Chuck Berry gets blues festival off to rousing start
Last updated 22:02, Friday, 01 August 2008
Legendary rock ‘n’ roller Chuck Berry got the 10th Maryport Blues Festival off to a classic start last night.
Around 2,000 blues fans packed into the marqueee at the town’s Netherhall Rugby Club to see the 81-year-old prove you’re never too old for rock ‘n’ roll.
Frank Scott, from Whitehaven had been waiting 45 years to see one of his musical heroes.
He said he wanted to see the rock ‘n’ roll legend in the 1960s but his mother wouldn’t let him go because he was too young and he’d been waiting ever since.
Berry wandered on stage about 30 minutes before his 11pm start time.
Despite his microphone not working during the first song and the band being dressed in their “street clothes” because they lost two suitcases between Dublin and Manchester, he appeared in a chirpy mood.
The 81-year-old father of rock ‘n’ roll asked for the lights to be turned off because they were too hot and he and his band – including son Chuck Berry Junior on guitar and daughter Ingrid Berry-Clay on vocals and harmonica – appeared to be tuning up before the show was kicked off properly.
This included a sing-along version of his novelty hit My Ding-A-Ling and C’est La Vie, made famous in the film Pulp Fiction, but his short set omitted Johnny B Goode.
His last number involved several members of the audience getting up on stage to dance with the band, including Jackie Clemence, of Seaton, near Workington.
She said: “It was fantastic and strange to be asked up on stage with the band and I really enjoyed the experience. It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
Earlier, the festival had been opened by local act The Evidence, who won a battle of the bands competition for the privilege. The six-piece band–- three of whom are headteachers in West Cumbria – got the party going with a mix of rhythm and blues and newer material from bands like The Killers.
Alex Wilkinson, head of Fairfield Junior School in Cockermouth, said they were delighted to be playing to the biggest audience of their career and being on the same bill as Chuck Berry.
Alex, who plays the saxophone and guitar, said: “We weren’t suffering from stage fright, we were looking forward to playing.
“The audience was amazing and it was great to get that support.”
They were followed by all-female group Little Jenny and the Blue Beans, from Scandinavia, and Alvin Youngblood Hart.
The only trouble in the marquee arose when two women began to fight but police intervened quickly and took them outside.
