Tony Winfield and
Sue Hickling

Respected blues enthusiasts, photographer Tony Winfield, and writer Sue Hickling, made their way north last week for the 2010 Orkney Blues Festival.
Here, they share some of this year’s festival experi­ences with The Orcadian.

Each year we enjoy visiting many blues festivals, but we look forward, especially, to the Orkney Blues Weekend.

The warm, friendly welcome from the Orcadians, together with the fantastic music on offer from local bands makes it very special.

The weekend kicked off for us with a new band The Demented Chords.

Fronted by the enigmatic Lorraine McBrearty, previously with The Bad Liars, the line-up included former members of Wang Dang Delta and Mean Business.

Guitarist John Pettigrew admitted some trepidation about adapting to other flavours of the blues, with the playlist ranging from Bessie Smith to Stevie Ray Vaughan and beyond. He had no need to worry, the amalgam of musical styles of the band members led to some terrific and unique arrangements.

Bad Taste scored an instant hit with us two years ago. Now a three-piece, with guitarist Andrew Taylor providing the vocals, we are even more impressed.

There are a thriving set of tal­ented “Younguns” taking the UK blues scene by storm at the moment, and this band deserve to become a part of that revolution.

They have developed their con­fidence and stage presence with a wider variety of influences in their music, including modern day blues aficionado’s such as Matt Schofield, and Joe Bonamassa (recent winners of the British Blues Awards).

Their songwriting skills are evident in their original numbers, with catchy guitar licks and mem­orable lyrics. We can’t wait for their first album. We were lucky to catch these guys in the Stromness British Legion and the Ferry Inn.

A new band to us, and to Orkney, was the Binsness Bluesboys, from Elgin, Moray.

A four-piece guitar, bass, sax and harp combination, they played a mixture of blues stand­ards, along with some less well known traditional numbers, pep­pered with some original material that blended in seamlessly.

Paul Muircroft, taking the lead vocal, had the perfect mix of smoky gravel and heartfelt passion for the true blues sound. A thoroughly enjoyable set deliv­ered to an appreciative audience — we’d like to see more of this band.

Miss Noma and Mr Ree, aka Catherine Grivas and Mike Moldau, are regular performers at the festival. We enjoyed their laid-back set of pre-war Delta blues in the Stromness Hotel, accompa­nied by Mark and Katie Shiner, on fiddle and bodhran.

Mike playing slide on Dobro guitar gave some fat and full tones as the backdrop to Catherine’s authentic 1930s vocal style.

Their interpretations of Killing The Blues, Robert Johnson clas­sics and period country/blues becoming somewhat legendary to the festivals’ regular visitors.

Another favourite of ours, Blue Rooster, continue to entertain with their brand of blues/rock covers, and we are pleased to see that they have launched a new album and are actively planning an assault on the mainland UK blues scene.

The power trio format of Ian Cooper on guitar/vocals, John Adams on bass and Pete Philips on drums are influenced by Cream, Hendrix and Peter Green, with a distinct feel of Canadian rockers Rush in the percussion area. They blazed through an exciting set to a full house in the Ferry Inn.

Mike’s Mob — Mike, Sheena and Dave — performed with a pleasant chillout sound for a Sunday afternoon in the Stromness Hotel. The stories behind the songs added an interesting slant to their 1930s ragtime and blues/folk numbers which made a refreshing change from the usual popular, and regularly played, blues standards. We really enjoyed this set.

There was some confusion in the Stromness Hotel as the Fastliners prepared for their set, unsure whether guitarist Don would make it after being hospi­talised the previous evening.

Luckily he was fine, and the band, together with special guest Andrew Taylor, from Bad Taste, performed with style and panache through rousing numbers, which demonstrate their vast knowledge of historical blues and its roots. A very popular band of excellent musicians, namely Kevin Coffey (lead vocals), Don Holdernesse (guitar), Mike Fairburn (har­monica), Pete Thomas (bass) and Kenny Pirie (drums), they attracted quite a crowd.

As always, the finale, in the Stromness Hotel, was a spectacu­lar event showcasing the best of the visiting artists, who had all played throughout the weekend at various venues. Visitors from as far afield as California enjoyed the show.

First up was Cherry Lee Mewis from North Wales. A first for us, and what a tremendously talented and entertaining young lady she is, singing a variety of well-chosen covers, along with some original material from her album, Southbound Train.

Live in the Royal Hotel, Stromness: Cherry Lee Mewis - 'a tremendously talented and entertaining young lady'.

With strong, emotive vocals and a delightful stage presence, Cherry, ably backed by Micky, Max and Robbie, have a bright future ahead of them. A great start to the evening.

Next came Northsyde, previ­ously Funky Dory, and a longtime favourite of ours — this was the second time we’d seen them this weekend.

Superb guitar and vocals from husband and wife team Jules and Lorna Fothergill, perfectly complemented by Hayden Doyle and Ian Maurico on the rhythm section, they blew Orkney away with their unique blend of origi­nal funky, rocking, belting blues, together with a couple of amazing cover arrangements.

Jules can best be described as a guitarist’s guitarist. One of the least clichéd players on the blues scene of today, producing tones that most exponents of the instru­ment would die for.

One of Orkney’s most profi­cient guitarists was heard to say that he couldn’t take his eyes off him for the whole performance as he made every note of every lick count.

Lorna, in our opinion, is the closest female vocalist to Janis Joplin that the UK has ever produced.

We first saw Gerry Jablonski solo at the Orkney Blues Weekend two years ago. We were stunned by his performance back then, and recently caught up with him again with his Electric Band.

Gerry Jablonski and the Electric Band performing in the Stromness Hotel as part of the 2010 Orkney Blues Festival.

An absolutely amazing per­formance every time — from the first blazing chords to the last lin­gering note; an exceptional tight outfit with David Innes on drums, “Professor” Gregor Leslie on bass and Peter Narojczyk with some of the best harmonica playing on the circuit. Their high-energy, drama-filled set was full of thrills as Gerry and Peter rushed through the crowd with their crazy fun-filled antics.

To say that Gerry Jablonski and the Electric Band are a hard act to follow is an understatement, and this was left to the Paul Rose Band.

Maestro of the fretboard, and a technically superb guitarist, Paul was eagerly anticipated by the expectant crowd, being very popular after previous visits to the island.

Paul Rose and his band at the Auld Motor Hoose, Kirkwall.

His set featured tributes to Hendrix and Peter Green, among many others, expertly deliv­ered, and backed by the rhythm section. The dance floor heaved as he rocked into the night with Status Quo and other 60s and 70s favourites. A spectacular end to a brilliant weekend.

Well done once again to the members of the Orkney Blues Festival committee, organisers, crew, volunteers and venues who surpass themselves year after year with a superbly organised event.

We look forward to returning to your beautiful islands again next year for more great music and mayhem!

The organisers of the 2010 Orkney Blues Festival have hailed it as a resounding success.

Festival committee member, Walter Gorman, said the event, which took place last Friday, Saturday and Sunday, ran “absolutely brilliantly”.

The annual event was launched in 2006 and has steadily grown in popularity ever since, to become one of the biggest dates on Orkney’s festival calendar.

This year’s blues festival kicked off with a performance from local band Bad Taste, in the Auld Motor Hoose, on Friday evening, fol­lowed by a performance from acclaimed guitar­ist Paul Rose, and his band.

Songstress Cherry Lee Mewis kicked off events in Stromness — the heart of the festival — the same evening.

A variety of performances from local and visiting bands followed, before a successful final concert in the Stromness Hotel, on Sunday evening.

This saw all the visiting acts — Cherry Lee Mewis, Northsyde, the Electric Band, and Paul Rose, and was the only ticketed gig of the entire festival.

Walter also praised the success of the free workshops, held on Sunday morning, which saw Paul Rose and blues man Gerry Jablonski give lessons to people wishing to know more about their style of playing.

“It was a cracking weekend,” Water said. “This year, there seemed to be a different buzz about it. It went really well.

“I can’t fault any of the bands and everyone who helped out was fantastic.”

With the 2010 Orkney Blues Festival now a fond memory, festival committee member, Walter Gorman, looks back at his festival diary . . .

We had a very interesting and unnerving week leading up to the blues weekend itself.

Early on in the week, we got the news that the Smokie Blues Festival, in Carnoustie, which was due to take place on the same dates as the Orkney Blues Weekend had been cancelled, due to low ticket sales, and we wondered how that might affect us — with up-and-coming budget cuts, and a very nervous public sector and all.

Then, on the Thursday night, immediately before our event, we were notified by NorthLink that their Thursday night depar­ture from Aberdeen would be delayed due to bad weather.

We had three out of the four of our visiting bands coming via that route and wondered what we would do if the bad weather continued and they were unable to make it on time for the weekend.

I had visions of us phoning around all the local bands to make up the numbers, and sundry ad hoc bands being formed. But fortunately it didn’t happen.

During the week we also got a call from Giuseppe Mascitelli, of the Dago Red blues band, from Italy. He told us he was one of seven musicians in the band who’d been booked to play at the Carnoustie festival, and that they’d booked flights to and from his country and were now looking for an alternative festival to play at.

Unfortunately, we’d already committed our funds to this year’s visiting bands, so couldn’t financially consider another act, but taking their dilemma into consideration we tried our best to see if there was any way we could get them here and feed and accommodate them on their arrival.

Several hasty calls to the Flybe switchboard eventually sent us in the direction of Loganair, where a very helpful Susan Blackwell told us she’d fly the band up here, at a heavily reduced cost in the circumstances. Unfortunately, the logistics and timescale of the whole arrangement were unman­ageable, but a very big thanks must go to Susan at Loganair for putting in place the means by which we really could have made it happen, given a little more time.

Anyway, there is a happy ending to the Dago Red story.

They were eventually fixed up with a couple of gigs in Dundee, making their trip from Italy a worthwhile one, and addition­ally, they were very apprecia­tive of the efforts of Loganair and Orkney Blues Weekend to at least make an effort to accom­modate them at what, for us, is such a busy time leading up to the event.

On Friday morning, we drove to Hatston to meet our incoming guests, and even though a little green about the gills, they were asking whether they might be able to have some breakfast in Stromness — the weather meant breakfast on the ferry had been avoided.

At 7am on the dot, a very helpful Marcus Cordock, of the Bad Taste band, turned up from Burray to pick up the Paul Rose band and guide the other visiting band members through to their accommodation in Stromness, and, after a bite to eat and a little rest, they were all a little more upbeat and good to go.

Next up is the setting up for the whole weekend and there we play our ace card, Colin Drever.

Colin is an attention-to-detail guy, highly organised, who wants to make sure that the bands in each venue have the best sound possible during their performances.

PA systems are gathered together from throughout the county, begged, borrowed and stolen if need be, vans are filled with the relevant kit and with the help of the Bad Taste guys, Andrew Taylor, Dylan, Marcus, Daniel Drever, Colin and myself each venue has a system put in place, and, along with it, someone with the know-how to operate it.

And now to the bands.

We were very excited about this years line-up. We’d done our research, and had some very good acts coming up to play.

We had our usual “Choose The Blues” night where the Orkney public were given their chance to decide who should come up to perform, and the choices they made were very good indeed.

Around 40 artistes applied to play and, thanks to the com­munity, we were able to whittle this down to four very good acts: Paul Rose, Gerry Jablonski and the Electric Band, Cherry Lee Mewis and Northsyde.

And, although the latter two aforementioned acts were more the personal choice of certain committee members than the Orkney public itself, they proved themselves more than worthy of playing on the bill for this year’s blues weekend and arguably made it the best event we’ve had in our five-year run.

It must be remembered, however, that organising an event such as this is like walking on a financial tightrope. There is no guarantee that we will always cover our costs, there are no guarantees, certainly not in our current financial climate.

Orkney Blues Weekend receives no external funding whatsoever, and is therefore self-reliant on what it can generate through fundraising events, the voluntary efforts of it’s members, and the generous donations of local businesses to survive.

And on the fundraising front, we organised two great fundrais­ing events this year, both well attended — our blues jam and barbecue sessions. They gener­ated around £1,000 in income, which goes a long way towards paying the visiting bands who come up for the event.

Bad Taste and Red Dog Bandit are to be thanked for that, as are the Orkney businesses, who pro­vided the produce for the barbe­cue at the first event.

Andrew Taylor, from Bad Taste, in the Stromness Hotel.

Without band members giving up their time freely and Orkney businesses donating produce, raffle prizes and such, these events simply wouldn’t take place. So a very, very big thanks must go to you all, you help us to bring live music and income to the county at a time of the year when things are generally quiet.

This brings me neatly to our treasurer, Maureen Herdman — the real lynchpin of the Blues Weekend. For this year’s event we needed to find £5,000 to break even, and that’s just to cover the travel costs and fees of visiting bands. To cover expenses and such for local bands we need to find a little more than that.

Generally, Orkney musicians and bands are more than happy to provide their time freely to support the weekend, but we shouldn’t take that for granted, and when we can reward them, I think we should do that, finan­cially, or otherwise.

Lorraine McBearty, of The Demented Chords.

Over the weekend itself we are completely and utterly depend­ent on donations from local busi­nesses and the generosity of the general public in buying raffle tickets and putting a quid into the bucket.

This is not a totally sound busi­ness plan and, of course, leaves Maureen wondering whether she’ll have enough at the end of the weekend not only to cover the costs of the visiting acts and their transport, but whether she’ll have enough to pay something to the local artistes too.

Typical Maureen — she is always thinking of others, not only in her personal life, but in the work she does with local youth clubs, the Blues commit­tee, and the other organisations she is involved with. She can be found dutifully counting the money from the buckets that have been put round the hotels, the raffle tickets sold etc, every morning of the blues weekend. She keeps the whole thing on a financially sound footing and should be recognised for that. Her selfless, voluntary input is what makes the whole thing work. And indeed, once again, it did work. Thanks Maureen.

And now to the bands . . .

Northsyde

When Northsyde started into their set on the Saturday night in the Royal, I immediately paid attention.

Lorna Fothergill, of Northsyde, in the Stromness Hotel.

They were upbeat, and offered up a great sound. I wouldn’t call them a blues band as such, more a mix of jazz fusion, rock and blues, but they played a master stroke with me.

I love Stevie Wonder’s Songs In The Key of Life album and when Northsyde offered up their rendition of Stevie Wonder’s Wish from the album, I was won over, blues band or not, picked by the public or not, they played a blistering set. I was captivated from start to finish.

Cherry Lee Mewis

Cherry did it for me too, with her jazzy, country, folk set. She had a gorgeous sultry voice, and her performance was to say the least mesmerising, given the reaction of the Orkney audience, who listened in relative silence, until required to clap apprecia­tively of course.

Daniel Drever and I were on duty when she kicked off in the Royal and we most certainly weren’t for kicking her out.

We loved Max Milligan’s patchwork guitar, held together with gaffer tape, a sight to behold and “thrown roughly to the floor” when finished with too. Not sure whether we believe he actually found that in a skip though, you must tell us the real story some time Max.

I also really loved Cherry’s gorgeous solo, audience partici­pating, vocal of Janice Joplin’s Mercedes Benz too, and also the finale track Southbound Train. Max is some player on the slide guitar, “demented chords” he most definitely did play. Excellent. We got ragtime, swing, blues and the promise of good things to come from Cherry and the lads, and More ! More ! I say. Nice one Cherry.

Gerry Jablonski and the Electric Band

I don’t know what to say about Gerry Jablonski and the Electric Band, really.

Gerry blinded us guys with his usual technical guitar wizardry and we were very, very apprecia­tive as usual, but all of the ladies seemed to have their attention firmly focused on harp playing Peter Narojczyk for some reason. No idea why. He was certainly an awesome player, offering blis­tering rocky harmonic retort to all of Gerry’s complicated and brilliant guitar offerings during the set.

We’ve seen Gerry many times in Orkney, but this time he came with an army of brilliant musi­cians intent on conquering us with a big sound, and conquer us he most certainly did.

The band were simply awesome, made my weekend.

Thanks Gerry.

Paul Rose

I only caught Paul at the finale on the Sunday night. Oh, and I delivered some lights for his performance on the Saturday night, but couldn’t stay around to witness.

By all accounts, however, he delivered what the public wanted wherever he played.

He p e r f o r m e d a t t h e Motorhoose, the Stromness Hotel and the finale, finishing off on the finale with Status Quo’s Caroline, Rory Gallagher’s Bullfrog Blues and Jimi Hendrix’s Hey Joe. He had the place jumping.

An excellent end to an excel­lent weekend from Mr Rose.

There are way too many people to thank for making the weekend the success it was.

The local bands, who were all excellent, and provided many hours of first-class entertainment over the weekend deserve a very big thanks, as do the Orkney businesses who provided raffle prizes, donations, produce and services. Lloyd Stockan from Orkney PC, Rails bookmakers, J. W. Gray, SAS Office sup­plies, Herd Law Practice and the Orkney Music Shop all deserve a special mention for their very generous contributions.

The committee members themselves also deserve a very big thanks.

They beavered away the whole weekend, selling raffle tickets, putting the bucket round, manning the sound desks and seeing to the day-to-day needs of the visiting bands.

They all deserve a very big pat on the back.

Finally, thanks to the Orkney public who came along in their droves to support the weekend.

Without their presence, we simply could not do it.

Cheers.

Northsyde

WHEN Northsyde started into their set on the Saturday night in the Royal, I immediately paid attention. They were upbeat, and offered up a great sound.

I wouldn’t call them a blues band as such, more a mix of jazz fusion, rock and blues, but they played a master stroke with me. I love Stevie Wonder’s Songs In The Key of Life album and when Northsyde offered up their rendition of Wish from that album I was won over.

Blues band or not, picked by the public or not, they played a blistering set; I was captivated from start to finish.

CHERRY LEE MEWIS

CHERRY did it for me too, with her jazzy, country, folk set. She had a gorgeous sultry voice, and her performance was to say the least mesmerising, given the reaction of the Orkney audience, who listened in relative silence, until required to clap appreciatively of course.

Daniel Drever and I were on duty when she kicked off in the Royal and we most certainly weren’t for kicking her out. We loved Max Milligan’s patchwork guitar, held together with gaffa tape, a sight to behold and “thrown roughly to the floor” when finished with too. Not sure whether we believe he actually found that in a skip though – you must tell us the real story some time Max!

I also really loved Cherry’s gorgeous solo, audience participating, vocal of Janice Joplin’s Mercedes Benz, and also the finale track Southbound Train. Max is some player on the slide guitar – “demented chords” he most definitely did play. Excellent. We got ragtime, swing, blues and the promise of good things to come from Cherry and the lads, and I say “More! More!” Nice one Cherry.

GERRY JABLONSKI AND THE ELECTRIC BAND

DON’T know what to say about Gerry Jablonski and the electric band really.

Gerry blinded us guys with his usual technical guitar wizardry and we were very, very appreciative as usual, but all of the ladies seemed to have their attention firmly focused on harp playing Peter Narojczyk for some reason. No idea why. He was certainly an awesome player, offering blistering rocky harmonic retort to all of Gerry’s complicated and ear bendingly brilliant guitar offerings during the set.

We’ve seen Gerry many times in Orkney, but this time he came with an army of brilliant musicians intent on conquering us with a big sound, and conquer us he most certainly did. The band was simply awesome and made my weekend, thanks Gerry.

PAUL ROSE

I ONLY caught Paul at the finale on the Sunday night. Oh, and I delivered some lights for his performance on the Saturday night but couldn’t stay around to witness.

By all accounts however, he delivered what the public wanted wherever he played. He performed at the Motorhoose, the Stromness Hotel and the finale finishing off on the finale with Status Quo’s Caroline, Rory Gallagher’s Bullfrog Blues and Jimmi Hendrix’s Hey Joe. He had the place jumping. An excellent end to an excellent weekend from Mr Rose.

The event’s organising committee’s WALTER GORMAN gives his take on this year’s Blues Weekend.

We had a very interesting and unnerving week leading up to the blues weekend itself. Early on in the week we got the news that the Smokie Blues Festival in Carnoustie, which was due to take place on the same dates as the Orkney Blues Weekend, had been cancelled due to low ticket sales and we wondered how that might affect us, with up and coming budget cuts, and a very nervous public sector and all.

Then, on the Thursday night immediately before our event we were notified by NorthLink that their Thursday night departure from Aberdeen would be delayed due to bad weather. We had three out of the four of our visiting bands coming via that route and wondered what we would do if the bad weather continued and they were unable to make it on time for the blues weekend. I had visions of us phoning around all the local bands to make up the numbers, and sundry ad hoc bands being formed, but fortunately it didn’t happen. The ferry left at 8pm on the Thursday night and arrived in Hatston at 7am next day.

Given the early news of impending bad weather, hastily made phone calls meant that we were at least able to secure the last four cabins on the ferry which meant that our visiting artistes could at least make the 11-hour journey with a relative degree of comfort in a force 6–7 gale and 10-metre sea swell. Result, reasonably rested and not overly disgruntled band members.

During the week we also got a call from Giuseppe Mascitelli of the Dago Red Blues Band from Italy. He told us he was one of seven musicians in the band who’d been booked to play at the Carnoustie festival, and that they’d booked flights to and from his country and were now looking for an alternative festival to play at.

Unfortunately, we’d already committed our funds to this year’s visiting bands, so couldn’t financially consider another act, but taking their dilemma into consideration we tried our best to see if there was any way we could get them here and feed and accommodate them on their arrival.

Several hasty calls to the Flybe switchboard eventually sent us in the direction of Loganair, where a very helpful Susan Blackwell told us she’d fly the band up here at a heavily reduced cost in the circumstances. Unfortunately the logistics and timescale of the whole arrangement were unmanageable, but a very big thanks must go to Susan at Loganair for putting in place the means by which we really could have made it happen, given a little more time.

Anyway, there is a happy ending to the Dago Red story: they were eventually fixed up with a couple of gigs in Dundee, making their trip from Italy a worthwhile one. They were very appreciative of the efforts of Loganair and Orkney Blues Weekend to at least make an effort to accommodate them at what for us is such a busy time leading up to the event. Friday morning we drove up to Hatston at 7am to meet our incoming guests, and even though a little green about the gills, they were asking whether they might be able to have some breakfast in Stromness – obviously breakfast on the ferry had been avoided for very good reasons.

NOT BAD BOYS: The Bad Taste lads were a huge help to the committee, picking visiting acts up off the boat, helping set up and finding time to play some gigs!

At 7am on the dot, a very helpful Marcus Cordock of Bad Taste turned up from Burray to pick up the Paul Rose band and guide the other visiting band members through to their accommodation in Stromness, and after a bite to eat and a little rest, they were all a little more upbeat and good to go.

Next was the setting up for the whole weekend and there we played our ace card, Colin Drever. Colin is an attention-to-detail guy, highly organised, who wants to make sure that the bands in each venue have the best sound possible during their performances.

PA systems were gathered together from throughout the county, begged, borrowed and stolen if need be, vans are filled with the relevant kit and with the help of the Bad Taste guys, Pandy (Andrew Taylor), Dylan, Marcus, Daniel Drever, Colin and myself, each venue had a system put in place, and along with it someone with the know -how to operate it.

And now to the bands. We were very excited about this year’s line up, we’d done our research and had some very good acts coming up to play. We had our usual Choose The Blues night, where the Orkney public were given their chance to decide who should come up to perform, and the choices they made were very good indeed.

Around 40 artistes applied to play and thanks to the community we were able to whittle this down to four very good acts: Paul Rose, Gerry Jablonski and The Electric Band, Cherry Lee Mewis and Northsyde. And although, the latter two aforementioned acts were more the personal choice of certain committee members than the Orkney public itself, they proved themselves more than worthy of playing on the bill for this year’s Blues Weekend and arguably made it the best event we’ve had in our five-year run.

CHERRY LEE MEWIS AND HER BAND

It must be remembered, however, that organising an event such as this is like walking on a financial tightrope. There is no guarantee that we will always cover our costs, certainly not in our current financial climate. Orkney Blues Weekend receives no external funding whatsoever and is therefore self-reliant on what it can generate through fundraising events, the voluntary efforts of its members, and the generous donations of local businesses to survive.

On the fundraising front, we organised two great fundraising events this year, both well attended; our blues jam and barbecue sessions. They generated around £1000 in income, which goes a long way towards paying the visiting bands who come up for the event.

Bad Taste and Red Dog Bandit are to be thanked for that, as are the Orkney businesses who provided the produce for the barbecue at the first event.

Without band members giving up their time freely and Orkney businesses donating produce, raffle prizes and such, these events simply wouldn’t take place. So a very, very, big thanks must go to you all, you help us to bring live music and income to the county at a time of the year when things are generally quiet.

DEMENTED CHORDS' Pete Nicol.

Which brings me neatly to our treasurer, Maureen Herdman – the real linchpin of the blues weekend. For this year’s event we needed to find £5000 to break even, and that’s just to cover the travel costs and fees of visiting bands. To cover expenses and such for local bands we need to find a little more than than that. Generally, Orkney musicians and bands are more than happy to provide their time freely to support the weekend, but we shouldn’t take that for granted and when we can reward them I think we should do that, financially or otherwise.

Over the weekend itself we are totally and utterly dependent on donations from local businesses and the generosity of the general public in buying raffle tickets and putting a quid into the bucket. This is not a totally sound business plan and of course leaves Maureen wondering whether she’ll have enough at the end of the weekend not only to cover the costs of the visiting acts and their transport, but whether she’ll have enough to pay something to the local artistes too.

Typical Maureen, she is always thinking of others, not only in her personal life, but in her work she does with local youth clubs, the blues committee, and sundry other organisations, Brownies etc, she is involved with too. She can be found dutifully counting the money from the buckets that have been put round the hotels, the raffle tickets sold etc, every morning of the blues weekend, she keeps the whole thing on a financially sound footing and should be recognised for that.

Her selfless, voluntary input is what makes the whole thing work. And indeed, once again it did work. Thanks Maureen.

Organiser Paul Sambrook, who lives in Stromness and is a member of the Royal British Legion Riders Club and the Orkney Bikers Forum, said he is over the moon with the amount, which is double what they made last year.

BIKES ON SHOW: A selection of the motorbikes at the pier head in Stromness on Saturday.

The money was raised by gathering in donations at the bike show and throughout the Blues Weekend. The sum of £100 will now be going to the Combat Stress organisation, with the rest going to the Royal British Legion’s annual Poppy Appeal.

The Poppy Appeal provides financial, social and emotional support to those who have served or are serving in the Armed Forces, and their dependants.

GOOD THINGS IN SMALL PACKAGES: Bike show organiser Paul Sambrook tries out a Mini Moto race bike during the event.

Bikers from all over Orkney, Scotland and England headed to Stromness pier head for the show, where the public was able to look at and learn a bit about the bikes.

On Saturday, Paul said: “I think it’s gone brilliantly. We’ve been here all day and have had more than 70 bikers coming and going throughout. A lot of people are really supportive of what we are doing.

POWEFUL ENGINE: The biggest engined motorbike at the show was this Suzuki Intruder, owned by Brian Sutherland.

“We’ve had people come up from as far away as Oxford and Leicester, and they’ve all said they want to come back next year. We are hoping to go ahead with a third Poppy and Blues Bike Show then.”

He added that he wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who sponsored the show, including local businesses and individuals from the Stromness area and from Aberdeenshire. Also, thanks to the people of Orkney and beyond who came out and supported them.

Victoria Olson

STROMNESS always comes alive at festival time, and last weekend’s dip into the blues was no different. I’ve always thought this event was amazing value; the finale concert is the only ticketed gig of the whole weekend and the free gigs in pubs throughout the town gave the 13 acts performing this year the chance to show what they could do to a large number of people.

The highlight for me – and many other people I’ve spoken to – was definitely Gerry Jablonski and the Electric Band. I caught him as a solo artist a few years back and recognised his skill on the guitar then, but with the band backing him it took the show to a whole new level.

CASTING A SPELL OVER THE CROWD: Gerry Jablonski and Peter Narojcyk from the Electric Band performing at the finale concert.

In the Ferry Inn on Saturday night, and from what I heard it was the same in the Royal Hotel on Friday, they certainly worked up a sweat by playing blistering blues sets for nearly three hours.

A certain Polish moothie player also got around 50 per cent of the audience a little hot under the collar with his mesmerising and exciting performance!

Earlier that day I started my Blues Weekend in the British Legion, where the Binsness Bluesboys were warming up a mid-afternoon crowd. A last-minute addition to the festival’s programme, the fourpiece consisting of acoustic guitar, bass, harmonica and saxophone played a smooth mix of traditional blues numbers, such as She’s Tough, Got my Mojo Working and Peter Green’s Need Your Love So Bad.

Heading across to the Royal, I managed to grab a quick chat with Cherry Lee Mewis, who said: “We’re having a great time, the audiences up here are great and totally into it. Our slots have been quite early in the evening which gives us the rest of the night to check out other bands.

CHERRY LEE MEWIS: The sultry songstress setting up for the finale concert in the back room of the Stromness Hotel on Sunday.

“This year has been great, we’ve been doing lots of festivals, including Memphis. I’ve been wanting to go there for so long, as it’s where the blues all started.

“It’s great to have been able to see a bit of Orkney too, we usually don’t get that; we’ve been out to the Standing Stones, to Kirkwall and the Italian Chapel.”

Throughout the weekend, Cherry captured people’s attention with her powerful voice and excellent band, which at one point included guitarist Max Milligan playing slide guitar with a pint glass!

Sets included a fabulous audience sing-a-long version of Mercedes Benz, a beautiful version of the slave song Wade in the Water and a new number called Man Overboard – which was written on the long journey up to Orkney – got an excellent reception. That Cherry had the audience singing along to a song they’d never heard before shows how catchy it was!

I also saw Blueberry Jam, made up of local sisters Emma (keyboard and vocals) and Katy (vocals and fiddle) Thomas, their dad Pete (bass) and James Hughes (guitar and vocals) from Aberdeen. They were also joined by Kenny Pirie on drums for a couple of numbers on Saturday afternoon, which lifted the tempo and helped get our feet tapping.

They mostly performed original, material which was great to see, and the combination of the different voices and styles worked well together. They also played a Damien Rice number and an interestingly reworked version of Hendrix’s The Wind Cries Mary.

They are an act that has definitely matured since the girls’ debut performance last year – I’m looking forward to hearing lots more from this talented group.

That evening, Blues Weekend stalwarts Miss Noma and Mr Ree – recently married couple Catherine and Michael Moldau – were accompanied by Mark and Kate Shiner as they played a mellow set in the Stromness Hotel. Favourites such as Nobody Knows You, the sultry Why Don’t You Do Right and Tom Waits’ Heart of Saturday Night were well handled and provided a nice acoustic contrast to the some of the louder bands playing at the festival.

Back in the Ferry Inn, Blue Rooster were one of these, with a full on blues rock set that got the crowd jumping. Cocaine, Boom Boom Boom, Oh Well and Sitting on Top of the World were just some of the classics they put their energetic take on.

Bad Taste were also on good form, drawing a massive crowd to their Saturday night show in the Stromness. Their fab guitar riffs, driving bass beats and pounding drums got the blood flowing and the head bobbing.

BAD TASTE: The local band's lead vocalist and guitarist Andrew Taylor playing upstairs in the Stromness Hotel.

I also caught the tail end of visiting act Northsyde’s unique mix of jazz fusion, funk rock and blues in the Royal. The band definitely seemed to have won over the audience, with lead singer Lorna’s powerful and expressive voice and confident attitude shining through.

BELTING IT OUT: Northsyde's front woman Lorna Fothergill singing in the Stromness Hotel on Sunday night.

Paul Rose, who headlined the finale concert on Sunday night, had ample opportunity to show off his unique guitar style and got people dancing by the end of his set, which included a good cover of Sweet Home Alabama. He also got an offer of marriage from a particularly over-excited audience member!

PAUL ROSE: Paul Rose and his band also played at the Auld Motor Hoose in Kirkwall as part of the 2010 Orkney Blues Weekend.

Well done to everyone, including those I haven’t been able to mention here, for putting on such a great Orkney Blues Weekend once again!