The Spitz festival of the blues

FREE TICKETS!
We have a pair of tickets to give away for Mon 11 Apr:
Little George Sueref & The Blue Stars + Mudlow + Catweezel + DJ El Nino
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Everybody on the mailing list will go into the draw on Thursday 7th

Searching for the roots of the devil’s music is a socio-historical, cultural and geographic journey – but it’s also a spiritual end in itself.

Most of the delta blues masters are now dead. The juke joints of Beale Street that were built on prohibition and segregation were phased out as long ago as the late 1930s. Today only a handful of musicians and enthusiasts can legitimately claim to have participated in the great evolution of early rural hobo blues into the explosive urban sound of Memphis in the 1920s – and later the rise of electric blues in the Northern cities of the forties and fifties. This development was rivalled only by the advent of rock and roll in the South – another mutation of the delta sound that was initially sold to the masses in the form of Elvis – and later the sustained production of popular soul music in the Memphis hit factories of 1960s and seventies (Stax, Sun and American).

We know the rest of that story already. Running parallel to, or around it, however, is the story of the blues spirit – which travels widely through time and space and defies musical or critical categorisation altogether. It has evolved as radically and comprehensibly as any other form of popular music and still comes in a variety of guises. Yes, the devil’s music is definitely in the detail.

From the burlesque funerary orchestrations of Dead Brothers, the dragster rock thrashings of the Blues Experimentation Society, the carnivalesque one-man-band spectacle Petit Vodo, the ferocious 21st century lashings of the Mississippi hill music blues trance by the Soledad Brothers, the authentic Delta wizardry of veteran hell-raiser T Model Ford, and the electrifying garage stomp rock trio Immortal Lee County Killers, we invite you to experience some of the finest exponents of contemporary blues today. And to drink lots of our Blackened Voodoo Beer shipped in especially for the occasion. This will definitely be a one-off. Come feel the spirit.

By Martin Wissenberg, Spitz Venue Programmer




Fri 1 Apr
Geoff Achison & The Soul Diggers + Trio Gitano + Film Screening of ‘Honeyboy’
Memphis International Award-winning Australian guitarist Achison headlines this opening show to the first ever Spitz Festival of Blues. Opens with a screening of Scott Taradash’s multiple award-winning documentary following the life of Deep South Delta bluesman David Honeyboy Edwards.
£10

Sun 3 Apr
(In association with Jules Toogs)
The Mutts + Daddy Fantastic + Son Of A Preacher Man + Teasing Lulu + Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster DJs
A blues-tastic showcase of all things Brighton based beautifully put together by promoter Brighton Rocks. Headliners The Mutts have wooed crowds playing alongside the likes of The Raveonettes, The Warlocks and Radio 4.
£10

Wed 6 Apr
Michael Messer & The Second Mind Band + Son Of Dave + D-77 + Parkbench DJ
Award-winning vocals and slide guitar meets ancient blues vinyl scratching and rhythm guitar from Michael Messer (one of the UK's premier bottleneck players), beatbox and falsetto blues-sterics from Crash Test Dummies runaway Son of Dave, and howlin' and crawlin' Waits-esque showmanship from D-77.
£10

Fri 8 Apr
(In Association With Not The Same Old Blues Crap)
T-Model Ford + Black Eyed Snakes + Ghostwriter + DJs Ben Swank (Soledad Brothers) & David Viner
Gangster Blues from Greenville Taildragger T-Model Ford, the only one of Fat Possum’s legendary big three still playing out. Alan Sparhawk's Black Eyed Snakes leaves his quiet sensibilities firmly with Low to provide a punk blues beast of mighty proportions as main support.
£10

Sun 10 Apr
The Dirty + Los Skeletones + E.T. Explore Me + Curtis Eller’s American Circus + Special Guest DJs
Primal anthemic sleaze of a stripped down, dirty rock ‘n’ roll sort from Artrocker’s The Dirty. Support from Amsterdam's screaming surf-psych-blues rockers E.T. Explore Me and awesome banjo-fuelled songcraft from ex-circus man Curtis Eller.
£5

Mon 11 Apr
Little George Sueref & The Blue Stars + Mudlow + Catweezel + DJ El Nino (Lady Luck Club)
Little George Sueref has a downhome style and a voice to die for. He released a Mojo Top 5 Album of the Year in 2002 and here plays out with respected new-comers Mudlow who deliver a Bad Seeds style vibe but throw in the ever down-and-under groans of their Lightin' Hopkins inspired frontman. Plus Catweezel’s goodtime goodrockin' transcendental slide blues.
£10

Thu 14 Apr
(In Association with Not The Same Old Blues Crap)
Soledad Brothers + Mr David Viner + The Surgens + DJ-Hang Dog Trash Sound System & DJ Too Bad Jim
Soledad Brothers have been described as like John Lee Hooker on an amphetamine jag. 21st Century Detroit Blues! Support from rising troubadour Viner who's recently supported Dr John and Holly Golightly.
£10

Fri 15 Apr
The Shrine Presents:
Afroblue feat. Nuru Kane’s Bayefall Gnawa & Errol Linton’s Blues Vibe + Afrocentric Blues Body Shockin’ Roots ‘n’ Digital Soundscaping from DJs Max Reinhardt & Rita Ray + Volcanic Visuals from YOUR MUM
Tonight, AfroBlue unleashes the magical Nuru Kane who’s teamed up with Brixton Blues Bad Boy Errol Linton for a one-off night that_s guaranteed to leave you quaking in your blue suedes. The Shrine Presents is an intimate series of live gigs at the Spitz: Afrocentric Alchemy at work...a bubbling laboratory of nu-roots from the frontiers of Africa’s cutting edge music scene.
“Errol is an immaculate virtuoso of a blues harp player, Brixton born and
bred, Sonny Boy Williamson and Augustus Pablo sparring in every note he blows.” (Straight No Chaser)
7pm – late £6 before 9pm £10 after

Tue 19 Apr
Billy Jenkins + Paul The Girl + The Blues Experimentation Society + Parkbench DJ
Cult Babel-signed jazz blues guitarist Jenkins returns for this excellent lineup which includes Paul the Girl's Rochford / Herbert rhythm section (possibly the hottest in London?) and Belfast's fearsome dragster thrash duo T.E.B.S (on stage last).
£5

Thu 21 Apr
Dead Brothers + Petit Vodo + Dennis Hopper Choppers + Hightown Crows + DJ Mistress Manray (Stranger Than Paradise)
The Dead Brothers: a macabre rock 'n' roll party and an old fashioned wedding at the same time. Petit Vodo and Dennis Hopper Chopper (Menlo Park) represent a pairing of two of the finest multi-instrumentalist one-man-bands on the European / UK circuit.
£10

Sat 30 Apr
Closing show in association with Not The Same Old Blues Crap
Immortal Lee County Killers + Clambake + High Plains Drifters + DJ Too Bad Jim
More than just a punk blues band, the Immortal Lee County Killers’ sound lies somewhere between the third dimension of depth, revealed on the canvases of the great Renaissance painters, and the mod film, JAWS 3-D.
"Immortal Lee County Killers: The essential f up blues straight outta Alabama. Total destruction of the mind" (Rolling Stone on Immortal Lee County Killers)
£10

www.spitz.co.uk

Season tickets are available admitting entry to all gigs at a cost of £50.

Coincides with the release on 25th April of ‘This is Punk Rock Blues’, a CD sampler of all the artists who have played at the London punk rock blues night Not The Same Old Blues Crap in the last year. (Not The Same Old Blues Crap are co-promoting three of the festival’s shows). See www.punkrockblues.co.uk for more information.

Pre-party hosted by DJ Dean & Lady Luck DJs from 6pm in the Spitz Bistro.

10% off food to all diners when booking Spitz Festival of Blues tickets through the Spitz Box Office (020 7392 9032).

In association with Dixie Beer, Blackened Voodoo & Jazz amber light