The Upton Blues Festival 2025 was a spectacular success with mostly great weather for the massed crowds (estimated at 20,000 over the weekend). The Riverside & Meadow stages (put on by Stephen Steinhaus) and the Acoustic Roots stage (put on by Trevor Steger) were full of great acts along with the pubs of Upton-upon-Severn which also had a selection of great blues music too over the festival.
The headlights for me from the festival were the two brilliant performances by Belfast’s Dom Martin, one as headliner on Saturday in St & St Paul church on the Acoustic Roots stage and the second as headliner on the Meadow stage on Sunday night. There were also great performances from Laurence Jones, Thomas Heppell, Mississippi MacDonald, Dirty Ruby, Will Wilde, Albino Tarantino and Amba Tremain from bands I has seen before and excellent performances from Chloe Mogg, Born Healer, Del Bromham, The Deadshots, Old Baby Mackerel who were new live performers for me.
Friday 18th July
The main festival started on the Meadow stage with Bolohead (sadly without Stein who was recovering from illness) who were formally known as the UBF Under the Bridge Allstars and featured Val Vet on vocals, Jason Page on guitar and Jay Riley on sax. They played a mix of original songs as well as covers.
Kicking off the music from the Riverside stage we had East Midland band Dirty Ruby led by Anna Rose on vocals with some great blues numbers including ‘Money Talks’ ‘Blues, Blues, Blues’ as well as an authorised cover of the Sari Schorr song ‘Damn the Reason’. They also included the more personal song about Anna’s Mum’s fight with dementia ‘Blue November’.
They were followed on the Riverside stage with Red Giant who were a three-piece blues-rock band. The band is the brainchild of YouTube presenter Dave Simpson with their songs a journey through the dark side of life covering mental health, heartbreak and bullying amongst others. A heavy blues-rock sound with great vocals and rhythm section.
Down at the other end of Upton on the Meadow stage we had the London band Born Healers led by soulful blues singer Helen Turner with their great groovy sound that had the crowds dancing.
Moving across to the Acoustic Roots stage in the church we had some great blues acoustic performers with the enigmatic West Londoner from Acton Del Bromham with great songs including one ‘Jack Was Dead’ about his meeting with a New York mafia boss, who introduced him to bourbon (rather than whisky which he had drunk before). He was also joined by Trevor Babajack Steger on harmonica on a deep south train sounding song.
He was followed by Bella Collins from Cardiff with her passionate bluesy singing and guitar playing and also encouraged Trevor Babajack Steger to join her on stage on harmonica.
Next, we had Hull blues singer songwriter Half Deaf Clatch with his pre-war acoustic blues with great stories between his great songs with his gruff style of vocals and great picking on steel guitar.
He was followed by multi-award-winning blues artist Mississippi MacDonald playing some of his songs from his newly released album ‘Slim Pickin’ including ‘Strange Things are Happening Every Day’ and ‘Bad Attitude’ which was recorded in Memphis with local blues artists. He was also joined by singer RaRa and they played a couple of songs from her newly released album including ‘Love Look After Me' and Al Green's 'Let's Stay Together'.
Moving over to the Meadow stage we had the effervescent Geordie Sister Suzie and the Right Band with her funky soulful sound and lots of mischief encouraging the crowds to dance. She featured a great A Capella song with strong personal lyrics.
Up on the Riverside stage we had the great Will Wilde and his band with lots of great harmonica and powerful songs and performance.
Then on the Meadow stage we had the Friday headliner with Laurence Jones and his band. Laurence always puts on a great blues-rock show even though he has been struggling with bouts of Crohn’s disease this year. His set featured several extended songs from his last well received album ‘Bad Luck & the Blues’ including ‘Don’t Leave Me this Way’ as well as some of his classic songs like ‘What’s It Goin to Be’. As normal he included a tribute song to one of his guitar heroes Jimi Hendrix with a great version of ‘Voodoo Child’.