Great Scot! Top acts slide into Tyneside
LATER this month, the Cluny will play host to the first Ouseburn Rock and Blues festival, incorporating a couple of venues and over a dozen acts.
Over the weekend of August 25-26 the Cluny provides the evening headliners (which are ticketed shows) but the Tyne Bar is included in the attractive two-day event, with indoor and outdoor free stages, starting at noon on each day, just a short walk away.
The Saturday headliners at the Cluny are all Scottish acts – the Stevie Nimmo Trio, Gerry Jablonski Band and Dave Arcari – with a range of styles from Arcari’s slide-driven delta-blues to rockabilly work, to the drive of Jablonski’s quartet and Nimmo’s trio.
Singer/guitarist Stevie Nimmo – his brother Alan fronts another blues-rock band, King King – recently had a fall from his mountain bike and suffered a broken humerus which prevents him from playing guitar, however it does not prevent him from singing!
Young hotshot guitarist Dave Devlin has been winning accolades deputising on lead guitar on Stevie’s recent European tour, so the band should be well rehearsed for this gig. Nimmo’s last album, Sky Won’t Fall (Manhaton Records, released in 2016) won him universal praise.
Down at the Tyne Bar on Saturday, the popular watering hole offers Broken Levee, Mike Ross Band and How Askew Band as free afternoon entertainment. Those wishing to make a day of it can walk up to the Cluny later on to catch the established acts.
Sunday presents another triple bill in the Cluny with Belfast’s Simon McBride and his trio taking the headline slot. McBride, much sought-after as a lead guitarist when not fronting his own outfit, started young, turning professional at the age of 16.
Initially, he filled the sizeable shoes of Vivian Campbell in Sweet Savage (who later joined Dio and Def Leppard) before joining the Commitments touring band with vocalist Andrew Strong. He was also hand-picked to tour with fret-melter-in-chief Joe Satriani, then other major-league players like Carlos Santana, Buddy Guy, Joe Bonamassa, Derek Trucks and Jeff Beck. Pretty impressive company by any indicator!
The publicity machine was quick to pick up on the fact that McBride was the latest in the line of iconic Irish guitarists in the wake of Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore, however he is no copy of either.
More recently, McBride has toured extensively with ex-Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan, when he assumed the role of Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore. The tour played to huge crowds across Europe and included a gig in the Kremlin Palace, no less.
The Deep Purple connection was further embellished when he joined keyboardist Don Airey on his band’s UK/European tour. McBride obviously made a huge impression because he followed that with a UK/European tour with the Whitesnake offshoot, Snakecharmer.
Despite all that, McBride is back in the spotlight fronting his own trio – Dave Marks (bass) and Marty McCloskey (drums) – and his own albums have drawn high praise from the music critics, no mean feat when you consider the guitar giants who have preceded him.
Guitarist magazine described his fretwork as “among the best bluesrock players anywhere in the world”. He is sponsored by Paul Reed Smith (PRS) guitars, the world’s leading independent guitar builder.
McBride’s four albums to date have underlined his reputation as a writer and singer as well as his much-vaunted axe-work. He has a new album scheduled for early 2019.
Also on the Sunday night Cluny bill are Birmingham-based guitarist/ singer Tom C Walker, and the keyboards/vocals of Dan Burnett.
The Tyne Bar has another triple lineup on Sunday and all three are names well-known to local audiences. Mitch
Laddie and his band are joined by Auld Man’s Baccie’s Herbal Remedy and George Shovlin and the Radars.
The Cluny also has visiting Americans – and Cluny regulars – Rev Peyton’s Big Damn Band, on Sunday August 19.
The trio’s raucous blues-based material drips with sweat and attitude, summed-up by the venerable American Living Blues magazine as the “tent revival, almost punk energy of the Big Damn Band is a refreshing splash of cold water to the face.
Between The Ditches (their 2012 album) doesn’t keep it in the road – it takes up both lanes as it barrels along.”
The threesome of the Rev, Breezy (his wife) and percussionist Max really do know how to propel their blues bandwagon with a high-octane mix of slide-guitar, washboard and a range of impromptu percussion items, which may well have been rescued from some derelict bayou shack.
It is a glorious energy-packed rampage which never fails to swell its congregation with every tubthumping outing.