Review by Tim Marcus with photos by Sam Conquest Photography
Just over a week ago, we travelled to Milton Keynes for the last of a series of shows that had been put on throughout May and June to support the fund raising efforts taking place for Catfish’s Matt Long and his battle with cancer. For those who aren’t aware, Matt has an extremely rare (very rare indeed for a young man of his age too) form of bowel cancer that over the past twelve months or so has failed to respond to treatment. In fact it has spread and with all options available through the NHS now exhausted Matt has been offered some hope of improving his prognosis with some alternative treatment that is only available privately and at great cost. The costs of the drugs alone for this treatment are in the region of £5000 per month and with no end date to the course of treatment it’s clear to see that whatever resources anyone has to fund this will not last long.
Tonight’s concert is the finale to this series of shows and a stunning bill has been put together by Stephen Stanley from Solid Entertainments. Aside from those that are appearing, Kris Barras had also been part of the original line up however understandably made the difficult decision to pull out after being offered the opportunity to support Wolfgang Van Halen and his band Mammoth, on the European leg of their tour. Also due to appear was Alice Armstrong however she had to pull out at the last minute after being struck down with a laryngitis type infection just two days before. Nevertheless, despite their absence it’s still a very strong line up that Stephen has got together and means that we have a little extra time for the end of show jam and for other bands or artists to play a little longer than might otherwise have been planned.
Getting things underway for us this evening is the delightful Chantel McGregor. It’s a short solo acoustic performance from Chantel this evening although the setlist is fairly eclectic. Opening with a cover of “Summertime”, the George Gershwin classic, the clarity of Chantel’s vocal, combined with the superb sound set up at The Stables, is so perfect for this venue. She continues with her own composition, “Anaesthetise” before giving us Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” (written by Mike Reid and Alan Shamblin), and Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile”. It’s a very short set from Chantel but a great way to get things going for the evening.
Next up to entertain us are Essex based couple, Aaron and Grace Bond, perhaps better known playing with their band When Rivers Meet. As Grace tells us however, playing as just a duo this evening without the support of the rest of the band, they’re feeling a little exposed. With Grace singing and playing mandolin, and Aaron singing, playing guitar and small bass drum, they start their set with “My Babe Says That He Loves Me
”. We’re told that they’re going to be playing some covers tonight and one we hear almost straight away is Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”. We then get a double dose of slide as Grace uses it on the mandolin and Aaron on his guitar for “Free Man”. Next, Aaron takes to his three string cigar box guitar and slide for “Innocence of Youth” before they bring their short set to a conclusion.
Will Wilde is next, a maestro of the harmonica. He’s been away from the blues for a while having ventured into the hard rock arena with a band he got together called Bad Luck Friday. That project has now come to an end though and as Will tells us, he’s returning to the blues proper for the first time since Covid. It’s the second time we’ve seen Will although it was difficult for us to really draw any great conclusion on the first occasion as he just played a short set as a duo last summer,
very briefly at the Buck Moon festival between change overs on the main stage. Tonight however he’s with a full band (which includes amongst others, Catfish bassist Adam Pyke and keyboard wizard Greg Coulson) and Will and his Harmonica are without doubt, at the front and centre of what is going on on that stage for the next thirty minutes as he delivers a master class in harmonica playing and fronting a band. Not only does Will play great harmonica (or rather I should say harmonicas as he has a whole range of them wrapped around him in a military style bandolier), he’s also a very powerful vocalist.
And as if his band wasn’t strong enough already, midway through his set he introduces onto the stage, Brave Rival’s Lindsey Bonnick and Chloe Josephine who help him to deliver great versions of “Learn How To Love” and “The Blues is Still Alive”. This wonderful short thirty minute set (we’re both agreed that we definitely want to see more of Will Wilde) is brought to a conclusion with a fantastic version of Gary Moore’s “Parisienne Walkways” which he dedicates to Matt and his wonderful wife Sam, who tied the knot earlier in the month.
After a brief interval in proceedings, the next artist to take to the stage is Ben Poole. We first saw Ben playing at a blues festival in Sheffield a couple of years ago and were blown away by his powerful blues guitar playing. Tonight Ben is fronting a three piece blues rock power trio who give us “Got to Get You Out of My Head” and “Dirty Laundry”. Listening to Ben playing this evening reminds me just how much I enjoy listening to his stuff. For me he’s playing the kind of powerful and soulful blues rock that Kris Barras should still be playing rather than the far heavier road he’s chosen to go down. Another short set is brought to an end with a couple of tunes, including my favourite Ben Poole song “Don’t Cry for Me”.
Next to adorn the stage are The Cinelli Brothers, however tonight this wonderfully talented quartet are a man down and playing as a trio as Stephen Giry is ill, suffering the effects on the flight home from Portugal yesterday, we’re told by Marco, of a Portuguese brown sausage. Whilst this might prove to be a problem for many bands, for the Cinelli Brothers it’s business as usual given their versatility and that fact that every member of the band can more or less play every instrument! So it’s on with the show and the Cinellis take on the old time blues.
Included in the set tonight is an Otis Rush cover, before drummer Alessandro Cinelli, switches to bass guitar for “Last Cigarette”. Tom Julian-Jones’s vocal and harmonica playing are exquisite as usual and he also plays a mean guitar. Meanwhile Marco, who shares most of the vocal duties with Tom, switches regularly between the guitar and keyboards. The Cinellis, as always, are a joy to watch and listen to and it seems that no sooner have they begun, than they’re bringing their set to a close with “Mama Don’t Like You”.
Before we get to the final band of the night there are a series of video messages played from Hollie Rogers, Dom Martin, Erja Lyytenen, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Walter Trout and Joe Bonamassa all sending their love, support and best wishes to Matt and his family.
It’s now time however for Brave Rival, the last band we’re due to see. In the past two years this band, fronted by the double barreled harmonic vocal attack of Lindsey Bonnick and Chloe Josephine, powerful yet controlled, both soulful and melodic, Brave Rival’s stock has risen through the roof as they have simply taken the world of blues rock by storm.
Add to that the tearaway guitar of Ed Clarke, switching seamlessly from gentle accompaniment to red hot shredding, all held together by the solid rhythm section of Donna Peters (drums) and Billy Dedman (bass) and you have an irresistible package. You only need to listen to their two live albums, both great albums in their own right, one recorded back in 2019 (Ed Clarkes’s first live show with the band) and the other in 2023, to hear how much the band has grown.
During those years they’ve been playing a live set that has consisted primarily of tracks from their killer debut studio album, “Life’s Machine” however more recently, over the past six months or so they’ve been adding into the mix, one or two teaser tracks from their much anticipated second studio album, “Fight or Flight”, which is due to be released next month.
What we get from Brave Rival this evening is a shortish set consisting of a mix of the two albums. From the first, we hear ”Heart Attack” and “Guilty Love” and of the more recent material we hear, “Bad Choices”, “Five Years On” (a kind of biopic of their story so far – and the first single from their upcoming album), “Fairytale” and their latest single, released just 24 hours earlier, “Stand Up”, for which they’re joined on stage, playing harmonica, by Will Wilde, who just happens to be playing on the studio version of the song too.
That brings the main part of show to an end however before Brave Rival depart the stage, our compere for the evening, Paul Long introduces us to a very special guest, not that he needs any introduction, his son Matt, for whom this and the shows that have gone before are all about. Matt takes the microphone from Paul to thank everyone involved and everyone that has supported him in whatever way they can over the past few months since he shared his prognosis.
It’s a very emotional moment for Matt who explains that this is the first one of these shows that he’s actually felt well enough to attend albeit has been there in spirit at all the others, Throughout his short speech Matt is clearly overcome by all the love and affection in the room, as we all are, and at one point is simply lost for words. He’s “rescued” by Paul who steps forward and places a guitar around his neck and Matt quips “Well things must be looking up. It’s the first time I’ve ever had a guitar tech!” By now, most of the other artists appearing tonight have gathered around on the stage too. Matt turns to face them. “Well how can we have this much talent on the stage and not have a motherfuckng jam!” remarks Matt. Linsdey Bonnick steps forward to introduce a song that has been especially requested by Matt’s mum, Fiona Long, and is dedicated to all the Mums out there.
Will Wilde takes the mic centre stage and launches into the opening lines; “What would you do if I sang out of tune?” before the whole room is on its feet and joining in. It’s a wonderful rendition and clearly everyone has enjoyed themselves however there’s more to come. Clearly tired from his first stage appearance since February it seems that Matt is keen to extend the jam a little further and ups the ante. He turns to the assembled orchestra of musicians behind him, gives the instruction “blues in G” and they launch into “Let the Good Times Roll”, and for those few hours in Milton Keynes, they most certainly did.
The night ends with a massive group hug on stage with Matt being at its centre. It was both amusing and emotional to see Matt, initially surrounded and then completely disappearing amongst the bodies on stage in a pure show of love and affection for this wonderful young man, who along with his family, and doubtless many others out there in similar situations, are going through such a tough time at the moment.
Since attending this show we’ve heard that through ticket sales, merch sales and raffles etc, the night raised a staggering £20,000 towards Matt’s fighting fund: a fantastic effort from all those that organized the event, in particular, Stephen Stanley from Solid Entertainments and all those that took part in and supported it in any way. If you want to contribute to Matt’s fighting fund then you’re still able to do so through the link below.
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