After dinner I went off to Bishop Auckland to see an old friend’s band who were playing in a pub in the town centre. The band are called Kung Fu blues and I guess I haven’t seen Hilton, who plays guitar and sings, for the best part of 30 years. I got there just as they were coming on and after about two songs another friend, Gary, arrived fresh from his (award winning) blues show on Bishop FM!
I thought the band were really good although blues isn’t my favourite genre of music. They’re quite rocky and play quite a lot of stuff from the more commercial end of the blues genre. It was good to get a chance to talk to Gary and Hilton in the inteval as well. When they were coming bavk on I noticed that Hilton hsd chsnged his shirt and my first thought was “hello he’s got his Rory Gallagher shirt on” so it wasn’t a surprise when the second set contained two songs from the legendary Irish bluesman. I did wonder if Hilton and I did actually go snd see Rory together back in the 70s! They also played probably my favourite Hendrix track Red House. I hadn’t actually intended to stay till the end but spotted the tracks on the set list and did. Also the number of people in the pub was dropping off by this time so I thought It’d be rude to go (and to be honest I was really enjoying it!)
It was a good night out and reminded me what music should sound like. I don’t know who did the sound but he knew what he was doing unlike so many people these days. The sound was crisp and clear and the vocals weren’t buried in the mix and it was loud enough to make your ears ring! Just like the old days!