Loving what you've paid up for

(Morning Star, Saturday 09 July 2005)

LIVE: Dundee Blues Bonanza, various venues, Dundee

THE best thing about free music festivals is that, no matter how bad the performers are, a punter will never go home feeling cheated - and if they're good, no-one would have minded paying anyway.

So paying up must have been far from the minds of hundreds of music fans on the way home from Hyde Park last Saturday after seeing Madonna and Robbie Williams haul their tired carcasses across the stage at Live 8. A few hundred miles north, the cause wasn't as worthy but the entertainment was a vast improvement.

At the eleventh Dundee Blues Bonanza, over 130 bands played in 32 venues across the city. If you could crowbar yourself into any one of those venues, there was a treat in store.

Well, not just any venue. First up, in the Nether Inn was Little Miss Debby, Glasgow's answer to, um, Lulu. She offered a frankly terrifying take on a handful of soul standards - including The Spencer Davis Group's Gimme Some Lovin' - and a raucous vocal that was more given to rock than blues.

The Globe played host to the Dukes of Hazard, a band that is devoted to Snow Patrol and Pearl Jam in equal measure but who are none the worse for it.

Followers the Blue Devils were the first whiff all day of actual blues, complete with mouth organ, while a delighted crowd at the Doghouse enjoyed Gary Miller's rockabilly old school.

Bar Rio played host to the gem of the weekend, Mojo Rising. The name is a mistake but the female vocals are a Mary Chapin Carpenter-tinged dream. Popl Nero wound up the evening with Bottleneckers, a group of young whippersnappers clearly committed to bluesing up Dundee. Definitely worth anyone's hard-earned cash.