Review by Tim Marcus with photos from Sam Conquest Photography
We’re back at the Springbok Park Estate festival arena in Alfold for the first full day of this year’s event. The weather this morning is damp and miserable and looks pretty much as though it’s due to stay that way throughout the remainder of the day and evening however we’re confident that the bands that lie n store for us today will be able to lift the dampened spirits. First and foremost though before we get to any of the bands, we’d like to extend our thoughts and best wishes to Festival Director Dave Rees, whom we learned had suffered a suspected heart attack on Thursday morning and looks set to be spending the duration of the festival he’s been planning for the past 12 months plus, in a hospital bed. Wishing you a speedy recovery Dave in the knowledge that the festival is safe in the hands of your wonderful team here at Alfold.
First up on the stage today are The Flying Tigers, who compere on the main stage for the weekend, Stage Manager Trevor Rapson, reminds us, opened up the very first Alfold Rock n Blues back in 2021. The Flying Tigers are a covers band, very much based around the pub rock R n B style of Dr Feelgood. And as if to emphasise that fact, amongst the excellent covers we hear from the today are “Down To The Doctors” and “She Does it Right”, along with “Baby Jump”, “Brown Sugar” and “I Can’t Explain”, before they bring their short opening set to a close with “Going Back Home”.
Next up is Midlands based blues outfit Big Wolf Band. We first saw Jonathan Earp and Big Wolf Band back in 2022 at a blues festival in Sheffield: they were amongst a small number of bands that weekend that our dear departed friend, Steve Beastie, told us we had to see.
We did and loved what we saw. Frustratingly, three subsequent occasions we were due to see them again were thwarted, once by a severe overrun at another festival last summer which saw their timeslot unfortunately cancelled and then again earlier this year when illness forced them to pull out at the last minute of Beastie Fest in Leeds, as well as a scheduled appearance at the Leeds Blues Club the night before. Thankfully, both we, and Big Wolf Band, have made it safely to Alfold and we’re delighted at the opportunity to see them again.
“Living on Borrowed Time” is great and there’s some wonderful keyboard work throughout. Big Wolf Band are primarily a blues band and I’m loving what I’m hearing however there are some other styles and influences coming through too. At times some of the music I’m hearing has me in mind of the funkier, bluesier side of Deep Purple that was around in 1975/76 when Glenn Hughes and Tommy Bolin were steering the musical direction of the band.
They also give us a much heavier sounding style of blues in the shape of “Six Strings Loaded”. We get a heartfelt song about battling depression, called “Standing in the Rain” and the band’s first single from their latest album, “Empire and a Prayer”. The set draws towards its end with another heartfelt song which also shows the soulful side of the blues, a song Jonathan wrote after the loss of his son Adam, called “Darkest of my Days”. Things are finally wrapped up with a great cover of Joe Bonamassa’s “Oh Beautiful”. It’s been what seems a very long wait for us to see Big Wolf Band again however this afternoon’s set from the band has been well worth the two year wait.
Another shortish set follows, this time from The Soho Dukes, a high energy fun rock n roll band, much in the style of Dr Feelgood and The Blockheads. This is not The Soho Dukes first appearance at the festival and there are some familiar faces in there too from Thursday night’s shenanigans, including FMOB’s “Bomber” Randon and guitarist Dave Strange, plus a guest appearance from FMOB singer Sam too.
The band have also added to their number to since last year’s appearance and now include a keyboard player (“Swerve”) amongst their ranks. It’s a great fun set, with the stand out songs for me being the title track from their new album, “The Golden Age of The Barber’s Chair”, and “Sunday Magazine”.
J Lee and The Hoodoo Skulls are next. Not a band I’ve come across before and know nothing about however having done a little homework in the week leading up to this weekend, I’ve listened to a couple of their tracks on Spotify and am now eagerly awaiting the upcoming set. This Surrey based four piece breathe new life into traditional roots style blues. Not that I wish to make a comparison with the sounds produced by the Cinelli Brothers, what these two bands do have in common is the ability to make an older style of traditional blues sound fresh and current. And,
comprising front man J Lee Barratt on vocals, Harun Kotch (a Louis Theroux lookalike?!) on guitar, Michael Hartnett on bass and Wayne Riches on drums, that’s exactly what J Lee and The Hoodoo Skulls do for the next forty minutes or so. It’s now some seven years or so since these guys released their debut album but in common with many I’m sure, prior to this weekend they were new to me.
Definitely a band to look out for in the weeks and months ahead and definitely a band I would have no hesitation in paying to see again.
Next up on stage is a well established musician and his band whom I’m very surprised to say, I’ve not seen before; The Gerry Jablonski Band. Established for 10+ years now Gerry and his band, a four piece (including harmonica), entertain us with a great set of fast, high tempo, upbeat blues rock.
Gerry himself is full of energy and likes to make use of most of the stage (covering much of it hopping around on one leg – picture if you will, a Chuck Berry like “duck walk” with a large injection of kangaroo fuel”!). Amongst the tunes that Gerry and the band play for us today are “Koss”, a song that Gerry tells us he wrote for the late, great, Paul Kossoff, a song about his relationship with his ex-wife called “Strange Love”- a song which had some riffs which at times reminded me a little of Deep Purple’s “Speed King”, “Anybody” which he dedicates to long lost friends, a cover of Hendrix’s “Little Wing” and concludes with a song called “Life Down The Middle”.
I have to confess I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to get around to seeing Gerry Jablonski however one thing I know for sure is that I’ll be looking for the chance to get to see him again as soon as I can.
Del Bromham is rapidly becoming a part of the furniture at Alfold Rock and Blues. He’s here today with Stray for whom I believe it’s (no pun intended!) their third appearance here in four years and he then returns again tomorrow to share the stage with the great John Verity (of Argent fame) as part of Verity Bromham.
Stray are a band that have been going for many years and indeed were formed before many of this weekend’s performers were even born! The current lineup is pretty steady and has been in place for a few years now. With the mainstays of Del, and Pete Dyer on guitars and vocals they’re ably supported by drummer Karl Randall along with “new boys” Colin Kempster (bass) and Simon Rinaldo (keyboards), both of whom have been with the band now for the last five years or so. Stray for me are one of those bands that have so much experience and so much talent that they transcend the boundaries of any musical genres and give you a bit of everything. Listen to their vast catalogue of material and what you’ll get within that is a blend of blues, blues rock and prog rock. I always enjoy a Stray show: the music is always great and Del Bromham is simply a born entertainer.
I’ve said many times before, if he hadn’t made it as a musician I’m sure he would’ve made a great stand up. His story telling just flows so naturally. But back to the music and amongst the songs we hear from Stray this evening are, “Living the Dream”, from the band’s latest album called “About Time”, “Jericho”, then another couple of tracks from the latest album, “A Better Day” and “Black Sun”, before they close the set out with “I believe It” (generating some audience participation) and “All in Your Mind”. Stray are one of those bands who always deliver a polished performance and generally speaking when you go and listen to Stray you know what you’re going to get. That’s very much been the case today and I’m delighted to say that they did not disappoint.
The penultimate band of the day are a band we saw just a few days ago, The Cinelli Brothers playing at a benefit show for Matt Long. Sadly that day they were a man down as Stephen Giry was suffering the effects of something he’d eaten a couple of days before while the band were playing in Portugal. I’m pleased to report though that Stephen appears to have recovered sufficiently to take part in today’s performance so once again the Cinelli Brothers are a four piece, with, aside from Stephen, brothers Marco and Alessandro Cinelli joined by Tom Julian Jones.
To say that the Cinelli Brothers are multi talented would in my view be a huge understatement. Like J Lee and The Voodoo Skulls who played here earlier today, the Cinelli Brothers have the ability to take a style of music that many would perhaps consider to be “old fashioned” and “outdated”, and make it sound brand new and refreshing, as if it had just been written yesterday and was being performed for the first time. And what about the multi talented aspect? Barely a song goes by without a change around of who’s playing which instrument. All four members of the band sing and have their moment in the spotlight where they take the lead on vocals.
That includes drummer Alessandro who can also pop up on the front of stage playing bass. Stephen plays guitar, lead guitar and bass guitar, Tom plays harmonica, guitar, lead guitar and bass, whilst Marco plays keyboards, guitar and lead guitar. The set this evening is about an hour long and includes a number of songs that I’m not overly familiar with, from the band’s latest album, “Almost Exactly…The Cinelli Brothers”. The set is full of original songs all demonstrating the Cinelli’s ability to master all styles of blues but particularly the older style blues, so popular in the southern US states back in the day and which saw the Cinelli Brothers go down so well when they represented the UK at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis some 18 months or so ago.
There is one cover song played within the set and that’s a great version of Ry Cooder’s “The Very Thing That Makes You Rich Makes Me Poor”, before they conclude their wonderful set this evening with one of my favourite tracks, “Mama Don’t Like You”.
The final act of the day and our Friday headliner is the ever popular, multi award winning blues rock band fronted by Glaswegian Alan Nimmo, King King. King King first came into being back in 2008 when The Nimmo Brothers, Alan and Stevie, parted company: Stevie went on to do his own thing while Alan formed King King with guitarist Lindsay Coulson. Amongst the most significant personnel change the band has seen since then, Lindsay Coulson chose to leave the band around 18 months ago and with Stevie Nimmo having at that time disbanded his own Stevie Nimmo Trio, he re-joined brother Alan to become a member of King King.
We’ve seen King King a number of times over the past nine years and have always enjoyed their blues rock style, particularly some of the slower numbers which highlight the soulful side of Alan’s vocal. We got to see the current lineup for the first time when King King put on their annual Christmas show in Lincoln last December. Just as enjoyable to listen to and Stevie has blended into the band nicely although doesn’t appear to have taken as prominent a role, certainly on stage, as we might have anticipated. As I say, just as enjoyable to listen to however, to my ears at least, noticeable that the sounds being produced by the band are now a little heavier than the more bluesy sound we heard from them in the past.
They take the stage today at 10:00pm. It’s been drizzling on and off for most of the day but just as King King get underway the heavens open and their set is greeted with an absolute deluge of water from the sky. I love this little festival however one of the very few negatives is that there’s very little, if any, shelter to be found for members of the public should the weather take a turn for the worse. With that in mind, the fact that there must‘ve been 500+ people who remained standing out front of the stage, in an increasingly saturated field, listening to the band as the rain stubbornly refused to relent one iota, is a testament to King King’s quality and popularity.
They kick the set off with “Dance Together” from their 2020 album, “Maverick”. “Heed the Warning” from 2017’s “Exile and Grace” follows. “Rush Hour”, probably my favourite of the earlier tracks which appeared on their “Reaching for The Light” album and was out in the year we first saw King King, back in 2015, is the last track of this set that we actually see. Unlike the devotees who remain in the heavy rain throughout, it’s time for us (and camera equipment) to seek refuge and head back to the car from where we can faintly hear the remainder of the set, albeit sadly, not well enough to identify the songs they played. Despite the premature and damp ending to our evening we have nevertheless once again enjoyed hearing King King.
My impression from what I’ve heard is not changed any from the one formed when we saw this line up back in December. King King remain a great blues rock band. Alan Nimmo remains a great vocalist and guitar player. Brother Stevie (also a wonderful vocalist in his own right) is a great guitar player too and between them we heard some wonderful soloing. There does seem to have been a slight shift in the style of their output and to my mind that slightly heavier sound we picked up on back in December is evident again this evening. That said, King King are just as enjoyable to listen to in 2024 as they were when we first heard them nine years before and are definitely a band I’ll continue to follow and go to see again.
Musically it’s been a fantastic first full day here at Alfold albeit the weather hasn’t been as kind to us today as we’d hoped so we have some serious drying out to do at our Air BnB before we return to the site tomorrow for another full on day of rock and blues.
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