_-_India_03.JPG "Ooty")
No blues has been invited by a brand new festival called MAD, this alone is good news, what makes it special is the location, Ooty, India!
On the sixth of april NO blues will not only perform but also teach a master class Arabicana.
Please stay tuned because chances are when they return, NO blues has blended Arabicana with Oriental. If you want to make sure you’ve see them in there characteristic style before the head of to India, see the gig list below.
[Translated from Swedish] The dutch group NO blues have been noticed for their way of blending american folk/blues with arabic music, “arabicana”. The blend itself may be not so surprising, but it is always fun with music that is unpredictable. This blend remains on “Hela hela”, the groups fourth album since the debut in 2005. Simultaneously there are some scents added from Africa, Balkan and the Keltic area. The main core is also accompanied by two interesting guest artists – Shereene Danial (song) and Morad Khoury (violin). The result is is a versatile production that leads the audience right through continents. Maybe this mix can be percieved as a little too multicoloured this time. Another contradiction runs between feeling and perfection – the studio atmosphere gets a little too obvious at times. Despite these weaknesses it is exciting to follow the strokes of the group from various directions. NO blues is mastering all of this.
Swedish daily paper Hallandsposten , on January 4
Gert-Ove Fridlund
After a new years break, NO blues is going back into the rehearsel studio next week to work on some new material. The plan is to write instrumental tunes. Some of the new songs will be played in the coming theatre shows. Exciting!
Come and see us: 26/01 Zaantheater Zaandam, 28/01 Schouwburg Het Park Hoorn, 02/02 Schouwburg Ogterop Meppel, 04/02 Witte Theater ijmuiden, 09/02 Vereeniging Nijmegen, 10/02 De Fransche School Culemborg & 24/02 Deventer Schouwburg.
Nog voor we het jaar afsluiten gaat heel Nederland naar huis met een kerstpakket met allerlei prullaria waar je nog jaren lang tegenaan zit te kijken maar nooit gebruikt. NO blues wil haar fans ook naar huis laten gaan met een kerstpakket en niet zo maar ééntje. In januari en februari zijn we weer volop te zien in de theaters in Nederland en jij maakt kans op allle cd’s van NO blues en 2 vrijkaarten voor één van die theaterconcerten. De volgende plaatsen gaan we van een flink portie Arabicana voorzien:
26 januari Zaantheater Zaandam, 28 januari Schouwburg Het Park Hoorn, 2 februari Ogterop Meppel, 3 februari De Vereeniging Nijmegen, 4 februari Witte Theater IJmuiden, 10 februari De Fransche School Culemborg, 24 februari Schouwburger Theater Deventer.
Wat moet je daar voor doen:
Ga op onze facebook pagina naar ‘Win jij het kerspakket van NO blues’ bericht en deel dat bericht met al je vrienden en voeg in de tekst toe waarom jij het kerstpakket van NO blues verdiend/moet/wil winnen.
Fijne kerst en we hopen je weer gezond en wel te zien in 2012 bij één van de theaters.
De winnaar wordt in de eerste week van januari bekend gemaakt
Groet Anne-Maarten, Haytham, Osama, Ad & Ankie
Als voorbereiding op de theatertour 2011 2012 speelt NO blues bij de JaBo Gumbo show op radio 6. Jaap Boots zegt zelf dat hij zijn muziek het liefst zo puur en onversneden mogelijk heeft, maar voor de band NO blues maakt hij graag een uitzondering. Vraag niet hoe het kan, maar profiteer er van! Gratis entertainment van subliem niveau! Zaterdag 19 november 14.00-16.00 uur radio6 , later on demand
Kijk hier op de website van JaBo Gumbo Show
“Als je als bluesliefhebber naar een theaterconcert gaat van NO blues dan word je alleen al door de naam op het verkeerde been gezet. De speelvloer is prachtig uitgelicht, maar de band komt in het donker op.
Alleen de Arabische elfsnarige luitspeler Haytham Safia uit Galilea zit in de spotlight. Voor hem is het een speciale avond aangezien zijn ouders in de zaal zitten. Hij begint met een zinderende luitsolo. Dit snijdt allemachtig veel hout, het gaat dwars door de ziel heen. Daarna vallen de andere muzikanten in……” lees verder
Meer foto’s van het concert door Bert Lek.
Review ‘Hela Hela’ from Paris. See whole article in french.
Article_paris-move_Hela Hela
We continue this roadstory while travelling from Thessaloniki to Patras in our tourvan with Lavros. Although we usually hate the long drives (and this is a 7 hour one) this was quite a beautiful one. We started with sun at sea level in Thessaloniki and drove al the way into the mountains where it was snowing. We almost felt like we were on holiday in Swiss, but enjoyed throwing snowballs in Greece. First time for everything!
But even great scenery has its limits so we were quite happy to arrive in Patras and arriving at the Lithografeion. Outside the building there is almost no sign of the great venue it is inside. We had a strong feeling of entering the old Effenaar (the rock venue of Eindhoven in NL). The reception by the crew of the Lithografeion was great and we immediately felt like this was gonna be a quite different show. Ticket sales were really good and NO blues had been on the radio for almost 3 years in Patras.
At this stage we had no idea what the night would bring, so after the soundcheck we went out to find us some of he great Greek food. We will never go to a Greek restaurant in Holland expecting to have anything near to the quality of the restaurants we had dinner at during this tour.
When we arrived at the club again the street and club where crowded with people who where really looking forward to the show, what a great way to start the gig! Here and here is some footage of the show, maybe not the best one we ever did but it was sure full of energy! Great crowd too which fully enjoyed the show. When I was having a smoke outside (!) I got some letters from people about the gig. In Greek, so we couldn’t read a word, but Lavros and Dimitrios (who took a plain from the USA to see the gig) were kind enough to translate. Thank you dear writers!
We ended up in a nice pub called ‘the blue monday’ and had just a little bit too much to drink with our new friends form Patras, but a big thank you to promoter Christos, his staff and fans in Patras in place here! And you radio guys who spinnend our records for so many years: you rock!
We spent whatever little was left of the night to catch up some sleep before leaving to Athens tomorrow.
We get all sorts of requests to play somewhere in the world, most of them unfortunately will not result in a real gig or tour.
Sometimes it is the money, sometimes festivals or promoters change their mind, but most of the time it is our busy schedule that makes it impossible. It is also always an experiment to go to a country for the first time; new people, new audiences and new promoters. You just never know what to expect.
So when we got an email from Athens inquiring if we were able to do a short tour in Greece (Athens, Patras and Thessaloniki) in the beginning of February we were happy, but not already packing our stuff.
We never played in Greece before, did not sell thousands of CD’s over there and were unsure if we had airplay. The only thing we were sure of was Anne-Maarten visiting a local club in Patras two years ago and finding himself listening to the music of NO blues.
So much for valid arguments to say yes or no to a 6 day tour to Greece. No advance payments, no returned contracts and slow replys on our emails. By that time we got an email from Aris, our local promoter in Athens, which contained the flight tickets. At that time we decided to take the risk and go to Greece.
Still a little unsure about the rock solidness of this tour we boarded our plain for Athens on Thursday February the 3rd. We left Holland on a beautiful sunny morning to arrive in Athens 6 hours later in a cold, stormy and very, very wet city. After a short meeting with Aris we left with Lavros (our driver) on a 7 hour drive through rain, wind and snow to Thessaloniki. So after we left home somewhere at 8 in the morning, we arrived in our hotel at 2:30 at night. Welcome to the reality of being on tour, it is 90% about waiting and travelling and 10% about playing.
After a short night we woke up in a different Thessaloniki: loads of sunshine and time for breakfast at Starbucks. The club we had to play was right next door to our hotel, so the best part of the day we spend with a walk along the beautiful seashore. It is always a good sign to find posters for the gig along the way:
Strangely enough we are thousands of miles from Deventer and still find a poster connecting us to our home venue the Burgerweeshuis (aka the Burgerproject). Tonights gig is in a club called RaiAlive. Most venues in Greece are privately owned and so gigs are a great financial risk for their owners. Together with the fact that there is a crises (and a big one) in Greece and everything in this country is open for negotiations , it was no miracle to us the owner liked to discuss a discount on the fee.
More ON this story in part 2
RSS
share