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.
Saturday 19th July
I kicked off Day 2 with a visit to Bar 7 to see Fearless Scoundrels who were promoting their new album ‘Too Damn Blue’. They have a great dual lead guitar sound, playing off each other, & multi harmony vocals led blues-rock sound. They kicked off with ‘Boogie Man’ with its up-tempo style and also included from their new album ‘Truck Through my Heart’. They were also joined by Mike Smith on harmonica for a few songs including Dr Feelgood’s ‘Back in the Night’.
Moving back to the Acoustic Roots stage the day started with The Peccadillos with their blues, blue grass & country sound with twangy steel guitar and upright bass with great dual vocals. This included a Dolly Parton style song with ‘John the Navigator’
They were followed by the very excitable Thomas Heppell with his growing fanbase for his authentic blues guitar and vocals sound, at his first time at Upton Blues. His set included ‘Victim of Circumstance’ and crowd participation on ‘John the Revelator’. He was joined by guest guitarist C Bone on ‘Rollin’ and Tumblin’’. He also included mellow song ‘What Causes a Man to Break’ about trying to get over difficult times. He finished with a BB King song and traditional walkabout with ‘Every Day I Got the Blues’ before he invited C Bone back for the encore.
Moving to the Riverside stage I watched a great performance from Stourport’s Chloe Mogg (who was new to me) with songs from her debut album ‘The Crazy One’ including ‘Spelling Bee’ with its up-tempo blues rock beat, with its reflection on identity and the challenges on growing up. She also included a bit of Prog Rock with ‘Brownie’ and a great version of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Heartbreaker. She finished with ‘Better Off’ a heavy blues-rock song with great rhythm section and great guitar from Leif and powerful vocals from Chloe. Definitely one to watch and go and see, who is great mates with Blue Nation’s Neil Murdoch.
Passed by the White Lion to catch Sons of the Delta led by Mark Cole on vocals, guitar & harmonica and a poorly Rick Edwards on lead guitar. Their set included a slower version of the jump jive song ‘Skin & Bone’ with powerful vocals from Mark.
Back down the High Street to the Acoustic Roots stage there were excellent performances from the excitable Glaswegian Dave Arcari with his trad blues style on steel guitar. His set included one from 20 years ago ‘Bring My Baby Back’, as well as a couple of songs on banjo including ‘Whisky Trail’ about the local distilleries and back on steel guitar with ‘Good Friend’ which was the first song he ever wrote. He was joined by Trevor Babajack Steger on harmonica on ‘Loch Lomond Home’.
He was followed by Old Baby Mackerel from Bristol with their 4-piece band, including banjo and mandolin with a great bluegrass sound, who included a recently written song ‘We Are Going To Nashville’. This was their first time at Upton Blues and they finished with ‘Lost & Lonesome’ with great banjo, mandolin & guitar and lively multi harmonies, with solid backing from standup bass.
Then after being back stage sorting out the bands Trevor Babajack Steger took to the stage for his own slot introduced by his good friend from MuMu Audio. Trevor was on guitar, harmonica and his distinctive gruff styled vocals with Jo Chambers on violin and Jesse Benz on cajon & percussion. His set included ‘Ramblin Man’ and ‘Back to the River’ as well as a love song dedicated to his wife Emma ‘Crazy’.
Then we had the Acoustic Roots stage headliner for Saturday with Belfast’s Dom Martin. The church was packed to capacity with people sitting at the front and standing at the back. He started with a dedicated to Robin Trower (who he supported earlier this year) with his song ‘Althea’ played on electric guitar. Moving back to acoustic guitar he gave us some mesmerising performances on covers such as ‘Jelly Roll Blues’ and John Martin’s ‘Discover the Lover’ as well as his own brilliant ‘Belfast Blues’. After a traditional walkabout playing guitar around the church, he finished for an encore with ‘Bankers Blues’
Moving across to the Meadow stage we had the headliners for Saturday with The Cinelli Brothers with special guest Mark Cole on harmonica. Their set included some of their own songs including ‘Last Roll of the Dice’ as well as covers of Steve Miller Band’s ‘Jetliner’ and The Beatles ‘Don’t Let Me Down’. Mark Cole joined on harmonica for some swanpy Mississippi blues with great guitars, keyboards from Marco and great drumming from Alessandro.