Only s’posed to Blues the doors off!

The doors and windows of Bletchingley Village Hall seemed to be rattling away to a foot stomping blues performance by the British Bluescasting Corporation at Bletchfest’s Blues Night …. and the walls and ceilings reverberated along with them.

In the fourth of this year’s Bletchfest arts events an appreciative crowd were on their feet dancing during their set and gave the band a standing ovation at the end of the evening. The British Bluescasting Corporation are an internationally acknowledged British Blues Band whose first album, High Horse, has received rave reviews from Blues publications in the UK, US and elsewhere.

They performed many of the tracks from their album, much of which contains original material, along with new songs and some great blues covers. The event drew a full house and tickets had sold out by the time the event had opened.

They were supported by Breakthru’ whose repertoire covered songs influenced by blues music drawing on the songbook of artists such as Eric Clapton and JJ Cale among others. Showcased by the band even blues purists would have recognised the influence blues has had on contemporary western music since the 50s. Breakthru’s performance was made all the more remarkable as they were forced to replace two of their members at short notice due to personal circumstances.

Behind the performance the success of the evening owed much to the talents of sound engineer Tom Hughes of Dragonfly Studios and Duncan Hollands for his expertise in lighting and staging, to whom much thanks are due. Volunteers from the Bletchfest committee served drinks from the licensed bar along with hotdogs and popcorn for those needing to replenish their energy reserves during a hectic night of exciting music.