Caught Live: Bridge Inn Beer & Blues Festival

#558: Hello ... Hello ... my old friends ... It's great to see you once again! ELO Beatles Forever [ELOBF] has always been pleased to not only feature artistes and bands from the ELOBF universe but to also support local bands and venues too. Hence it was an easy decision to not only publicise but attend [most of] the Bridge Inn Beer & Blues Festival [BIBBF] during last Saturday 22nd June.

And with a ten band roster that included Rumours Of Spring; Ben Frost; Paul Brindley; Cold Ocean Lies; Steve Ajao And The Blues Giants; Brothers Groove; The Laurence Jones Band; The Peeky Blinders; The Hidden featuring Mike Kellie and culminating with The Steve Gibbons Band, the inaugural Bridge Inn Beer & Blues Festival more than satisfied its potential.

The Laurence Jones Band in full effect ...

Move guitarist Tony Kelsey quickly introduced me to the cool blues of Brothers Groove upon arrival at the event and that was followed by a red hot set by the superb threesome who are the Laurence Jones Band who were mightily impressive with a tight performance well beyond their [apparent] age!

Peeky Blinders' Brian Travers sax soloing ..

Next up were the curiously named Peeky Blinders, a bluebeat/soul/jazz combo who feature saxophonist Brian Travers of UB40 fame in their ranks. Those in attendance really warmed to this outfit, particularly with their bass driven unique rendition of "These Boots Are Made For Walking".

Yours Truly KJS with Tony Kelsey and Julian Crook ...

One of the many highlights of the day was bumping once again into ELOBF regulars Tony Kelsey and Julian Crook between acts to talk about not only The Move, Steve Winwood [et al] but also their influences and participation in The Hidden featuring Mike Kellie.

In full flow: The Hidden ...

Indeed, this was the first ever live outing for The Hidden - who also feature the talents of a certain Robbie Blunt [band mate of Robert Plant, Tom Petty and Julian Lennon amongst not a few others]; the exceptionally gifted guitarist/singer Greg Platt Lake and, of course, Mike Kellie - with a three decade percussion career behind him with the likes of Spooky Tooth; The Only Ones et al.

Tony swapped his trusty rhythm guitar for a bass with Julian contributing his keyboard and vocal skills to a new band who could really be termed a super group in the making! In a sentence, their hour long set was absolutely and literally top notch in every department, performing songs from debut album "Music from ... The Hidden" as well as a sublime cover of The Byrds' "Eight Miles High" in a memorable performance.

KJS with Steve Gibbons ...

During the proceedings, Yours Truly KJS took time out to chat with Steve Gibbons, the elder statesman of 'Brum Beat', about his long career from The Uglys through to the present day Steve Gibbons Band.

The highlight of our discussion was Steve telling me that at one Uglys gig in downtown Birmingham in the mid-Sixties, that their then guitarist was somewhat unreliable in attendance and that a certain young man in the front row of the audience spotted the problem in the build up to the band going on stage and proceeded to offer his services as he knew most of the songs that the band were then playing. That young man did successfully stand in the gap that night and his name was Jeff Lynne!

Class Act: The excellent Steve Gibbons Band ...

The headline act for the day were The Steve Gibbons Band and, as expected, they produced a polished, smooth, foot-tapping selection of songs such as their cover of the Bob Dylan classic "Just Like A Woman" [Bob is one of Steve's icons] and including their very own "Tupelo Mississippi Flash" and "No Spitting On The Bus" with a crowd requested encore of their 1977 smash hit "Tulane" to finish!

ELOBF has now attended now attended both the Bridge Inn Beer & Blues Festival and Brewood Music Festival over the last two couple of years and both organizing committees should be rightly praised for delivering such magnificent music festivals to the village of Brewood. My thanx are again extended to The Bridge Inn and Jason Bate of The Village Times for the courtesy extended to ELO Beatles Forever [ELOBF] for this event. We can now begin looking forward to the Brewood Music Festival in 2014.

Coming Soon: ELOBF Gig Guide #12: Q3 2013

Until next "Time" in the ELO [and related] Universe ... KJS ... 25-June-2013