FESTIVAL FORUM
Debate, discussion and argument - gear, bands and gigs - it's your call
PROGRAMME
What's on? Click to find out
All the bands, venues and times
2004 FESTIVAL ARTISTES
The who's who of Festival 2004; pictures, links, the lot
ARTISTES
Many of the Fest bands and musicians
who have appeared over the years
Bio's, pic's and loads of info.
2004 GIG REVIEWS
Photo's and Gig Reviews of ALL the stages/venues of Festival 2004
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PREVIOUS FESTIVALS
Vast archive of Photo's and Gig Reviews of Previous Festivals
ACOUSTIC STAGE
The "Acoustic Stage" (in reality an eclectic mix of music from Delta Blues to
flat out rock) at The Shore Hotel has it's own website which is now updated
with new pictures and info..
SPONSORS
Without our sonsors
there would be no
Fest - Who are these
generous people?
ISLE OF MAN BLUES CLUB
The Manx Blues Club; where the Festival sprang from
venue, dates, history etc..
TICKETS
The Festival is mostly FREE
but which stages require tickets?
Click here for all the info
ARTISTES
Bio's, pic's and loads of info on most of the artistes that have ever appeared.
VENUES
Info & Location
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MAP
Where is it? Here!
Includes Photo's of Laxey
TRAVEL
How to get to the Isle of Man
Stage: MAIN STAGE GIG REPORT 2003
Photo's and Report on the
Charterhouse International Blues Pavilion
Main Stage
Stage: ACOUSTIC STAGE
The Acoustic Stage has it's own web
site. You can check out: Previous
fest.s, pictures and details.
Domicilium: Internet Providers to the Festival
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Bushy's Big Wheel Blues Festival 2003 is
a fund raising event for the British Red
Cross. Please give generously.
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Lester William Polfus Born June 9th 1915 in Waukesha, Wisconsin
21st October 2005
"There are a lot of great guitar players out there, but not many of them have
what it takes to be truly great. You have to have rhythm, which you can't
purchase in a store. You have to have an ear for music, which you can't buy.
You have to have soul, which you can't buy. These are things that you're gifted
with. Another is perseverance, and another is a sense of humor. You see, when
you play with your hands, you have to think the whole audience is made of
foreigners. You have to raise your sight, lower your sight, and find where your
audience is. Then, of course, you get your standing ovation!"
Les Paul
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Les Paul, 90, Rocks in 2005.
Take it from
Peter Frampton,
or from
Jeff Beck,
Eric Clapton,
Pete Townshend
or
Jimmy Page
-- they all owe a debt to Les Paul, father of the electric guitar.
"They all mention Les as an inspiration because of (his) early records, which
were jaw-dropping when you first heard them as a novice guitarist," says
Frampton, who recalls learning licks from Paul's records as a nine-year-old
in England. "We revere him, but Les is so genuine and down-to-earth that he's
still one of the lads."
Jeff Beck plays a Gibson Les Paul
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At age 90, the man who developed the solid-body electric guitar, and who has
long been a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has finally released his
first rock album, Les Paul & Friends: American Made, World Played. The list of
friends includes Frampton, Beck, Clapton,
Billy Gibbons
of ZZ Top, Bon Jovi's
Richie Sambora
and other guitar legends as well as Sting, Joss Stone, Joe Perry and Hucknall
(nothing's perfect)
"They're not only my friends, but they're great players," Paul said in a
telephone interview from his New Jersey home. "I never stop being amazed by all
the different ways of playing the guitar and making it deliver a message."
This is Paul's first new recording since the mid-1970s, when he released two
albums with the legendary country guitarist
Chet Atkins,
including Chester &
Lester, which won a Grammy for best country instrumental album.
Born Lester William Polsfuss on June 9, 1915, to a German immigrant family in
Waukesha, Wisconsin, Paul has done more than perhaps any other individual to
create
the tools and techniques that shaped the past 60 years of pop music -- from
Alvin and the Chipmunks' sped-up tapes to ZZ Top-style southern rock powered by
Gibson's Les Paul-model guitars.
Paul built one of the first prototypes for the solid-body electric guitar in
1941 which he affectionately dubbed the "log".
Les Paul started it in the 1940's with the "log" but for half a century the
Gibson Les Paul has been the guitar of choice for many of the world's elite
players - click to enlarge
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After repeated rejections, Gibson finally began mass-producing a guitar
based on Paul's design in 1952.
Paul also developed many of the recording techniques such as multi-tracking and
echo delay that made possible such classic rock albums as the Beatles' Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Only Paul could have brought together the disparate all-star lineup of jazz and
rock guitarists who turned up at Carnegie Hall during the jazz festival in June
for a 90th birthday tribute concert. More than a dozen guitarists -- from jazz
veterans Bucky Pizzarelli and Pat Martino to rockers Frampton and
Steve Miller
-- performed separately and then crowded the stage to join Paul for a
rollicking jam session on Let the Good Times Roll.
Jazz guitarists revere Paul as one of the first to make the electric guitar a
lead solo instrument. In the 1940s, Paul earned renown in jazz circles for
keeping up with the lightning-fast runs of pianist
Art Tatum
in jam sessions
and giving a memorable performance with pianist
Nat King Cole
at the first
Jazz
At The Philharmonic concert.
An early image of Les Paul in his studio
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Even though the rock revolution led Paul to retire from public performing in
the mid-1960s, he was never disparaging of the upstart younger guitarists. Jimi
Hendrix was among the many rock stars who would call Paul for tips.
His numerous other accomplishments include designing the first eight-track tape
recorder for Ampex and an early-model synthesizer to create sound effects,
which he called the Les Paulverizer.
Though they were amicably divorced in 1965, Les Paul and wife, Mary Ford, were
inducted into the Grammy Hall of
Fame. He received a Grammy Trustees Award for his lifetime achievements in
1983. In 1988, Paul was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Jeff
Beck, who said, "I've copied more licks from Les Paul than I'd like to admit."
In May 2005, Paul was inducted into the National Inventors' Hall of Fame in
Akron, Ohio, earning a spot alongside Thomas A. Edison and the Wright Brothers.
None of the musicians on the new record has a closer relationship to Paul than
Miller, who prefaces Fly Like An Eagle with a homemade tape recording of the
guitarist encouraging him to sing when he was a young boy in Milwaukee.
Miller's father was the best man at Paul's wedding to singer Mary Ford.
"Les taught me my first chords on guitar when I was about four-and-a-half...
and he's been my mentor for my entire life," said Miller. "I was light years
ahead of everybody else because I was right there when this guy was inventing
most of the stuff. The thing about Les that's different from everybody else is
that he has such
generosity, respect and encouragement for all musicians," says Miller, 61. "He
never discriminated against anyone if they played loud horrible buzztone guitar
or the best jazz guitar in the world, he treated everybody equally."
On the album, Paul plays lead guitar on only one track. On the others, he
listened to the lead and solo tracks recorded by the guest stars, then recorded
his own riffs, trills and other accompaniments at his new state-of-the-art home
studio.
"What surprised me the most was Les's continuing desire to innovate and learn
new things," said Fran Cathcart, who co-produced the CD. "He learned a whole
new
Les Paul and his wife Mary Ford who had several hit records together - click to enlarge
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set of songs in a whole different style than he's ever been used to and
actually used different guitar tones than he's ever used before."
Paul acknowledges that he can no longer play the way he did at his peak.
Arthritis has gnarled his fingers and he has needed a hearing aid since a
friend playfully cuffed his ear and broke an eardrum back in 1970. He has taken
to heart the advice given to him by a nurse who showed up shortly after he
started playing at New York's Iridium Jazz Club in 1996.
"She said, 'Don't make the mistake of trying to play like you did when you were
a kid, you're never going to do it, so play like you play now,' " Paul
remembers. "All these guys... play so fast, but the guy that wins is the guy
that plays the melody and reaches the heart."
But what keeps Paul going more than anything else are his Monday night gigs at
the Iridium, where
Paul McCartney
or
Bob Dylan
might turn up in the audience
and legends like
Tony Bennett,
Keith Richards
or Jeff Beck might show up on
stage.
"I wouldn't miss Monday for anything," Paul said. "It gives you a reason to get
out of bed other than to go to the bathroom."
Les Paul Biography
(interesting pics too)
here
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