I had to go to the first of the evening’s two shows, otherwise my mother would not have taken me and my friend Mick Brown (“I really don’t see what you like about that music” was her take on it all). We were just thirteen years old and we had school the next day! We were in the front, centre stalls, I am sure, for some reason, it was row H.  I loved Motown and soul music having been introduced to it by Mick. I took no persuading when he suggested we go see the American Negro Blues Festival. To be honest I had limited understanding of what to expect, but from the opening I was mesmerized. By the time Howlin’ Wolf came on I was smitten. Forty years later I cannot remember what Wolf played so watching his performances on this DVD I convince myself that they were the songs. The Fairfield Halls had a stage that was surrounded by wood panelling, more at home to classical concerts and recitals than the music of Chicago and the Delta. My over ridding memory of the show was sitting there thinking I bet these musicians are finding this as strange as I am. Intuitively I knew that they were more used to playing in far less salubrious surroundings. Years later when I went to the Delta and visited juke joints and shot gun shacks I recalled my first introduction to the Blues at the Fairfield Halls in 1964. I again marveled at the incongruity and how much those tours did to promote the Blues to British and European audience.

Richard Havers – co author Bill Wyman’s Blues Odyssey

‘The Blues are America’s greatest art form of the 20th Century”

Georgie Fame

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