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The English version of this website can be found here

 

Rockin` the Vallemaggia Magic Blues Festival

A rolling stone gathers no moss. This is true not only for the Rolling Stones themselves (by the way: did you know, that two of whom have supported Steve Gibbons as vocalists in a very special concert?), but also for the Brum rocker Steve Gibbons. Despite pandemic-related difficulties, he performed with the all-star band „British Blues and Rock Explosion“ at the 19th Vallemaggia Magic Blues Festival in Italian-speaking Switzerland on 29 July.

Vallemagia is small but fine open-air festival that presentes national and international blues performers at various of the most beautiful and impressive village squares in the Vallemaggia.

The audience got to hear standards from international rock music that the band had already offered in Bavaria and Slovenia in autumn 2019, before the virus paralysed international concert life, but also things such as Neil Young’s „Rockin`in the Free World“, a song that took on a whole new meaning in this summer days in which the virus allows freedoms that were otherwise unattainable in recent months.

The gig is to the credit of Ray Frick, who not only graciously unobtrusively but energetically pulls the strings in the background as organiser, but as a full-blooded musician also frequently provides musical support on stage and during rehearsals for the bands he books.

For Steve, the gig in Switzerland also brought a reunion with an old companion: this time, the bass was played by Roger Innes, who, as bassist of the Steve Gibbons Band, played on their live album „On The Loose“, among others.

Other band members were, as in 2019, George Glover from the Climax Blues Band on keyboards, Pete „Sarge“ Frampton of the band The Escape Committee on guitar, Bavarian accordion player „Dackel“ Hirmer and on drums, Tom Diewock (jazz award winner and drummer with Blues Hunt).

After the concert which was celebrated by the fans, the band members had to deal with problems and delays on their return journey because of the pandemic. The record holder in this respect was Pete „Sage“ Frampton (Please do not confuse him with the guitarist of almost the same name from the 1970s with the very curly hair. Today Pete „Sage“ clearly has longer hair than his almost name cousin Peter Frampton). He was stuck for several days before he could fly back to his native British Channel Island. Pragmatic as he is, he made good use of the waiting time. (We will report on this in a separate article).

Steve Gibbons, with whom we spoke on the phone the other day, was particularly impressed by the atmosphere of the festival and the beautiful mountains and lakes of the valley.

He also told us that he will soon be playing in a completely different, equally picturesque part of Europe, this time with his own band. We will report on this in more detail.

All pictures are courtesy of Ray Frick

Steve celebrated his return to the stage after two years isolation due to COVID 19 some days before when he played The Station in Brum before a restricted audience of 40 peoples on 18th July.

All pictures are courtesy of Ray Frick

Neueste Beiträge:

„Rockin` in the Free World“ with Steve Gibbons & Co.

Uli Twelker on Steve Gibbons lyrics as school reading/Uli Twelker über Steve Gibbons Songs als Schullektüre

Steve Gibbons turns 80

(Eine deutsche Fassung dieses Betrags findet sich hier.)

Steve Gibbons, about whom it was often written during the most successful period of his career in the 1970s that he could have gone far because of his talent if he wasn’t already so old turns 80.

From today’s perspective, when the Stones and Paul McCartney (there are links to both in Gibbons‘ career) are still rocking the arenas, if Corona doesn’t play the spoilsport, this seems like a clear case of age discrimination. Jethro Tull (Steve played with a Jethro Tull member in the same band as well as with later members of the Wings, YES, The Plastic Ono Band and ELO) once put it this way: „You’re never too old to rock ’n‘ roll if you’re too young to die.“

Anyone who has seen Gibbons shortly before the pandemics at the age of 78 with the British Blues Explosion, which had only just been assembled, live in Germany or Slovenia will agree: Even on the threshold of the ninth decade of life, one can still deliver a damn good show and unite joy of playing, spontaneous fabulosity and experience into a total work of art.

But how do you describe Steve Gibbons to someone who is (at least) half a century younger than him?

There are several ways to approach this:

• On the one hand, there is the story of a contemporary witness (one could also say: a second winner), that is, of someone who has seen a lot and many in his career, and who has performed with many other musicians in various bands.And had to experience that some who had less ability and charisma had a much greater career.

• Secondly, there is an author who on the one hand not only – „Love and Theft“ says hello – transfers the schemes and narratives of Chuck Berry and Bob Dylan into his own contexts, but in his best moments also combines the iceberg technique of Hemingway (in which only circumstances surrounding the actual events are reported, making the latter all the more vividly visible before the listener’s eyes) with the stereo (or should we say: mono?) types of Raymon Chandler and an acting skill that puts all these things together into a one-person drama.

• But above all, there is a musician who has created an oeuvre that is bursting with diversity, but unfortunately was only sporadically available in continental Europe after the beginning of the 1980s. Here you can find straight rock (which came across even more dynamically in the live concerts: to be able to play two encores as the opening act for The Who in front of an audience of 10,000 – great job that), wonderful ballads, sprinklings of British folk, reggae and jazz. And with „Chasing Tales“, a mature work that even surpasses the highly praised last works of Steve Gibbons‘ guiding star Bob Dylan in terms of consistency, but above all vocally.

• And then there’s the painter and tinkerer who designs his own record covers, the bibliotphile, the alert mind with a great sense of humour during backstage and after-show conversations.

Many facets that we trace on this website – or at least try to do so.

For today we are hosting, unfortunately only virtually, a big party in a hot club in Dreamland. And it might look like this:

Down the Road Apiece, Chuck parked his car, between a B.S.A. and a Triumph Boneville, just in time before Any Road Up was closed for the Street Parade. Buddy and the Tupelo Flash, who both gave their lives to Rock`n`Roll, made it from Down in the City not in an Idle Race, but by bus, not without being admonished by the driver not to spit as long as he is holding the wheel.

Johnny Cool sniffs at a package in which he suspects „Love Potion No. 9“, while Velda tells Eddy Vortex about jazz but actually wants to do The Natural Thing with him. Tulane has closed her Novellty Store today and is enjoying American & British Rock`n`Roll at this Social Dance where there is all kinds of music but guaranteed no synthesiser, because it had been stolen and the mailbox is locked. Those who want it a little quieter chat brought up the chairs, but not the problems.

Now Mr Jones, Grace, Manjana and Big J. are sitting together with One Of The Boys not Down in the Bunkers, but somwehere Home from Home, Watching the River Flow, knowing it will be Alright Till the Fire Burns Out.

 

Donegan is gone: Todestag von Lonnie Donegan:

Am 3. November  2002 starb in Petersborough, England, Lonnie Dongean, der Musiker wie die Beatles, Rory Gallagher und Steve Gibbons beeinflusst hat.

P.J. Wright (Marathon-Man an der Gitarre neben Steve Gibbons in dessen eigener Band und dann bei The Dylan Project) und Dave Pegg (erst Mit Steve bei The Ugly`s, dann bei Fairport Convention und Jethro Tull, schließlich ebenfalls bei The Dylan Project) haben eine Hommage auf Donegan aufgenommen, die sich hier findet:

Das Original dieses Songs stammt von Mark Knopfler.

Von PJ Wrights neuesten musikalischen Aktivitäten werden wir bald an dieser Stelle berichten.

Stay tuned! Come Back again!

• Zurück zu den Anfängen: „Brum Rocked“ von Laurie Hornsby erscheint (1999)
• Steve Gibbons Band live am 6. September 2020 in Birmingham.
• The Dylan Project: Steve Gibbons und Dave Pegg machen sich und allen Dylan-Fans ein Weihnachtsgeschenk (1997)
• Von Birmingham über die Isle of Man nach Memphis (1991 bis 1993)
• Auch eine Art „Chasing Tales“: Bob Dylans „Rough and Rawdy Ways“/Zwei Kritiken zum Album „Chasing Tales“ der Steve Gibbons Band (Uli Twelker und unser eigener Text)
• Steve Gibbons und die Beatles
• Archeopderix, Bambi, Rock`n`Roll

Hier finden Sie Informationen  zur Karriere des Musikers Steve Gibbons sowie aktuelle Informationen. Dies in folgenden Rubriken:

Die Steve Gibbons Story

• Wer ist Steve Gibbons ? (Zitate über und Kritiken zu Steve Gibbons)

• Die Steve Gibbons-Story (Leben und Karriere, nach Jahrzehnten gegliedert, von den 1940ern bis heute)

• • Die 1940er: Birmingham Blitz und ungeliebter Musikunterricht
  • Die 1950er:  Elvis enters the Building
  • Die 1960er: Vom Beat über Psychedelia zum Rock: Mitten drin in der Szene  von „Brum“ – und ein Hit in Australien, der kein Geld einbringt
    
  • Die 1970er: Das Erfolgsjahrzehnt: Zuerst gescheiterte Supergroup, dann das erste Soloalbum, die SGB entsteht, „Tulane“ in den Charts, Welttour mit The Who
  • Die 1980er:   Rockin`all over the GDR: Als erste weiße westliche Rockband auf Tournee in der DDR, Auftritt im Rockpalast, „On stage“ mit George Harrison
  • Die 1990er:  Rockin`all over Europe, „Radio Silence“ unterbricht Funkstille, Pilgerfahrt nach Memphis und Comeback mit dem Dylan Project
  • Die 2000er In den Abbey Road Studios mit Elvis-Gitarrist Scooty More und zwei Rolling Stones
  • Die 2010er: Großbritannien, Deutschland, Skandinavien: Still on the Road und Erfolg zuhause mit „Brum Rocks“

• Vermischtes. Dazu gehören:

  • Die Platten (Wir nennen das nach wie vor so, also Alben und Singles auf Vinyl und als CD. Auch DVDs finden sich hier.)
  • Steve Gibbons live (Ankündigungen von Auftritten und Konzertkritiken, aber auch Informationen über Fernsehauftritte und Konzertmitschnitte)
  • Weiterführende Quellen (links und Literatur zu Steve Gibbons und der Birminghamer Rockszene)
  • Verwandte Themen

Ältere Nachrichten

Steve Gibbons Band auf den Spuren der Rolling Stones – Live im Half Moon in Putney

„Alte Katzen“ rocken Maribor

Die „Mittelbayerische Zeitung“ erinnert an Auftritt der Steve Gibbons Band 1981 in Regensburg

– „Bad News on the doorstep“: Die Band The Dylan Project hat sich aufgelöst.

– Autobiographie von Dave Pegg  würdigt Steve Gibbons

Die neuesten Beiträge der Steve Gibbons-Story:

Funkstille, Dunkelheit und Lichtblicke in Hamburg (1989/1990)

„Auf freien Fuß“ und auf einen Herzschlag „On Stage“ mit George Harrison (1985/86)