THE line-up for this summer's Great British Rhythm and Blues Festival in Colne has been revealed.
Running over the Bank Holiday from Friday, August 25 to Sunday, August 27, the festival will see award-winning blues artists from both sides of the Atlantic making their way to East Lancashire.
Tickets have now gone on sale with an impressive line-up of contemporary blues artists set to play Colne.
These include Grammy-nominated singer Janiva Magness, multiple British Blues Awards winners King King, rising homegrown stars Joanne Shaw Taylor and Aynsley Lister and Texas-based Lucky Peterson.
This year the running of the festival has been taken over by Colne Town Council and along with festival director Jason Elliott it has implemented a number of changes.
These include reducing the festival to three days and changing the ticketing arrangements.
“Since we decided to take the route of dropping the heritage acts, choosing instead to showcase the best of the contemporary blues scene, we have been stunned by the response of musicians from around the world asking to play here in Colne,” said festival director, Jason Elliott.
“Every one of this summer's headliners is supported by other acts who could just as easily be topping the bill themselves.
"We are now in a situation where we are being courted by other huge international bands looking for a slot in 2018 already, such has
been the buzz around what we have been doing.”
The festival gets underway on the Friday with triple bills at both Pendle Hippodrome and the main stage at the Muni.
On Saturday and Sunday afternoons a range of highly talented professional acts will rub shoulders with the cream of emerging young talent, selected by the Jessica Foxley Unsigned project. Blues star Tom Attah will also be hosting an acoustic blues showcase at Colne Little Theatre. Festivalgoers can buy a ticket for the afternoon sessions at three main venues - the Muni, the Pendle Hippodrome and Little Theatre - allowing them to choose from the wide range of musicians on offer.
Each of the daytime sessions will be topped off by a band, hand picked for dancing to, before the venues close for a swift clean up and for the stage to be re-set for the evening sessions.
These will be individual, ticket-only shows, each one with three acts, including headliners. Each one of these triple-billed shows will be priced lower than the standard entry ticket for just the headliner.
“We appreciate the need for financial sustainability and to look after residents' hard earned money,” said Cllr Joe Cooney, chairman of the blues working group, “but we also have a responsibility to provide the best possible services for them, so we've negotiated some great rates
to bring these acts here at a lower cost to the public than normally seen anywhere else in the country.”
Colne Town Council chief executive Colin Hill, added: “Over the last nine weeks, since the town council decided to step in to save the festival, we have been working hard with councillors, Jason, and his team to pull together all of the event and financial infrastructure to make this happen and are really excited that we are now ready to officially launch The Great British Rhythm and Blues Festival at Colne for 2017 ahead of schedule."
For full details and tickets, visit bluesfestival.co.uk
Line-up
Friday evening
Hippodrome Theatre
Tom Attah & The Bad Man Clan
Lachy Doley
Ian Siegal with his band
The Muni
The Revelator Band
Stevie Nimmo Trio
Joanne Shaw Taylor
The Paddy Maguire Midnight Jam Session
Saturday daytime
Hippodrome Theatre
12.30pm Finalist – Jessica Foxley Unsigned Project
1.15pm Finalist – Jessica Foxley Unsigned Project
2pm Matt Edwards Band
3pm Paddy Maguire Band ft. Jenna Hooson
4pm Miles Gilderdale
5pm-6pm Northsyde
6.10pm Closed for turnaround
The Muni
12.30pm Finalist – Jessica Foxley Unsigned Project
1.15pm Finalist – Jessica Foxley Unsigned Project
2pm Yoka & The Sugarbeats
3pm Gerry Jablonski Band
4pm Crosscut Saw
5pm-6pm The Katie Bradley Band
6.10pm Closed for turnaround
Colne Little Theatre
Tom Attah's Acoustic Blues Showcase
1pm Mat Walklate & Paolo Fuschi
2pm Lucy Zirins & Company
3pm TNT – TJ Norton & Tom Attah
4pm Julian Burdock & Danny del Toro
5pm-6pm The Delta Ladies
6.10pm Closed for turnaround
Saturday evening
Hippodrome Theatre
TJ & The Suitcase Colne Special
Rob Tognoni
Aynsley Lister
The Muni
The Kaz Hawkins Band
Jo Harman
Janiva Magness
The Paddy Maguire Midnight Jam Session
Sunday daytime
Hippodrome Theatre
12.30 Finalist – Jessica Foxley Unsigned Project
1.15pm Finalist – Jessica Foxley Unsigned Project
2pm Husky Tones
3pm Will Wilde Band
4pm Walrus (ft Rosco Levee)
5pm Dove & Boweevil
6.10pm Closed for turnaround
The Muni
12.30pm Finalist – Jessica Foxley Unsigned Project
1.15pm Finalist – Jessica Foxley Unsigned Project
2pm Elles Bailey
3pm Lisa Mills
4pm Alex McKown Band
5pm-6pm Wolfpack
Colne Little Theatre
Tom Attah's Acoustic
Blues Showcase
1pm Dale Storr
2pm Jess Gardham
3pm Jack Blackman
4pm The Hailbails
5pm-6pm Dave Arcari
Sunday evening
Hippodrome Theatre
Michael Messer's Mitra
Clay Shelburn
Lucky Peterson
The Muni
Gwyn Ashton
John Fairhurst
King King
The Paddy Maguire Midnight Jam Session
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