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.
Sunday 20th July
My Sunday journey started with Stroud’s Albino Tarantino on the Meadow stage with latin infused blues rock sound with great vocals from Aron Attwood and lead guitar from Robert Holmes. They included several songs from their debut album including the topical ‘Government’ which is about corruption and those abusing their power and ‘From a Frown to a Smile’ and covers from Willie Bobo with ‘Easy Ways’ and a brilliant version of Santana’s ‘Oye Como Ya’.
Over on the Acoustic Roots stage I caught a couple of numbers by The Spikedrivers before I went back to the Meadow stage and the North Worcestershire band ‘The Deadshots’ who were new to me. They had a high tempo mix of blues and punk inspired songs and played with their drummer standing up playing his drums with gusto throughout. The crowd really got down to the infectious sound and danced the afternoon away.
Back at the other end of town Jimmy Regal & The Royals were entertaining the crowds with their more traditional blues sound with great vocals and rhythm section.
Walking back down the high street to the Meadow stage again we had Portsmouth’s Amba Tremain and her band with her soul infused blues sound with great guitars and keyboards from Emily Francis. Their set included ‘Running, Running to You’ and a great version of ‘Call Me’ with Amba’s powerful vocals supported by her sister on backing vocals. She also included her first two singles with ‘Honestly’ and the funky number ‘Hell’ as well as a couple of new tracks from her upcoming new EP (due in October) with ‘Breathe’ and ‘Voodoo’.
To finish the night we had the brilliant Dom Martin on the Meadow stage supported by Ben Graham on bass and Fenton Parsons on drums.
The performance was full of extended songs showing Dom’s brilliant guitar work supported by the enthusiastic and excellent Ben on bass. They were greatly supported by Dom’s manager Fenton on Drums (filling in for regular Charlie Hanlon). The set included ‘Stupid Games’ and ‘Daylight I Will Find’ as well about a walkabout through the packed crowds by the Meadow stage. He also included a song from one of his influences from Ireland with Rory Gallager’s ‘Used to Be’.