Popa Chubby UK Tour March with added VATA

Great gig at the Beaverwood last night. Virgil opened up proceedings with a rampant set and encored with the now familiar Johnny B Goode, Hendrix stylie.

Blues legend Chubby, was airing tracks from his new album, The Fight is On and threw in the customary Hendrix covers of Hey Joe, Little Wing and a short Red House to beat the 11 pm curfew. His banter between songs engages the audience nicely and he sure knows how to play. Go see him if you get the chance, before he heads back to NYC.............

I caught up with the tour on Friday in Edinburgh. The Voodoo Rooms was an interesting venue with decorative ceilings, not the usual place for a blues rock gig, however it did fill up nicely. Virgil and the boys showed non of their off stage tiredness on stage and played a very good set. This included a couple of their own compositions, Had To Cry Today, the pulsating version of Couldn't Stop the Weather and Voodoo Chile. The crowd and promoter were very much impressed as was I. Virgil is clearly an excellent guitarist with a great feel to his playing, Tom was solid and Gabe on the drums is superb for his tender years. I do feel there is a need to get some more songs, if possible before the May tour with Oli and Jo, as while Voodoo Chile is a great work out, it's maybe a little bit long for a 40 minute support slot. I'd love to hear Virgil play a slow blues number and then a short impact song to complete the set. Just my suggestion! My friend commented that both SRV numbers were from the same album too, he must think Virgil only has the one (Martin I told you about him!)

As for Popa Chubby, the turn over was really quick and he jumped (clambered) on stage wearing a Scottish tammy hat which he wore for the first two numbers. The song choice illustrated what blues rock means, firstly we got Howling Wolf's Killing Floor and then Motorhead's Ace of Spades. Following these with an instrumental, I did wonder if he was planning to promote his new album or not? There were some Chubby diehards at the front as as the stage at thigh height was just infront of them and he was happily giving them high fives as he played his set. I was holding a beer rather than a pen but I do recall Locked In A Memory was a new song aired as was Rock & Roll Is My Religion, we got a few Hendrix numbers thrown in too, and others I was not so familar with, but Popa did not quite do it for me overall, some were a little too generic. His set closer strangely was a drum routine, before he returned to the stage for the sleazy guitarless tune Sweat (wish he'd played more from Booty & The Beast). A good entertaining night, good to see a decent turnout, catch up with Martin and the boys, and happy to catch up with trdb, Lavina and Born In Hell from the forum. Ultimately though like Walter Trout, Popa Chubby is probably best seen every couple of years rather than annually!