Second Emsworth Blues Festival kicks off six months of music

Although artistic director Mark Ringwood bemoans the lack of available female blues artists capable of headlining the festival, he’s delighted to have secured The Deborah Bonham Band for the Friday evening. Jamaican-born harmonica player Errol Linton and his band will play the Saturday evening. There will also be free concerts in The Coal Exchange, and The Crown Inn on the Saturday afternoon features Mark Harrison, Dino Baptiste and The Hot Tone Sinners.

Mark said: “Deborah Bonham and Pete Bullick were at WemsFest last year for the first Emsworth January Blues Festival and you don’t want to miss them this time.

“Deborah is regarded as one of the finest blues, rock and soul singers the UK has produced and has given a number of critically acclaimed original albums and outstanding concert performances from London’s legendary 100 Club to the prestigious Royal Albert Hall. She has also played USA arenas with Paul Rodgers and Jeff Beck to the island of Malta with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and Robert Plant. They have all garnered glowing reviews in the blues, rock and folk press.

“Pete Bullick, brought up on Rory Gallagher concerts at Belfast’s Ulster Hall and long-time Bonham-Bullick Band guitarist, is lauded by the press for his passionate and soulful playing. Pete made such an impression on the Free and Bad Company front man Paul Rodgers that Paul selected Pete and the rest of the Bonham-Bullick Band to back him on both his 2017 Free Spirit tour of the UK and the 2018 USA Stars Align Tour, culminating in the Billboard Chart number two live album and BluRay Paul Rodgers Free Spirit (Quarto Valley Records).”

Tickets are available from: Bookends, and Harbour Records in Emsworth, and online through wegottickets.com. Further information is available from wemsfest.com.

Mark added: “Celtic music features heavily from mid-February to mid-June with Brighde Chaimbeul (February 23), McGoldrick, McCusker & Doyle (February 29), Best Scottish Band winners Blazin' Fiddles (March 7), Aly Bain & Phil Cunningham (March 22), Imar (April 13), Steve Wickham & Ray Coen (May 11), and Flook (June 7). As always a WemsFest programme is suitably eclectic and this one is no exception. Alt-country musicians My Darling Clementine appear in The Old Malthouse, Chidham (February 4), and the same venue hosts bluesman Ian Siegal-Berry (March 2) and US Appalachian/bluegrass musicians Golden Shoals (June 12). DJ's Richard 'Tricky' Marsh and Martin Jackson present The Soul Train in Westbourne Community Hall (February 17), guitarist Martin Simpson plays The Lens in Portsmouth Guildhall (March 17). Geordie folk-rockers Lindisfarne play St James Church in Emsworth (April 6), and the same venue hosts a date on the 30th anniversary tour by Feast of Fiddles (April 19). The 12-strong line-up includes members of Show of Hands, Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention. Several of the finest West African musicians working in London make-up The London Astrobeat Orchestra who present an evening showcasing afrobeat vibes.”