My other half and I were there
Started out Thursday night at 11pm 5 hour trip to Dover, 2 hour crossing to Dunkirk, 5 hour drive to Peer (supposed to be 3 hours but took a wrong turning on the ringroad and ended up in Antwerp town centre - an experience I don't want to repeat, driving over cobbles, tram lines....)
Then the pop-up tent went up and got staked down (airbeds, pillows, the works) then off to the festival we went
Friday night we saw Moonshine Reunion (not really our cup of tea) then an amazing band from the Netherlands called Wolfpin, otherwise the itinerary was pretty so so, had an early night, totally pooped - Joe how do you do these long journeys on an almost everyday basis?
Saturday - a scarey Scottish bloke with absolutely no voice, just a mouthfull of gravel (Dave Arcari), a brilliant band from the Netherlands called the Shiner Twins (one of whom had the most gorgeous voice), Hokie Joint (an english band (embarrassingly so) with a singer who thought he was fronting Oasis but on speed), an unforgettably bad experience called Rod Piazza and the mighty flyers (a shiny guy with a shiny smile, a girl who plays keys with her toes (go figure!) no! no! no!), a pleasant surprise in Lisa Hayley and the Zydekats (a late substitution playing cajun - nice!) then the man himself JOE BONAMASSA! bearing up well but already suffering from the "plague" by then I think (a few low vocal substitutions which I just thought were to make it more bluesy (it being a blues fest) but looking back were an early sign of Joe's poorly larynx) - a brilliant set and the band were all on top of things too... great showmanship from Bogie with the drumstick toss and from Joe despite him feeling I suspect like S*** at the time having had a long journey to be there etc - we were up front near the stage but waded out through the crowd because we heard a rumour that Joe was signing stuff (I guess he just felt too rough though as after 1/2 hour and hearing Steve Winwood starting we gave up and waded back as far as we could to watch a blinding set by Steve)
Puzzle for the day - Joe why did you have your sign taken down? Just being a rebel like Beck or logistics?
Sunday - got up late and missed the hot water in the showers, first offering seen was Roger McGuinn who had to give the stage crew a kick up the backside and ended up setting up his own kit - great set, The Derek Trucks band was totally amazing - he can really play that guitar - it makes me hanker for Joe to play more slide (I know he could top Derek no probs), brilliant backing band with a great black (Politically correctness?) singer with a wonderfully expressive vocal talent, John Mayall with great guitarist in tow...not really my cup of tea though, Earsplitting action from Southside Jhonny and the Asbury Jukes (one to miss at all costs i'm afraid) - I stood there with my fingers in my ears all the way through rather than lose my place near the front for Jeff Beck but it really was thunderously loud distorted and just not nice - louder is not always better IMHO - then Jeff (bliss) by which time my feet were on fire from standing up for practically three days solid (must be getting old!) - Beck was amazing and played a similar set to the previous month at Birmingham Symphony Hall - totally uncompromising with a heavy Jazz tinge... great, great, great.
Tired journey home - 900 plus miles driving in total whew! A stroll in the park for some of you guys but for me that was a lot of driving (I only do about 3K all year normally and all that on the left hand side of the road)
Vicky
"Stellar" a word used by Joe Bonamassa (also apt as a description of the man himself
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