The Best of Blues at the o2: BluesFest 2018 review

The annual BluesFest came to the o2 this weekend, featuring an all-star line up of some of the biggest names in blues music. From John Fogerty to Robert Plant, BluesFest had it all. 

I went up on the Thursday and again on the Sunday to see what went down.

Thursday

Steve Miller kicked the BluesFest off playing all the favourites from his iconic albums ‘Fly Like An Eagle’ and ‘Book of Dreams’.

Steve Miller is now in his 50th year of touring and many of his shows take place in the US, this was the first time he had played in the UK since 2012. Knowing this made the performance feel extra special as I was well aware of the exclusivity of a UK performance by Steve.

Steve Miller brought out one of the first instruments he bought. The so-called sitar guitar which he bought for $150 out of a bargain barrel at a guitar store in New York.

Joseph Wooten is Steve Miller’s keyboard player and wow, I’ve never seen someone play keys as fast as this guy, amazing!

Next up was John Fogerty, former Creedence Clearwater Revival singer and guitarist.

The set opened with a montage of clips from the psychedelic 60s, complete with clips of Woodstock and hippies in tie-dye.

John Fogerty even had a piece of Woodstock with him, he was using one of the guitars he had played there.

John played with his son Shane on guitar.

Younger son Tyler came out to sing ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’ and ‘Psycho‘. Shane and Tyler have their own band called Hearty Har, and with a voice like Tyler Fogerty they are destined for great things.

John Fogerty certainly knows how to put on a show. During one song, a mini marching band made its way round those who were lucky enough to be at the front.

Streamers shot out at the end of the iconic anti-war song ‘Fortunate Son‘ and the finale ‘Proud Mary’ ended with more streamers.

Sunday

The final day of BluesFest kicked off with The White Buffalo, the creation of American musician Jake Smith.

Those of you lucky enough to live in California should get down to one of his solo acoustic performances. The White Buffalo played an energetic set of Southern American country. Definitely worth checking out.

Alison Krauss was up next with none other than the two members of the Cox Family.

Alison has a phenomenal 27 Grammy awards making her the most awarded singer in Grammy history.

Alison is an iconic voice in blues music, coupled with beautiful harmonies provided by the Cox family’s made for a soothing second to last set of BluesFest.

Counting Crows finished it all off.

The expressive Adam Duritz mixes poetic soft rock with spoken word where he reflects on his experiences moving around America as a child.

I was a bit sad they didn’t play their Shrek 2 song ‘Accidentally in Love’ but they did play their hit track ‘Mr Jones’.

They didn’t fit many songs into their set either due to Adam rambling on for long periods of time. Nevertheless a chilled out way to finish BluesFest.

See you next year BluesFest!

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