Not such a dash

Two gigs in a week is rather like waiting for a bus. On this occasion travel to the gig was not so time critical on account I was a) on holiday and at home and b) the gig was local and a mere 30 minute drive to the venue. That being the glorious Stables at Wavendon on the edge of Milton Keynes. Its a lovely small seated venue, always with a pleasant atmosphere and audience who really go to listen to music. To be able to see the artists in such intimate surroundings adds to the night, particularly too when you get to meet and greet after the gig.

Tonight's show is a double bill of two of my favourite modern blues bands. Both scarily so young and talented. It's a breath of fresh air to know good live music does and will live on. Until recently I'd feared there to be no up-coming musicians interested in that genre of music. Its certainly been an eye opener to start discovering all these 'kids' that play as good as and quite possibly better than my old hero's.  I put it all down to two people - Paul Jones and Joe Bonamassa!

More often than not, I forget to tune into Paul's weekly evening blues radio programme. On this one occasion, about seven years ago, I tuned in and heard this awesome blues song. For once I took note of the artist and soon after was the proud owner of the CD Blues Deluxe. I then needed to see this guy who at the time was only in his late twenties - could anyone this young really want to play the blues? I assumed he would not be very popular in the UK, but when I bowled up outside the Shepherds Bush Empire, people were queuing around the corner of the block! What's more I heard people discussing one of the support bands - some kid of about 20? This can't be true, kids don't listen to this kind of music, never mind play it surely?

Anyway, sure enough there was this support band, a three piece power blues trio fronted by this kid called Scott McKeon - they blew me away, it was like listening to Cream, who I was way to young to see or for my ears to appreciate at the time. I even brought Scott's album Can't Take No More at the gig  Then of course Joe came on and that was the first time I ever saw him. Including the gig four days ago, I have now seen him about six times! Each time he gets better and as readers are now aware he no longer requires a truss!  

Since then, my ears have been opened to seek out new blues acts and I still am in awe at how many are actually out there. Tonight's two acts are no exception. The support band is Mitch Laddie, who was there promoting his new superb album Burning Bridges This his second album, the first being This Time Around.

I first discovered Mitch on Amazon when I went to buy Scott's second album Trouble. At the time Amazon were doing their usual trick of advertising a similar album on that page. Well it worked with me (mug! or not so). On this occasion, it was This Time Around and also a CD caller Innerevolution by Philip Sayce, another superb artist who I've still to catch up with live.

Mitch Laddie played a superb set this evening, covering many of the tracks from his latest album and very few from his previous CD. I've never seen him anywhere other than the Stables. The first time he played support to Walter Trout and last year he was part of the New Generation Blues tour one of the gigs of which was at the Stables. Appearing on that same tour, as they had also done a year before in 2010, was another young blues power trio under the name of Virgil and the Accelerators who were playing tracks from their album the Radium.  When I first saw Virgil and the Accelerators, I'd gone to the New Generation Blues Tour in 2010 to see another of my favourites Oli Brown who was heading the sessions that year. He will be the subject of a later blog.

Following on from Mitch Laddies great set, came the headline band of the evening in the form of Virgil and the Accelerators, for what is now the third time I have seen them, each being at the Stables. Again an awesome set played out from this three piece with Virgil's younger 18 year old brother Gabriel on drums - he can play like that at 18? Holy sh!! You can tell Virgil is heavily influenced by Hendrix among others and now looks the part with the mop of corkscrew hair and dress style similar to what Hendrix and Clapton wore in the late 60's. The following clip was filmed on the night.

Disappointingly, no hint of a new album and so being somewhat left behind by comparison to the other above afore mentioned acts. But none the less a great band and even better that both Mitch and Virgil are at this years Rhythm Festival near Biggleswade over the August Bank Holiday. Hoorah!!!