Glasgow, Scotland. Sunday 17-November-2024.
Sunday morning it was a healthy (?) breakfast of square sausage in a bun and then BIL George very kindly gave us a lift in to central Glasgow for today’s event.
Òran Mór is an interesting venue in a converted church and the festival was held in the crypt.
We couldn’t find the timetable online but it was up on the wall when we arrived.
The Lynsey Dolan Band were headed up by the eponymous, red haired, rock chick, Lynsey Dolan looking like a Scottish Bonnie Rait.
I noticed that the drummer was playing a drum kit with Bison Hip written on the big drum so presumably not playing their own kit.
This prompted me to ask my nephew Chris who is the drummer with Dutty Moonshine Big Band:
“Hi Chris. A question for you. How often do drummers have to play somebody else’s kit? We are at a blues festival and the drum kit clearly belongs to the second band because of the name on the front. But the first band were using their kit. Presumably because it’s too much effort to change over drum kits. Is there a standard layout for drum kits? Or is it like picking up a hire car? Check out the indicators, lights and gearstick arrangement, then off you go. “
His reply:
"Hi Mark. Ha! Great question. Yep you pretty much guessed it, at festivals usually there’s not enough time to be precious about these things, we’re all in it together. And yes in the vast majority of cases a drummer’s needs are the same as the next guy. Depending on the size of the festival and how much cash they’ve got for production there will be a hire kit as the default. Then as you get towards the headliners they will be using their own gear because it’s more important they sound closer to how they want to sound. Plus they’ll be granted more faff about time."
This shows you what the back of the venue looks like up by the bar area where the customers were chattering away, unlike the more respectful audience on the Saturday. At our table were a couple of mature ladies who talked continuously for several hours. As they had kindly let us sit on a couple of seats that they were reserving for their late arriving friends I didn’t feel I could tell them to STFU!
Bison Hip were the second act who we saw at Blackpool back in January and enjoyed so we were happy to see them on the lineup.
Gerry Jablonski Band were third up and were much more blues with a man on the harp. You can’t beat a bit of blues harmonica. I never understand how playing the harmonica works because the holes are very tiny so I assume you’re always playing a chord as you move your mouth left or right along the mouthpiece. We were told that the singer was relatively new but it certainly did not show - a great set!
Xander and the Peace Pirates were a full rocking band featuring a drummer and four guitarists. Notably the front man was one-armed and plays with a prosthetic hand holding a guitar pick. This did not stop from him playing some great rocking blues. Learn more on YouTube: How I Learned To Play The Guitar With My Hook.
We were sure the guitarist on the right was Italian partly because of his looks but mainly because he played the whole set wearing a scarf. Òran Mór was quite chilly and the Italians have a fear of “colpa d’aria” catching a cold or other ailments if you don’t keep your neck warm.
This time we did get into Café Andaluz having learnt from Saturday night and made a booking for an early supper. We timed it so we could see the first half of Xander and the Peace Pirate’s set and the second half of Stevie Nimmo.
Stevie Nimmo was a much more introspective style of singer-songwriter. A kind of musical palette cleanser between the more bluesy acts.
Dom Martin & Band featured some serious guitar playing from the front man. To my mind there are two distinct categories of guitarist: those that basically play chords and those that whose fingers fly all over the fret board. I know nothing about guitar playing technique but the latter seem to be much more accomplished musicians capable and more sophisticated style of playing.
Dom is from Belfast and has been compared to both Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore. In response to requests from the crowd, he said that he did not normally play covers and had not had time to learn the requested songs but then proceeded to play Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing”.
The headline act we got a full hour and a half of full tilt boogie blues right up to the 10 o’clock curfew. Dom’s music this night was more upbeat and rocking than when heard him at Skegness in 2023. We purchased his latest album and discovered a mixture: some like this festival and some more intense and downbeat numbers like Skegness.
All in all a good selection of bands most of whom were Scottish so the festival was well named.
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