Just Blues
(The Story So Far - continued)
Sept. 2004
Hi everybody. Its been a while since I put pen to paper. The band since I last wrote has just got better and better. As you can see on the web site we have had a lot of good gigs which a lot are down to Sandy’s hard work and the rest down to the others. Paul Crawford our sound man has retired due to pressure of work and buying a bungalow which he has been renovating so no time to come out and play. We all miss Paul’s input and hard work very much. Good luck Paul !.
The Wolfe man has bought himself a Paul Reed Smith Single Cut guitar which is a beautiful piece of kit and sounds equally as good as it looks and works well with the Heartbreaker amp.
I have purchased a Fender Twin which seems to be the amplifier that I have been looking for. It covers most of the tone qualities that I require and sounds great.
Robyn Slater our harp man has decided to quit this year. He is keeping his hand in deputising with a few local bands I’ve been told. We all wish him well on his new path.
This brings me on to the reason of this update. After Robyn’s news Sandy suggested that we try a young harmonica player named Joe from Felixstowe. Whilst I was away in Spain the rest of the band tried him out and kept in contact with me to update his progress. They were all extremely pleased with not only his playing, but his feel for the music and the effort put in to his craft. He was invited to join the band while I was still away and between him and the rest of the lads got up to speed for his first outing with us on the 21st August at a private party. I had only met him once and had never rehearsed with him. I was knocked out by his playing and he managed to manoeuvre through the complete list with hardly a stumble. He fits in a treat. I take my hat off to his ability to learn that quickly and that accurately. So on behalf of Just Blues a big welcome to Joe and hopefully a new friend.
We missed the Great Colne Festival, Lancashire last year ( 2003.) This was handy as I moved house around that time and it would have been a pain. We played the festival this year though on the Super Roadhouse stage. The in house P A system supplied was just brilliant and made the band sound great. The crowd appreciated all that we threw at them as usual in that part of the country. ( real music lovers ). They particularly appreciated Joe’s playing and gave him a big round of applause when he was introduced. Well deserved. We all noticed a lack of harmonica players at Colne this year which surprised us as it is a rhythm and blues festival.
Well that’s all for now on anoraks corner. I’ll catch up with you all a little later and not leave it so long next time. Best regards. Peter R.