Vive Les Blues
March 2009

Hello, and thanks for popping in to read my blog.

After my band The Mustangs played Colne last year, we were invited to France to perform at le Blues au tour du Zinc festival in Beauvais, just north of Paris, this March.

Translated, the festival means ‘Blues around the bars’, which is exactly what it is. Since 1994, for one week a year the lovely town of Beauvais has given itself over to the festival, and every bar in town, no matter how big or small, hosts a couple of bands every evening, with free entry.

The result is a unique international blues festival, with acts coming from all over the world to perform the blues and its derivatives in every kind of bar imaginable.

We were honoured and excited to have been asked by festival director Laurent Macimba to play two nights at the festival this year. Although The Mustangs have been all over the UK, we had never ventured abroad, so it was with great anticipation that we polished up the old VW camper and set off on the morning of Friday 13th for the Channel Tunnel. We had barely driven a mile when the camper broke down, but with fortune looking down on us a nearby friendly mechanic saw our predicament and trotted over and had us on our way again in no time. At this point we weren’t sure whether the omens were good or bad.

The usual band quizzes, discussions and arguments over what to listen to passed the time as we drove smoothly on to the Tunnel train. At customs we managed to convince the officer that the live AC/DC song blasting out of our stereo was, in fact, The Mustangs and even managed to flog him a copy of our last CD. For shame on us…well, he can have his money back next time he sees us if he doesn’t like it.

In no time we were in France and at the allocated meeting point for all the festival’s bands – the Magic Mirrors venue, which also served as our communal dining hall, and, after midnight, the festival’s main venue.

We were greeted warmly by everyone who would be working with us over the weekend, and were introduced to our personal PA for the event, Nathaly. Personal PA? We thought, this wasn’t like any blues festival we had been to! Indeed, we were immediately struck not only by the efficiency of the organisation, but also by the apparent respect and warmth the festival had for artists. For example, all food and drink over the weekend was excellent, and, even better – complimentary as part of the performance deal. Moreover, the friendliness and helpfulness of all the staff was exemplary.

Having the communal dining time and place was a great idea, as it was fascinating to be in a room with all the other bands performing at the festival; over 60 of them, bands of all shapes and sizes, ages and nationalities. It seems everyone does indeed, have the blues.

As we ate heartily we caught up with our old friends and label mates the Brew and Roadhouse, but also made new friends with many other acts appearing.

After dinner we ambled into town to watch a few sets before it was our turn. The energy and youthfulness and experimental element of the bands we were watching made the UK and US blues scenes seem, all of a sudden, a bit old fashioned. We were going to have to raise our game tonight, we thought to ourselves.

At 11pm we loaded the gear into the Victor Lounge, a long, dark, thin bar on the main square. A little cramped for space but buzzing with anticipation, we struck up and played 75 minutes or so of our carefully ordered set. Being an originals band, we didn’t expect the French to know any of our numbers, but the reaction was loud and enthusiastic and by the show’s end everyone seemed to have had a great night. Sweaty but happy, we loaded up and headed back to the magic Mirrors to catch the Friday night headliners.

Deltasun are two Swedish guys on guitar and double bass, who also play percussion with their feet. Their set was a blizzard of slide thrash blues that was exhilarating, pulsating and utterly unique. A Sunday afternoon blues jam in the Kings Arms seemed a world away.

Of course there were many more traditional acts playing over the festival, including familiar names like Joe Louis Walker, Never The Bride and Joanne Shaw Taylor, but scattered among these act were nuggets like Deltasun, and The Experimental Tropic Blues Band, who ended their set with a grungy feedback-soaked track the guitarist played with hjs, er appendage (and I don’t mean tremelo arm). Imagine that at Skegness! It may not sound like your idea of blues but it was being watched by a far younger crowd than you would get at a UK festival, and they were loving it. Think about that and the future of the music we all love so much.

We watched, drank, and soaked up the very individual and inspiring atmosphere of the Magic Mirrors Bar, and at 4am made our way back to our hotel where we all conked out immediately, shattered but with our heads spinning from the day’s events.

The next morning Nathaly excelled herself by finding us a place to watch the English football, where my team Liverpool thrashed Man Utd 4-1. The weekend was getting better and better! We had lunch in the bar and after a pleasant afternoon looking round Beauvais and its colossal cathedral, we were ready for another show at the Victor Lounge.

Word seemed to have spread as even more people were crammed into the bar on the Saturday, but rested and ready we played a great, tight set that had everyone reeling. We even got a few of the locals singing along to our originals. en Anglais, of course.

After the show we again went back to the Magic Mirrors, this time to watch the Brew strut their stuff. Conscious of the early train back and exhausted from the two nights, we said our goodbyes and thankyous to the great festival staff and headed back to the hotel for a long and deserved night’s sleep.

The unremarkable journey back was spent discussing the festival and all its merits. If you are looking for something different from the established UK festivals, you can do a lot worse than pop over to Beauvais (a 90 minute drive from Calais) and experience a vibrant, cutting edge side of the blues that is challenging and inspiring. Oh, and the food’s not too bad either.

Vive les blues indeed…

thanks

Adam