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