Great British Blues Festival Colne 24th August 2014 Eric Burdon, Roy Young & Jim Diamond
This year The Great British Rhythm and Blues Festival celebrated its 25th Anniversary. The festival takes place each year in the village of Colne, Lancashire and this year featured another set of great blues and R&B atcs including Eric Burdon, Lucky Peterson, Eric Sardinas, Otis Grand, Mike Sanchez, Andy Fairweather Low, The Yardbirds and Dr Feelgood. I went over last night to see Eric Burdon, who is a hero of mine and doesn’t play that often in the UK these days.
I arrived in time to catch Jim Diamond, who played an acoustic set on the international stage, which is in Colne Municipal Hall. Jim was accompanied by guitarist Gareth Mouton, and sang a set of great soul covers, and his own songs including “I Won’t Let You Down” and “Hi Ho Silver”. He went down well with the crowd, and seemed genuinely bowled over by the reception.
The Muni was packed by the time Eric Burdon came on stage. Everyone wanted to see Burdon, and rightly so. There was a short delay while the band sound-checked, and the crowd were starting to get restless, with a few slow hand claps. The sound was soon sorted and Eric took to the stage, looking and sounding great. Burdon has become one of our great legendary bluesmen, still playing some 50 years since he first started singing the blues. His American band are hot and tight and have an excellent ’60s psych/beat feel to them.
And they were very loud; I was standing right next to the speaker stack to the left of the stage, and my ears are still ringing this morning as I write this. Eric’s set was a mix of classics from his times with the Animals, War and solo material. Great versions of “Don’t Bring Me Down”, which was the opener, and “It’s My Life”. They closed with, of course, “House of the Rising Sun” and were called back for one more, which was John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom”.
I stayed to watch some of Roy Young’s set, but left before the end (it was close to midnight when he started his set, and I had a two hour drive home). Roy is a true legend, and has only recently returned to playing UK concerts. He started singing and playing rock’n’roll piano in the late ’50s, and performed in Hamburg with the Beatles in the early ’60s. He then joined Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers, formed his own band, and went on to record with David Bowie, playing piano on “Young Americans” and “Low”. I remember seeing the Roy Young Band on the Old Grey Whistle Test in the early ’70s and planned to go and see him at Peterlee Argus Butterfly, but never made it, for some reason. His style is very much in the mould of Jerry Lee Lewis and he plays fine authentic rock’n’roll, they started with “Slow Down” and had the crowd dancing and jiving.
Eric Burdon Setlist: Don’t Bring Me Down: When I Was Young; Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood; Water; Spill the Wine; Black Dog; Before You Accuse Me; I Believe To My Soul; Bo Diddley Special; We Gotta Get Out of This Place / River Is Rising; It’s My Life; House of the Rising Sun
Encore: Boom Boom
Archive for the ‘Roy Young’ Category
25 Aug
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