Warrington Blues Club weathers the storm!

By Glen Screeton

ON the 20th October ‘Storm Babet’ certainly didn’t dampen the spirits for the welcome return of the Warrington Blues Club at Grappenhall Community Centre and what a great night it was.

I’m sure new club organiser Robin Bradshaw and his team were very pleased indeed by the appearance of approximately 95 enthusiasts in such awful weather and former organiser Barbara O’Hare, who ran the club with her late husband Ray until its closure in 2010, must have been delighted to hear of its success. Having played for a long time in a blues/rock band myself before moving on to other genres I was looking forward to re-visiting some of the classic tunes with some later ones as well, and tonight Robin had booked two bands for the evening’s entertainment, namely;

Aethelred’s Bluesmen

Described as a band with a massive full vintage sound and the current house band at The Wirral Blues Club, the ‘Bluesmen’ were led by multi-award-winning harmonica player Ian “Aethelred” Boyle. They are more of the classic blues sound that people readily think of with a few of their own tunes in the mix, and with a 4 piece accompaniment of lead guitar, bass, drums and keyboard they replicated the sound very convincingly. For the younger reader, the blues is usually a more mature audience but musicians of any standard will always glean something from a blues gig and I can recommend the more discerning to pop along to the next blues club event for a lesson or two!

Following a few harmonica numbers that showed his exceptional talent, it wasn’t too long before Ian, with his dry sense of humour, had warmed up the audience and the polite few were up and dancing to the familiar shuffle and harmonica combo. The sound was fabulous, and excellent acoustics at this venue meant it didn’t have to be overly loud, just comfortable. After a great show it was roughly 1 hour before Robin allowed the ‘Bluesmen’ to close their set with an encore of one song before a short interval and a chance for people to mingle with friends they probably hadn’t seen for some time, whilst the sounds of Cheshire’s MIX56 DJ Neil James entertained with some classic blues tunes.

Doctor T Bone

To quote Robin ‘The Doctors have become firm favourites on the North West England and North Wales gig circuit, bringing the house down wherever they roam. Their repertoire is extensive and varied including Chicago Blues, Bar Room Boogie, T Bone Walker style jump blues and some jazz-tinged R&B classics and hidden gems. I suspect that the people who don’t regularly follow this genre might have recognized the more familiar sounds of Steve Ray Vaughan’s ‘Mary had a Little Lamb’ , and the Jimi Hendrix song ‘Redhouse’  all expertly played by New Zealander vocalist and guitarist Tony McDermot, with Mile Shorter adding the mellow and mesmerising tones of the Saxophone.

‘The Doctors’ also played a few excellent numbers that I could recognize but sadly couldn’t name, but I could sense they were steeped in history and, in my opinion, that is the beauty of the blues. For example, you can listen to an original recording of Robert Johnson’s ‘Crossroad Blues’ on acoustic slide guitar from 1937 one minute and the next you will hear the same song performed on electric guitar by Eric Clapton and Cream in the late 1960’s. I have also heard the song performed on the national guitar by Oliver Juchems in 2007 and many readers will identify the sound of the Delta Blues made popular by several Hollywood Films. If you’re a big fan of music do yourself a favour and jump on YouTube and listen to all three versions of that single song using different instruments and timing, not a sampler in site!

Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay till the very end but when I left many people had ventured back onto the dance floor,  including some younger latecomers which was good to see and I hope they had a good time. In the future Robin is considering using the same venue again for a possible bi-monthly event and I hope that comes to fruition and it’s not left too long, however in the meantime you can follow the Warrington Blues Club on Facebook to keep up with events.

Personally, would I go again?  Absolutely, the event was superbly organised and Robin’s team should be congratulated on the successful revival of the club, let’s hope that the followers return and keep the blues alive!  Even on a night off from reporting for Warrington Worldwide, I know I will be there and it would be good to catch up with some old blues musicians, you know who you are!