Can I take some of your time to draw your attention to a great festival happening in Swansea on April 30th - 3rd May. Its the Mumbles Mostly Jaz and Blues Festival. Come on get your arse's down there. Some great acts and you know you love it down the Mumbles. Hop on a bus to get there and stagger across the beach back home unless you live there. But seriously its a damm good festival please get down there and show some support! Lets hear from them:
Our sixth festival: The Admiral 2010 Mumbles Mostly Blues & Jazz Festival presents another world-class programme of music by the seaside for the May Bank Holiday weekend, April 30th to May 3rd.
The Year of Women in Blues & Jazz
Talented women singers and musicians have already made their mark in the festival’s remarkable five-year history. (Think Tina May and Lee Gibson, two of the finest women jazz singers in the country. Or Zoé Schwarz and The Baddest Blues Band — Ever!). And for 2010, the programme, which is once again generously sponsored by Admiral, will be led by top international female talent.
Friday night in the Festival Pavilion stars Maggie Bell and Dave Kelly & The BBQ. Yup, that's Maggie Bell of Stone The Crows, together with Dave Kelly (last seen at the festival with the bill-topping Blues Band in 2007) and some of the finest blues, R&B and rock musicians in the land. The good times will certainly roll — this is a great band with big reputations and fabulous voices. A review of soul, blues and classics, with some thumping rock'n'roll thrown in. In support will be festival favourite the Sean Webster Band!
BIG BLUES DAY
Saturday equals Big Blues Day 2010. The afternoon concert in the Pavilion features the powerful Steve Arvey & Blues Move plus festival faves Derik and the mOOn Dogs. The evening will rock to top European combo and North American favourite the Ana Popovic Band. Their album ‘Still Making History’ reached No. 3 in the US Billboard after 19 weeks in the chart. Serbian-born Ana (on guitar and vocals) and her band have been touring the European and U.S. festival and club circuit to ever greater acclaim since 2001. On the bill with them, from the U.S.A., are Earl Thomas & The Kings of Rhythm – classic R&B, soul and contemporary blues from a master singer working with the late, great Ike Turner's backing band.
BIG JAZZ DAY
Sunday is Jazz Day in the Pavilion. In the afternoon, Claire Martin, the first lady of British jazz, acclaimed star of innumerable UK and international jazz festivals, winner of multiple awards and with 16 albums under her belt, returns to her favourite Welsh city with the Gareth Williams Band, supported by those great trad entertainers the Pete Allen Jazz Band. Heading the evening line-up will be Protect The Beat, five masters of jazz/funk, plus saxophone supremo Mark Nightingale with his All Star British Jazz Quintet.
In fact the whole 2010 festival oozes with talent…from the return of the Hamsters to close the festival on Monday night in the Pavilion to a classic double-bill of local talent on Monday afternoon: The Amigos followed by the Brian Breeze Rhythm and Blues Band with Taff Williams — plus, as they say, much, much more. Watch the website for further announcements: http://www.mumblesmostlyjazzandblues.co.uk/
And, as ever, you can expect all the special flavours that make the Admiral 2010 Mumbles Mostly Blues & Jazz Festival such a high-quality boutique music festival: a great bar, lashings of tasty festival food, and that indefinable Mumbles seaside atmosphere in the Festival Pavilion and other venues on Swansea Bay. Absolutely unmissable!
