The British Blues Exhibition is proud to be in residence at the Barbican Music Library for the next 4 months in its biggest and best showing to date. More here: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/events/british-blues-exhibition.
We’re exhibiting in the Musical Museum in London soon.
Rock’s Diamond Year 2022 has been set up by the Ealing Club Community Interest Company as a celebration of what has become a global music form. We’re pairing up with them to add more of the wider history of British Blues to an exhibition in London’s Musical Museum from 12th March 2022.
Saturday 12th March – www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rocks-diamond-year-2022-festival-opening-tickets-26028629230712
Sunday 13th March www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rocks-diamond-year-2022-chris-jagger-in-concert-tickets-260453351987
The British Blues Exhibition has been quiet for a long time, like a lot of other things affected by the events of the last couple of years.
However, we will be showing our considerable and historic stuff in a significant London venue in Spring 2022. Details to follow….
It is with great regret that we learn of the passing of Chris Barber, chart-topping Jazz bandleader and a key Champion of the Blues, without whose impact music would have taken a different course.
Chris was and in a sense remains one of the headline supporters of the British Blues Exhibition, alongside John Mayall, Huey Morgan, Mud Morganfield, Connie Lush, and Pete Brown. He donated a trombone to the exhibition and it has become one of our uppermost objectives to celebrate his contribution to British and world Blues music and his ongoing legacy.
Darren Weale, Founder of the British Blues Exhibition, said, “Chris in person was a gentleman and a man with a multitude of memories and opinions. Among those memories were a remarkable collection of stories about how he interacted with and directly or indirectly helped many, many people and their music, including Lonnie Donegan, Muddy Waters, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and ultimately the biggest hitters of the British Blues scene including The Rolling Stones, John Mayall, The Animals, Van Morrison, and The Blues Band. I was lucky to have known him.”
More to follow.
We were reading up recently on a DJ, his show and his story from 2013. It is worth repeating and refreshing that material here as an insight into a little history and to the DJ, Ashwyn Smyth, whose show continues today. Ashwyn has continued to be very active in British Blues since, not the least in his role in the UK Blues Federation and as a member of the Independent Blues Broadcasters Association.
Here are the words from 2013:
Podcast: Podcasts at http://digitalblues.podomatic.com and on i-tunes at http://itunes.apple.com
Honours: nominated in the British Blues Broadcast category of the British Blues Awards and recognised in the Best Blues Radio Show category in the Blues Matters! magazine Writers’ Poll
“In October 2009, a new programme, Digital Blues on Gateway, started being broadcast each Wednesday evening on Gateway FM (later to become Gateway 97.8), the community radio station providing real local radio for Basildon & East Thurrock. These programmes can be heard on 97.8fm in the Basildon, East Thurrock & surrounding areas and worldwide on the internet at http://www.gateway978.com between 9 & 11 p.m. every Wednesday. Each week’s show is repeated between 8 & 10 p.m. UK time on Sundays. Digital Blues on Gateway 97.8 was honoured to have been nominated in the top five British Blues Broadcast category of the British Blues Awards 2011 and recognised in the top five of the Best Blues Radio Show category in the Blues Matters! Writers’ Poll 2011.
“In March 2010, Digital Blues was delighted to be invited to start producing a weekly edition of Digital Blues for Kansas City Online Radio and this is now streamed at 11.00 a.m. Central US Time (17.00 UK time) every Sunday at http://www.kconlineradio.com and each week’s show is repeated through the week at various times. Please check the schedule page at http://www.kconlineradio.com for times. All editions of both shows are available as podcasts on i-tunes and on PodOmatic.
Want to know about the early days of British Blues and the British Blues Explosion? Check out our Literature page, which has been updated to include essential reading in the shape of books by Billy Bragg and Chris Barber, both of which will appear in our exhibition.
Geno Washington signing an exhibition banner
News…
As the image above shows, one of our banners – others have signatures from people such as Georgie Fame, Paul Jones, members of The Rolling Stones, Chris Farlowe, and more – was recently signed by Geno Washington, who is a significant figure in both Blues and Soul music.
The exhibition is planning further appearances including its longest run yet in a location in 2020.
More exhibits are coming in to be curated, including artefacts from Radio Caroline, historically noteworthy music releases on vinyl, and additions to the harmonica collection.
Two of our supporters are on tour presently. Bandleader Chris Barber has dates including 7th April at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley in London, and John Mayall appears at Ronnie Scott’s 16th-18th April (sold out).
Another date for the diary is 13th July 2019 – Rock Island Line 65th anniversary, Cadogan Hall, London, with Billy Bragg and Van Morrison
Between 16th October and 31st December 2018, there is an exhibition on Women In Jazz at the Barbican Library in London.
One of the British Blues Exhibitions supporters is Jazz bandleader and, to us, Godfather of British Blues, Chris Barber. Not only did he bring to the UK Blues greats such as Muddy Waters, he also worked extensively with Ottilie Patterson, who had a fabulous Blues voice. Check out the exhibition and be reminded of the relationship between Jazz and British Blues music.
Website here.
Alex Butler is the British Blues Exhibition Curator of Guitar. He is representative of the new, young British guitarists in the Blues. His band, Red Butler, have made a name for themselves, representing the UK in European competition, touring with overseas acts, and building a following.
The UK Blues Federation (UKBlues) has announced that the 4th UKBlues Challenge will take place on Sunday 10th September 2017 at the world famous Cavern Club in Liverpool. The UK Blues Exhibition is as thrilled as UKBlues is in making this announcement. The late George Harrison said, “No Lead Belly, no Beatles”, as clear a proof as could be needed of the Folk/Blues influences on the greatest pop band in the world, ever, and the one most closely associated with The Cavern.
The selection process to choose the bands/acts that will be taking part in this year’s Challenge is currently underway with a panel of more than 250 people from across the UK blues spectrum having been invited to nominate three bands/acts who they believe would best represent UK blues at the International and European Blues Challenges in Norway and Memphis in 2018. This stage of the process closed on 15th March 2017 and the four bands/acts who amassed the most points will be invited to take part in this year’s Challenge.
In an exciting innovation, a fifth band will also be invited to take part in the Challenge, their selection being completely unrelated to the process currently underway. More details in this respect will be announced in the near future.
Jon Keats – Director of Music & Events at The Cavern Club said:
“We are delighted to be hosting this year’s UKBlues Challenge here at the Cavern Club. Whilst people will always associate the venue with The Beatles and Merseybeat era, blues has also played a huge part in our history.
Many blues giants have played here including the likes of Big Bill Broonzy, John Lee Hooker, Alexis Korner, Eric Clapton, Sonny Boy Williamson, Bo Diddley…This is our 60th Anniversary year and it’s great to welcome the blues back to the Cavern!”
For UKBlues, Chair Ashwyn Smyth commented: ‘’ We are excited to be bringing the UKBlues Challenge to Liverpool this year, and especially so given that we will be staging it at such an iconic venue. We have always made plain our desire to ensure that the UKBlues Challenges are staged in different parts of the UK as part of our commitment to blues throughout the UK.
We thank the management of the Cavern for making this event possible and look forward to the 4th UKBlues Challenge being bigger and even better than the first three!’’
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British Blues Exhibition 