Bonn’s Alten Zoll isn’t the only place near the University that workmen have been frantically re-constructing. Last week saw the Stadtgarten concert stage arising from the ash of the boules courtyard next to the Biergarten and last night saw the first concert of the new season with Belgian band The Herfsts and Bonn’s own Steal a Taxi on hand to ease the stress of a hard week’s work.
Category Archives: News
Mojo Magic with Marco Marchi
I’m on the roof of the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn. It’s called the General Anzeiger Sommergarten and whilst the sky above it might be grey, the music on the stage this overcast Summer Sunday is very definitely Blue. Marco Marchi and the Mojo Workers are new to Bonn but not so new to the Blues scene. Although only formed in 2009 as a trio the quartet have played many of the major Festivals across Europe, you might have seen them for instance at the Piazza Blues in Bellinzona or at the Blues Summit in Geneva where they were the winners of the Swiss Blues Challenge and went on to be the Countries first representatives at the prestigious International Blues Challenge in Memphis.
Laurence Jones – Take Me High (RUF )
Fifty years on from the famous ‘Beano’ album featuring Eric Clapton with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers Producer Mike Vernon still gets a tingle of excitement when he hears someone bringing something special to the Blues. In 2010 a young Brit named Oli Brown excited Vernon enough to lure him out of retirement – in 2016 another young Brit has caught the great man’s attention. Laurence Jones is the young man in question and ‘Take Me High’ could almost have been what Jones said to lure Vernon back into the studio. the result is one of the best guitar sounds I’ve heard on a disc for years and very possibly the start of something very big indeed.
Rheinbach Classics – Big Cars & Big Skirts
The 50’s were a time when life was simpler, men were politer and cars were… well, the best were big and American. Truth or fiction? It’s certainly true that there are an awful lot of people who would like to be living then in preference to now and in a World of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump who can blame them? Rheinbach is a place many such people can be found once a year,some 25000 people in fact visited the festival to see or drive the ‘Oldtimers’ and as my blue suede shoes were being re-soled Andreas Terhaer made a visit on the Festival Friday of Rheinbach Classics to capture not the classic oldtime cars but instead some of the classic old time music.
Chris deBurgh and a Lady in…
“I once did a song about a lady wearing a particular colour. Can’t remember which colour now… Anyway, this song was the sequel to it” No prizes for guessing that the original song was ‘Lady in Red’ and the man in front of us on a cloud covered Kunstrasen stage was an Irishman named Chris de Burgh. Did it rain? It did. Could he stop it raining? No he couldn’t. Could he make us forget it was raining? Well, he did his best.
Rockaue 2016
Famous for 15 minutes? The music flew so thick and fast on Saturday at the Rheinpark that the biggest danger was having your set forgotten a half hour later. I am indeed envious of the heavy metal or local hero fans who could stay in one place for the day. For the rest of us who wanted a taste of everything it was a challenge – and for those I missed, I salute you and apologize. This year’s Rockaue, the second of its kind, was indeed a chameleon of a beast.
Mark Forster – Musical Medicine at Kunstrasen
My last visit to the Kunstrasen caught arch rapper Sido in action. This time around it was time to catch a man who’s duetted with him – Mark Cwuertnia aka Mark Forster. Yet another occasion when I forgot my baseball cap. Forster’s own cap is probably glued to his head (try finding a picture of him hatless!) but the head underneath it is pretty good at creating catchy pop songs with a street cred appeal as this evening proved.
Not Open Air? – Frank Turner Raises the Roof
His right forearm has a tattoo of Elvis punching the air in the 50’s, his left a tattoo of Freddie Mercury doing the same in the 80’s. Right here and now, at 8.15pm on 29 June 2016, at the Brückenforum in Bonn Beuel, Frank Turner has his own arm raised, hand balled into a fist. And it’s only the second song in the set…