Hand of Latham

This one has been a long time coming, but here are a few shots from the Colne R&B festival that took place last month.

The gig consisted of an hour long SW set followed by another jam session, this time featuring Tommy Allen of Trafficker and Chantel McGregor. Check out the gallery below for some shots from the gig, thanks goto Tony @ BluesPics

Sean Webster

My Second gig during the Maryport Blues Festival was with my old band mate Sean Webster. Three years ago I played the same festival with Sean, we had a headline slot in the Civic Hall. During the day Sean arranged with some of the other artists also playing the festival a small jam session on stage after our show. This year the organizers asked sean to put together another jam session as part of the main stage program.

The Sean Webster band kicked the show off, we were then joined by our first special guest, Jon Amor. Starting with Jon’s Hard Hat into Can’t Keep Living Like This followed with a jammed track started by Jon.

Giles King

Highway Man – Sean Webster Band Featuring Giles King & Jon Amor

We were then joined by Stuart Dixon (Guitar) and Giles King (Harmonica). I had met Stewart once before at one of his shows with his regular gig ‘Marcus Malone’. Giles on the other hand I had met many times before but had never had the privilege of sharing the stage with him. Using a wireless kit, Giles Made his entrance to the stage from the back of the crowd playing the intro to ‘Automatic’. Stuart then led the band into Kenny Wayne Shepards Loving Kind.

Loving Kind – Featuring Stuart Dixon, Giles King & Jon Amor

Here is a clip from the slow blues, featuring solos from Giles and Jon with Sean taking the lead vocal.

Throughout the show more musicians appeared on stage, including Mark Barrett (Drums), Dave Doherty (Guitar), Joel Fisk (Guitar).

L-R Jay Tamkin, Sean Webster, Joel Fisk, Stuart Dixon, Giles King, Phil Wilson, Tom Latham, Jon Amor, Dave Doherty

Have You Ever Loved A Woman – Featuring Giles King, Dave Doherty & Joel Fisk

The whole festival was recorded by the BBC for a two hour special Paul Jones show to be aired on the 31st of August. It will be available on the BBC iPlayer for 7 days after airing. You can link to it HERE

I really enjoyed the whole set, it was a pleasure to play with all of those guys. Its something I hope to do again someday.

For more about the artists mentioned here check out:

Sean Webster

Jon Amor

Hokie Joint

Stuart Dixon

Thanks go to Tony at Bluespics.co.uk and Anna Sailsbury for the use of the pictures.

The Sean Webster band was asked to host a Musicians drop-in centre at the Northumbria University followed by a show at the Sage Venue in Gateshead.

During a tour of Holland with Sean Webster one of our scheduled stops was at the Giethoorn Blues Festival in northern Holland. As luck would have it this stop coincided with a gig the HandmeDowns had planned. There is no easy way to negotiate your way around this place unless you own a boat! There are waterways connecting everything including the main stage! All of our equipment had to be loaded into a ferry boat.  The Handmedowns were due on the main (floating stage)at around 9 followed by Sean on another stage a mile away! I managed to secure the help of a friendly Dutch boatman who agreed to ferry me and my equipment to the other stage for my gig with Sean! 

This was the best journey to a gig I have ever had! Still buzzing from the gig with the HandmeDowns I loaded my stuff and myself into the boat, bid my farewells and sped across the lake to another venue with just enough time to place my amp on the stage, plug in and play!