Trikelops

::Bump:: This coming Sunday guys, 3 until 6 pm.

I just found out that Jim Diamond sadly passed away on Thursday. He died peacefully in his sleep. Many of you probably have never heard of Jim but he had links to Aberdeen through being the singer with 60s/70s hellraising rockers Gully Foyle. A hell of a singer and thoroughly nice man, Jim will be sadly missed.

Plus we are trying to make this one about blues, not just guitar playing.

The first all blues jam is to take place in the Smiddy bar in Daviot on Sunday the 18th of October. We are hoping this will take off and become a regular thing, so bluesers, come along and support it please. There will be a PA and backline there, all that is required apart from that is your body and instrument to make it a great day out.

Got a bass player?

Alan Smart in Inverurie will build you an acoustic, don't know his prices, but have seen some of his work and it is damned impressive. He also sets up guitars too, my mate Nobby got his done from him and said it was amazing the difference he made, he was really delighted.

Alan Smart at Aberdeen Glassfibre is shit hot, did a friend's guitar for him and he was amazed at the difference. He's reachable weekdays on 01467 623564.

I'm sad to report that Andy Lawson, one of the best guitarists ever in Aberdeen, has passed away. Andy was a talented singer as well as a brilliant guitarist. I remember him from back in the 60s when he played with the Royal Teens and later when he teamed up with the late Brian Youngson to form Cool Spoon. RIP Andy.

Alan Smart in Inverurie. Haven't his phone no. to hand but you'll get him at Aberdeen Glassfibre. Alan is shit hot with guitars.

I have a 1968 Ibanez P- bass, had since new. Also got a 1970s Epiphone Rock Bass and a Futurama P-bass. One bass amp, an Ashdown 180. Got a Raven Roadie guitar amp that is intended for harmonica use and a Behringer 60 watt that was meant for harp use too, but has a fault.

...Carmen Higgins? I used to see her name all over the papers and was lucky enough to catch her playing at an open air gig we played in the Castlegate years ago. It has been a long time since I saw or heard of her.

Guy that runs Aberdeen Glassfibre near Inverurie is shit hot.

Glad to read there is something going on there, unfortunately I am kinda indisposed just now so won't be able to make it down. Hope it goes ok though.

Hi, we are just putting together a function band and would like a female keyboard player/vocalist to join the lineup which currently consists of two guitarists, one of whom is the main vocalist, bass/vocalist and drummer.

Sounds like there may be a move afoot to rescue the event by another party. Haven't heard anything concrete as yet, there is a meeting later in the week and as soon as I know anything, I'll post it here. Hopefully it might be a goer after all!

A friend of a friend had applied for a gig for this year's festival and was notified that the festival was not going ahead this year. Out of curiosity I contacted the organisers and was told that they have taken a decision, regrettably, that because of health issues, they will not be going ahead with the festival this year. That is as much as I know, but I will look at their website to see if any announcement has been posted there. I'll post here if any such statement has been issued, or anyone can look up the website themselves to see if it has been announced as yet. Please don't shoot the messenger.

This is not a personal grievance by any means. I have been around the blues scene for many years and can assure you that Chris has taken every opportunity to bad mouth the Dundee event and it's organisers via his e-newsletter, to which I am no longer privy as I disagreed with him a couple of times. It is a great newsletter which Chris has total control over, you cannot post back to it per se, any reply you make only goes as far as him. Each year, he has put bands in to pubs in Dundee that are not taking part in the Bonanza, even having the nerve to approach bands that were already contracted to play for the event's organisers on several occasions. He was warned by the organisers about this and since then has had a personal vendetta against them. Don't ask me who his bands are because I have never been to one of his gigs as I support the DBB solely. But...if they are anything like the bands he used to put on in the Lampie with boring regularity, it would probably be a guitar hero and supporting cast masquerading as a blues band. The Aberdeen blues scene, for what it was, all but vanished because of the same sort of thing, people who liked blues music turned up and were treated to a good rock band instead of what they paid to hear. The Arbroath scene was a pretty good, if small, annual event known as the Smokie Blues Festival. Again, Chris went to pubs not taking part and put in bands of his choice and eventually talked the main body of publicans out of using the event organiser and using him instead so they could charge entry fees at the door and therefor make money. After a few years of this, due to dwindling crowds, the publicans came crawling back to the original organiser asking if he would run the event again, but he politely told them where to go. These are the facts as I have been told them over the years, if there are any inaccuracies, please feel free to correct me, if you have proof otherwise.

Sad to learn that the Dundee Blues Bonanza has been cancelled for this year due to health problems among the organisers. Doesn't stop Chris Simmons from stirring the shit about them though. It must rankle him that something that someone else has done for so many years is still successful, it is after all the biggest FREE blues festival in Europe. That is despite Chris repeatedly trying to cash in by putting his own bands into pubs that don't participate in the event. He successfully screwed up the Arbroath and Aberdeen blues scenes already, so canna see his problem.