This week sees two events of particular interest to Rory Gallagher fans in Bonn: A concert on Tuesday (15 Oct) by Band of Friends including ex-Gallagher band members bassist Gerry MacAvoy and drummer Brendan O’Neill. Also, an auction at Bonhams in London to sell off much of the gear belonging to Rory which has been looked after by his brother Donal since the guitarist’s tragic death after liver transplant complications in 1995. Centre of the auction will undoubtedly be Rory’s iconic Fender Stratocaster from 1961 bought by Rory as a young teenager on a monthly payment plan and played constantly by him throughout his career. There was a short period when he was unable to play the guitar after it was stolen. Even then, it was so famous that the thieves couldn’t sell it and it was literally ‘ditched’ by them. Now it’s expected to top the million pounds mark at auction. What do his former band-mates, who saw and used this gear on a daily basis think of all this?

Read on.

Wicked Grin have been around a while now. Picking up blues music awards aplenty along the way. Why the need to advertise concerts as Murray Kinsley & Wicked Grin?

We’ve been around quite a long time yeah. We’ve been, well, The Wicked Grin I guess since about 2001, and now ‘Murray Kinsley and Wicked Grin’.  What happened was, we started touring a lot as a three-piece because of the finances of touring, and some places would say it’s not the band that’s on the poster!  Well, see, in Ontario which is where we’re from in Canada, we’re close to home so we quite often tour as a quartet.  we have a harmonica player from Ottawa who’s on most of our records.  But then we have another harmonica player in Southern Ontario who plays with us on the road because the harmonica player in Ottawa doesn’t want to travel!We do a lot of touring as a three-piece, like, we tour most of the time in the US as a three-piece.   

Monday’s concert was very much a homecoming for Richard Bargel. A full house and tumultuous applause Unter der Zeder was a just reward for Richard’s long involvement on the Blues/Folk scene, and his recent award from the Deutsches Schallplattenkritik (his third!) is proof that the Man is still very much a force to be reckoned with on the international music scene. I asked Richard about his career, his music, and also his connections to Bonn and Bad Godesberg…

Dottendorf might be a small part of Bonn but it has become a big part of Jazz in the area. On 24 March the new Dottendorfer Jazznacht Season gets underway – for the 100th time! 3songsbonn took the opportunity to ask Festival organizer Herbert Kaupert his thoughts on the success of this excellent jazz venue’s history and future.

The lyrics of Tom Robinson’s hit songs were always just that bit different to the numerous other punk bands decrying late 70’s Britain. If there was a cause worth fighting for Tom, would be heard fighting it with an irresistible mix of catchy riff and razor-sharp lyrical insight. Forty five years on from the classic TRB album ‘Power in the Darkness’ how far have we come down the road of equality that songs like ‘Glad to be Gay’ and ‘Up Against the Wall’ cried out for? I asked Tom this very question before his show at the Harmonie in Bonn.