon set. A gorgeously hot day, the place was heaving, and the punters were spilling out into the courtyard. Meanwhile, inside, I was given the first glimpse of blues bands' lack of stamina. You see, when we have the rock tribute bands on, they play for anything up to two hour sets, highly charged and energised to adrenaline-pumping degree. So, of course, I'd forgotten that blues bands can only play for an hour, have to take a 15 minute break, then do another hour, something that not only interrupts the flow of things but, in this case, meant I'd turned up just as the break was happening - either that, or the band were running hellishly late!! I hung around, and nothing happened, so I thought I'd wander to the next venue, which turned out to be Dexters. Here it was full, but noweher near as full as it had been the previous year, but then I realised to my ironic groans of delight, that I'd arrived just in time for.......another interval!! Jeez!! "Sod this", I thought, and moved on. Heavy Mama were still playing at Allstarz, while the band further down the road at a venue next to Yates, had just finished!! Note to self - fer chrissakes, plan it better next year!!
So, it was next door to Yates, or whatever it's called (I think that's right, isn't it??) and a band had just begun - and, boy, were they dull - well, that's unfair, actually. To an absolutely packed venue, most of whom seemed to be there inspite of rather than because of, the Festival, this band played the blues - exactly what it says on the tin - chugging rhythms introducing a ringing lead guitar, a wail of harmonica and a guy declaring how he'd just woken up that morning. I heard my fifteen minutes, kind of tapped my feet, tried to feign enthusiasm, failed miserably, and left.
By now, Heavy Mama were on their last number!! Dunno if they'd taken a break or not, but they played for two hours and the crowd were laping it up like no tomorrow.
Back round to Hustlers - to discover the place empty as the band before had finished, and, due to a rather bizarre mistake from the committee, they'd added another band to the venue, without putting it on the schedule, the result being that none knew they were on!! Fresh from playing Malones, about five doors away, they sauntered down the street, blissfully unaware that they were about to play to one man and his dog!! Now, I say "band" - it was actually just two guys on guitar, vocals and harmonica. I say "one man and his dog", when in actual fact it was one man and me, so unless you want me to bark... but you get my drift. I was only there coz I felt sorry for the band - so I stuck around, answered their on stage comments ("I'm doing my famous impression of an audience", I yelled at one point), and actually enjoyed them. Rustic blues done beautifully. Gradually, more people arrived, and things started to improve - which was my cue to go. So, wondering how it was going, I went to the Westie - here it was relatively full, and two guys were playing acoustic blues of which I lasted one track, then went round the corner to Fat Sams where the audience was tiny - hardly anyone there - less than the Westie - and some blues band was giving it rice!! By now, I was losing the plot, not to mention the will to live, finally realising that I may be a lot of things, but a blues afficionado ain't one of them!!
So, I changed streams and went to Deacon Brodies - to find about 20 people there listening to one guy (or was it two?) playing acoustic blues of the country kind - instead of waking up that morning, they'd been riding on trains all day!! I wasn't actually certain if the people in there were still the same ones that were there last year and hadn't bothered to go home - yes, they looked THAT riveted!! So, I nipped round to "Starz" (not the same as "Allstarz") to find about 80 or 90 people there enjoying a band who, when I got there, numbered about 7 or 8 on stage, and this swelled to 9 when I saw a keyboard player lurking in the corner about two numbers later. They had a two or three horn section frontline and the vocalists were dual male and, primarily, female. A couple of numbers, altho' trad blues, sounded quite expansive and hot with that horn section blowing. Then they started on this track that was quite slow and kept nagging me as it went, coz I was sure I knew what it was but couldn't place it. It was only near the end that I realised I had been witnessing probably the slowest version of Fats Domino's (it was his, wasn't it?) "Blue Monday" (no, not the New Order track!!!) that I'd ever heard. When they then started to do the same thing to what I think was a Phil Spector track, that was enough of that!!
Back to Hustlers and the final band had turned up. They were on the schedule and the audience was growing. So, I did the honourable thing - and left for Sinatras. The reason being, that the band whose CD I'd put out on the label, Mr Spider, were playing a set, which I thought I ought to catch. Now, one of the reasons I put the CD out, and, indeed enthused about the band, was because I liked the vocals of Michele McLaren, who sang with them. Sadly, now, she's exited the band, but I approached it with an open mind. Bassist Mike has got a good voice and John's an excellent blues guitarist, but I realised that it didn't hit the same chords with me that it used to, something that may change the more I get used to the new incarnation.
But, for now, after just their allotted fifteen minutes (well, about 25, actually), it was aproaching "gig" time, and so I went for a final wander around town. Dexters was packed, McDaniels was heaving, Lennons were spilling out onto the streets, The Doghouse looked like a public barbecue, there were so many people there, but, apart from the fact that, yet again, at all three of the aforementioned venues, I'd wandered in at JUST the right time to catch, in order, an interval, a band just finishing and a band about to start, catching music was becoming more akin to the search for the Holy Grail!! "Bollocks to this", I thought and sauntered off to Hustlers - where to my surprise, the place was well full, well, fuller than it had been at any time during the afternoon and the final blues (rock) band of the day were playing their last to an appreciative audience. They were good, too!!
That was my last encounter with the Blues Festival for 2008 - by just improvising my timings to the venues and not following the schedules and trying to "do a Go North!", I'd buggered the thing up completely from a reviewing point of view, as you've just witnessed!! I must admit, though, it was fun!! Kind of like having to burn yourself to realise you don't like pain, I realised I'm not cut out for "dem blues" - yeh, I've got a soft spot for "blues-rock", and Heavy Mama were worth their weight in steam train coal - but, by and large, I was more fascinated than riveted, finally having to admit that I'm as much use to the Dundee Blues Festival as The View are to flower arranging!!
HOWEVER..............
.......there was one band that played the blues, one band that broke the blues mould into smithereeens, one band that rewrote the rule book on blues, and one band that the Dundee Blues Festival, would never dare to put on in a zillion years......... who? Read on to find out!!