Despite popular legend there are actually not two but three things in life that are guaranteed – Death, Taxes and a Julian Sas show in November at Bonn Harmonie. You could even buy tickets for next year’s concert whilst you waited for Julian to kick off this years show. My guess is that next year will shortly also be sold out – like 20 of Julian’s 22 concerts here at the Harmonie have been – presented as ever by Mr Music himself Bernie Gelhausen.
How does Julian Sas do it? Year after year. Well I’ve been here for a large proportion of those shows myself. In fact the couple standing next to me remembered that they were standing next to me last year too. I remember taking a picture many years ago now before the show of the assembled Sas Fan Club that had driven over the border from Holland. It’s the same faces – give or take a few. Bernie notices the missing faces too – rather like a shepherd whose flock seems thinner than it was. In tonight’s case though it’s not wolves but that other ruthless predator – age – that is most likely to blame.
Today, in 2025 though, Julian’s concert is once again a sell-out. Getting from front to back of hall takes a good five minutes to achieve, add another two minutes if you’re heading for the balcony, where steps have become seats. Toilets? Forget it if there’s no-one to hold your place – and not even a break mid-set for air. When Julian Sas starts at 8 pm he plays through the evening non-stop.
That’s nothing new for Julian’s many fans of course. Neither is the set itself radically new. The best songs, and also best applause, goes to long standing Sas favourites like ‘Blues for J’, ‘Tail Dragger’ and Devil Got My Number’‘. All of them played impeccably by the big man in the black headband.
Three heroes of Julian’s are name-checked tonight – The first of them in a short monologue: Julian tells of seeing “Maybe in 1989” a concert by Johnny Winter and falling in love. Not so much with Johnny himself, but more particularly with Johnny’s guitar – his famed Gibson Firebird. “I wanted one so much, it looked so cool!” he recounted. Such guitars are not easy to find – but, he continued, “Come Christmas there was a large present in the corner of the room for me… and it’s still with me today”. The look in his eyes as he looks down onto the Gibson Firebird perched on his shoulder and ready to play is like that look in a child’s eyes when he gets that present, the one he always wanted. It’s also a part of what makes Julian’s music special for so many people. An enthusiasm for playing that is almost childlike. But then Julian starts running a slide over the guitar strings, and pretty soon the main reason he has so many faithful fans is clear – that he is a phenomenal guitar player. We’ll hear the fiery side later of course on Julian’s take of the Hendrix classic ‘Hey Joe’, but the slow blues that he served up this evening was worth the admission price on it’s own and a masterclass of controlling tempo, tone and volume.
I mentioned two of Julian’s heroes getting namechecks this evening. Johnny Winter and Jimi Hendrix are high on the hero lists for most electric rock guitarists who have passed a certain age. The third name here is of course that of Rory Gallagher. We’ve already heard one hard hitting encore with ‘Hey Joe’ followed by a rocking ‘Devil Got My Number’ and the band has been onstage for two hours without a break when The lights go back down and Julian emerges back into the spotlight. “We still have ten minutes” he tells us to a roar of approval from the audience. And then, with a wink – “That’s about how long it will take for the police to arrive!”. Time for a Rory song…
It’s time for ‘Bullfrog Blues‘, and although there’s no Rory-style duckwalking, the power and authenticity of the G Man’s music and soul is, for ten minutes, alive among us again for sure. It occurs to me as I listen that Julian’s band seems to have been handpicked for that no-nonsense Gallagher Blues sound.
Bassman Edwin van Huik is largely rooted to the spot thumping out deep bass accompaniments. Very much as Gerry MacAvoy was in Rory’s heyday, although not as insanely frantic. On drums, Lars Erik van Elzakker is a heavy hitter just like Rory’s sticksman during the ’80’s Ted McKenna. The rest, as with Rory, is all down to the man on guitar. Rory Gallagher used his Irish Showband experience to cover both rhythm and lead parts which Julian doesn’t have in his dutch upbringing of course – but he learned it through listening to Mr Gallagher himself for sure.
The police don’t come, but the end of the show sadly does. Soon afterwards Julian is down by the merchandise stand happily chatting to fans about blues, about guitars and about shows and band members past. He was entered into the Dutch Blues Hall of Fame this year but the fact that Julian Sas does not make it into more Blues award ceremonies is unbelievable. I suspect though that, rather like Rory, Julian doesn’t play the Blues for fame – he plays it because it’s what he feels born to do. “You don’t know what you want” he sings in ‘Burnin’ Soul’. Julian did know exactly though – What he wanted was a Gibson Firebird – and to play the Blues.
