Review by Tim Marcus with photos from Sam Conquest Photography
As the summer festival season, for the two of us at least, draws towards a close, we look back fondly on one of three weekend festivals that we managed to cram into the space of just five weekends, Alfold Rock and Blues. This is the fifth consecutive year we’ve come down to the part of the country where the borders of Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire all converge, for the fifth staging of this particular festival which just seems to get better and better each year.
After last night’s “warm up” party beside the bar we’ re back bright and early on the Friday morning for the first full day of music where most of the activity will be focused on the main stage.
Opening proceedings today are local (well fairly local, they come from Woking) five piece band TR5s whom I recall seeing here a couple of years ago as part of the Thursday night warm up. Today however, for TR5s, it’s the main stage where for forty minutes they deliver us a great set of maximum skiffle and roll with musical influences from both the 1950s and 60s. They certainly look the part with a 50s style retro mic being used by songstress Rusty.
Amongst the songs we hear from TR5s today (sorry guys however the OCD in me has had to remove the apostrophe in your name as it’s grammatically incorrect!) are “Just Like That” from their brand new album, “A Triumphant Return”, “My Boy Elvis”, “Take Control” and a song about how everyone hates their manager, “Hypocrite”. We then get a couple of covers in the shape of Jake Bugg’s “Lightning Bolt” and an old Lennon and McCartney composition “Oh Darling”. They round off what has been a great opening to the first full day with “Everybody’s Screaming”, a song about Screaming Lord Sutch and conclude with “Only rock n roll will see us through”.
Next up, after a short break it’s the turn of another five piece band, Wiltshire based Sloe Train. What we get from Sloe Train is forty minutes of wonderful bass driven, heavy blues rock What I’m really enjoying about this band as the set progresses is that amongst the five on stage they have a keyboard player, Chris, who’s producing some wonderful Hammond organ type sounds that perfectly compliment the blues rock of the rest of the band.
Among the songs we hear from Sloe Train this afternoon are, “Family Man”, “Sloe Gin”, a wonderful Joe Bonamassa cover, the song which front man Pete tells us was the first song that the band ever played together and was the song that put the “Sloe” into Sloe Train. Other notable songs from the set they play today are “Some Days” and a cover of King King’s “You Stopped The Rain”.
It’s been a busy weekend already for Mark “Bomber” Random and it’s still only 2:20pm on the Friday. Having been, to all intents and purposes, the Stage Manager for last night’s warm up session alongside the bar, and acting as host and coordinator for the open mic events taking place on that stage throughout today and tomorrow, it’s now also time for him to make the first of two scheduled appearances on the Main stage today, as the bass player with our next band,
Voodoo Lake. For those not familiar with Voodoo Lake, they’re a hard rocking power trio comprising three quarters of last night’s Mick Hulme stage headliners FMOB, namely the aforementioned Mark “Bomber” Random on bass, James Fileman on drums and backing vocals, and front man Dave Strange on vocals and guitar. It’s a great forty minute set of blues infused heavy rock which amongst other things contains a couple of ZZ Top covers, the most notable of which is “Beer Drinkers and Hellraisers” however my favourite track from the set we hear this afternoon is “Turn it Up”, a great little track with a vocal that to my ear has the sound of a punk version of Blackberry Smoke’s Charlie Starr whilst musically it has me in mind of some of the studio outtakes that never actually made it into songs when Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore was messing around with ideas in the recording studio and have since been included in part as “extras” on remastered versions of some MkII Deep Purple albums…but I digress! As always it’s been a great little set from Voodoo Lake but sadly it comes to an end as it’s time for “Bomber” to make another quick costume change!
That costume change is to facilitate Bomber’s next appearance on the Main stage which follows just twenty minutes after Voodoo Lake have departed it. This time, he’s on bass playing duty with our next band, those wonderful rapscallions, Soho Dukes. The Dukes are a six piece band fronted by the archetypal cockney villain, Johnny Barracuda accompanied by Si Leach on lead guitar, Col “The Duke” Foster on rhythm guitar and “Swerve” on keyboards. Backing this up and holding things together while these gentlemen are creating all sorts of mayhem on stage is the splendid rhythm section comprising Bomber on bass guitar and Age “’appy ‘ammer” Blackwell on drums. All in all, as well as being wonderful musicians,
Soho Dukes are a fun goodtime band and whether you’re familiar with their music or not, as the next fifty five minutes proves to everyone here, when you see and hear them perform it’s simply impossible not to smile as they blend maximum RnB, Pub rock and Punk, into one great big melting pot. If you’re not familiar with this group of rascals then think The Sex Pistols meet The Blockheads and you won’t be far off the mark. It’s fun times ahead for Soho Dukes too as in addition to their usual book of festival and pub gigs over the next few weeks, come the end of November/Early December they’ll be out on the road as support to the legendary Quireboys as they embark on a short Winter tour. Don’t say you haven’t been warned!
The next band to take to the stage is one that I’ve not come across before however are aware of them by reputation and as such am really looking forward to this next set. Sam Kelly is a self taught drummer who’s been playing professionally for over forty years.
Aside from playing with his own band, Cymande, back in the early seventies, Sam has also undertaken the stool and stick duties with many great musicians and performers including, Chaka Khan, Eddie Floyd, Percy Sledge, Ben E King, Robert Plant, Roger Chapman, Billy Ocean and Gary Moore, to name but just a few! Somehow, whilst working with these illustrious names, Sam also finds the time to work with his own band, a funky four piece outfit going by the name of Station House and that’s who we’re about to see next.
It’s a great set and the perfect opportunity for people to get their breath back after what’s just gone before as we get a wonderful fifty minute set of laid back, jazzed up, funky blues with a little bit of a reggae beat thrown in for good measure. It’s a great set, the stand out songs for me being “Tripping Over The Wire”, a cover of Robert Cray’s “The Forecast Calls For Pain” and another cover and crowd sing-along favourite, “Ain’t No Love In The Heat of the City”.
Next up is another Alfold debutant but a name that’s probably very familiar with those here from the contemporary blues rock community. Over the past couple of years, Alice Armstrong has received multiple nominations and awards for her impressive and versatile vocal performance and this afternoon she brings it to the Alfold stage for the first time. Accompanying Alice today are regular band mates, Josh Rigal (bass) and Olly Knight-Smith (guitar) along with deputising drummer Don Bannister who’s been filling in for Alice while regular drummer Kev Hickman’s been helping out Beaux Gris Gris and the Apocalypse on their current UK tour.
Unsurprisingly it’s a great set from Alice and her band as she kicks things off with “Upbeat Baby”, a song from a couple of years ago with a powerful vocal that tells the story of how Alice was indoctrinated into music from a very young age. A new song “Strawberry Moon” follows before we hear “Punchline”, one of the tracks from her recently released album/EP, “Fury and Euphoria”. We also hear “Good Love”, an upbeat and rocking track which Alice tells us is going to be the next single from her recent release. The wonderful “Life I Choose”, a song that she co wrote with bassist Josh Rigal is next before Alice delivers a wonderful, slowed down, ballad like version of the Cher hit “Bang Bang”.
As most people will be aware, former Catfish vocalist and guitarist Matt Long sadly passed away back in October at the age of just 29 following a twenty month battle with a rare and aggressive cancer. Alice is the first of a number of artists this weekend to pay tribute to Matt as she introduces her next song, her first single, and a song co written with Matt, and one that he frequently performed on stage with her, the very catchy sing along, “Speed Dial”. Finally, Alice closes out what has been a great set with another of her earlier songs, “Your Guess”, a song she tells us is about having no money.
The day has really flown by and already we’re down to the final three bands of the day. The first of those will be very familiar to the Alfold regulars as making their fourth appearance here in as many years are the highly talented Zac Schulze Gang, like Alice before them, with multiple nominations and awards within the blues rock community, these three talented young men from the Medway area of Kent are a powerful blues rock trio. Comprising of Zac himself on guitar and most of the vocals, his brother Ben on drums, and Ant Greenwell on bass and occasional vocals they get straight into it with a frantic high energy set. Zac is an absolute virtuoso with a guitar in his hand and a pretty decent vocalist too while rhythm sections don’t come any more powerful than the combined energies of Ant and Ben. Amongst the great tracks we hear from the threesome today are “Hole in My Pocket”, a song Zac tells us was written about Ant’s spending habits, and a great cover of Rufus Thomas’s “Walking the Dog”, not a song you hear many bands do.
Those who’ve read my reviews before will be aware that one of my disappointments with this particular band (if in fact it is possible to be disappointed with such precocious talent) is the small percentage of self penned material that they include in their set. Even with a live album and a couple of EPs/singles to their credit, their song choices remain biased towards covers rather than their own material. That said, their choice of cover songs can’t be faulted: they’re not the sort of songs that you hear from every other covers band you see down at your local on a Friday night. The song choices are clearly well thought out and more importantly are excellently delivered. As the set continues, amongst others we also hear Dr Feelgood’s “She Does It Right” and their latest single release, “The Rocker”, a great little song that demonstrates that vocally they can also come across as very melodic as well as hard rocking.
I don’t think it’s any secret that one of Zac’s greatest influences is Rory Gallagher and as always there are a couple of Rory covers in the set, the first of which we hear next, “I Take What I Want”. Next we hear a great version of “Hellhound on My Trail” a song originally recorded some 88 years ago by the Grandfather of Blues Rock, Robert Johnson. Next, bass man Ant Greenwell takes over the vocals for an old Lieber and Stoller song called “Framed” recorded by amongst others Richie Valens and The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. They conclude this great high energy set with another Rory Gallagher cover, “Messin’ With The Kid” which is mashed up with the always popular Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well”.
Next to entertain us is the penultimate artist of the day, Jo Harman who’s filling what is now generally referred to on a festival billing as the special guest slot. In terms of expectations I imagine that that is quite a difficult spot to fill for a female vocalist who’s appearing on the same festival billing as Alice Armstrong and even more so when your appearing on the same day as the aforementioned songstress, and less than two hours since she’s left the stage but it’s not a challenge she’s about to shy away from.
Jo Harman is an English, soulful blues singer songwriter with two studio albums to her credit and like some of the other artists we’ve seen today, also has multiple blues awards nominations to her credit. Since beginning her career back in 2008, as well as working with members of The Average White Band, early on, she’s also opened for The Cranberries in front of five and half thousand people and has also worked with Michael MacDonald who featured on the first single released from her 2017 album “People We Become”.
She opens tonight’s set with a great cover of the Isley Brothers’ “Summer Breeze” which sets the tone for the remainder of her time on the stage today. Amongst other songs we hear from Jo are “Yes We Can Can”, a song that was a US chart hit for the Pointer Sisters back in the early seventies. We also get a cover of Donny Hathaway’s “Some Day We’ll All Be Free”. Overall the set from Jo today is very laid back and very mellow, perhaps even too mellow for this stage in the festival.
There’s no doubting the quality of Jo’s vocal however you can’t help but feel her placement on the bill at this stage in the day has taken a little bit of the pace out of proceedings given what has gone before and as we now head toward our Friday night headliner. I don’t want to detract at all from Jo’s performance; as I have said, she’s a top quality singer however the general pace and nature of her set seems to have more of a Sunday afternoon feel to it than penultimate act of the Friday night.
Talking of which, it’s now time for tonight’s headliners, their second consecutive headline appearance at Alfold and their third appearance here in four years, the fabulous Nine Below Zero. This good time rhythm and blues band, a British Blues Brothers if you like, is fronted by founding member, the legendary Dennis Greaves on guitar and vocals along with the wonderful Mark Feltham on harmonica. Nine Below Zero have had a number of incarnations and different band members over the years however tonight they are a four piece and accompanying Dennis and Mark is a rhythm section comprising Dennis’s son, Sonny on drums, and bass player Anthony Harty
They kick their set off as they often do with a wonderful version of “I Can’t Help Myself” the song popularised by The Four Tops and this is quickly followed by Marvin Gaye’s “Can I Get A Witness”. Mark’s harmonica playing is stand out and is front and centre of a large number of the songs we hear from the band tonight which also includes “Ridin’ on the L&N” and the always popular “Wooly Bully”. I have to be honest and say that I’ve never been that familiar with their material however one thing I can say is that whenever I do see Nine Below Zero I’ve always come away having had a great time and with a smile on my face and tonight is no exception. It’s been seventy minutes of pure unadulterated Blues Power!
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