Several members of the Nottingham Blues Society spent the weekend at The Butlins Rock and Blues Festival in Skegness. Here we share our experience of the festival and photographs and videos. If you would like to add your own review or tell us about your weekend at The Butlins Rock and Blues Festival then send it to us on an email and we'll publish it here. tony@nottinghambluessociety.com
If you took any photographs at the festival then why not enter our Photography Competition. It's open to everyone
Barry's Bit - Barry Middleton - Nottingham Blues Society Chairman
Who in their right mind goes to Skegness on the Lincolnshire coast when the weather forecast is freezing conditions and the chance of snow?
Well to answer that it is the ardent blues or rock enthusiast who wants to see some of the country’s best bands doing there bit on a big stage, and you can have a few beers watching and listening to a assorted bill of all ages, just a few hundred yards from your chalet for the weekend, park the car put the keys in the drawer and forget the motor till Monday morning.
Trevor Burton Band were second on but to be fair I have seen Trevor perform better, the same for Mick Taylor who I was disappointed with. By this time we had been joined by Tony & Sue.
Eddie & The Hot Rods - what can you say? They come on with an air of mischief about them and start to rock it up at 100 mph and continue at this pace right to the last line of the encore, excellent.
Most of the weekend we stuck to Centre Stage, useful to get in the queue about 30mins before door opening time, there is always someone to chat too and swap a few stories, then its rush and get a good vantage point. Tony is always first to the best spot for taking photographs so each day we had decent positions, Caroline & Sue pop off to the bar for the first of a few jars in evening set.
Ben Waters Band got the show off to a good start with some ”boogie woogie” at its best, followed by The Blues Band who always perform well, at times some great guitar from Dave Kelly. By this time Marie & Simon had joined our party, their first ever festival and they enjoyed it.
Didn’t stay for The Yardbirds so no comment.
Saturday Caroline was fleet of foot getting a good position in front of stage right, Tony, Sue, Marie & Simon all went to Reds to see Jay Tamkin and the fabulous Chantel MacGregor Band. We were treated to a gem of a band - Smokin’ Jackets, featuring Andy Shurrocks. To me this act hit the nail on the head, once the lead and lap steel player had sorted his problems out this band kicked arse (even purchased CD’s).
The afternoon sessions are always a little lower key (thank goodness) The Electric Revelators kicked off with some classic blues numbers before handing over to John Williamson & Mike Bowden. Nice mix of blues, country with more than a dash of humour.
The Sunday evening sessions are worth the wait, old favourites to Skeggy Roadhouse treated us to a classy one hour show with sexy singers (not including Gary Bonner) sexy self penned music and played to perfection, a great set. What a start to the night, get the round in quick!
Stan Webbs Chicken Shack - you just have to like Stan the Man. First question is always “think he’s sober?” whether he is or not, what a guitarist and what a voice, stunning set and no” I’d rather go Blind”
Nine Below Zero top class band, 30 years on the road and performing as well as ever, just back from a quick trip to Sweden into the icy outback that is Skegness, but boy did these guys give us a cracking set. A lot of old stuff mixed in with some off the new album. Sadly we missed the talented Oli Brown who to be fair should not have followed Nine Below Zero, no one should!
You are viewing the text version of this site.
To view the full version please install the Adobe Flash Player and ensure your web browser has JavaScript enabled.
Need help? check the requirements page.
