Milkfest ‘25, ‘A Celebration of British Blues’ in aid of The Brain Tumour Charity, was curated and organised by guitarist Adam Norsworthy from the British Blues band The Milk Men with assistance from AAA Entertainments, John Hendry, Mark Ede and Dennis Arnold. The mammoth eight-hour concert featured eight acts including Dr. Feelgood, When Rivers Meet, Toby Lee, Mollie Marriott, Jo Harman, Paul Jones & Dave Kelly, The Cinelli Brothers, and opening the show The Milk Men.

The Milk Men are a high-octane Blues Rock band in a similar vein to Dr. Feelgood, nominated twice in a row for ‘Best Blues Band’ at The UK Blues Awards. The band features Jamie Smy on vocals, Mike Roberts on drums, Adam Norsworthy on guitar and Lloyd Green on bass. Lloyd is the son of legendary Pirates guitarist Mick Green who sadly passed away in 2010. The band released their debut album ‘Full Phat’ in 2016, followed by ‘Gold Top’ in 2018, ‘Deliverance’ in 2020, ‘Spin the Bottle’ in 2022 and fifth studio album ‘Holy Cow’ in 2024. Their energetically barnstorming set featured selections from each of their studio albums including ‘Shoot the Lights’, ‘The Score’, ‘Cheap Seats’, ‘Fabulous’, ‘Give Me a Reason’, ‘One Man Band’, ‘Little Miss Attention’, The Who’s ‘Pinball Wizard’, ‘Hungover’ and ‘She Don’t Like Rock ‘N’ Roll’. Guitarist Todd Sharpville and his dog Genghis guested halfway through the set. It’s fair to say that Genghis stole the show! The bands blistering performance went down a storm and set the bar for the rest of the day’s proceedings. All acts got approximately forty-five minutes with fifteen minutes break for stage set up. The MC for the day was Mr. Stein, a friend of the band.

After a slick turn around, The Cinelli Brothers entered the stage to entertain us with their brand of Blues infused tunes. The Cinelli Brothers are brothers Marco (guitarist and lead singer) and Alessandro (drummer), joining the two brothers on stage were Tom Julian-Jones on harmonica, guitar and vocals and Stephen Giry on bass, guitar and vocals. Their debut album ‘Babe Please Set Your Alarm’ was released in May 2018 and went to number 2 in the IBBA (Independent Blues Broadcasters' Association) in June 2018, followed in 2021 by their second album, ‘Villa Jukejoint’. In 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, not only were the band nominated at the UK Blues Awards as “Blues Band of the Year”, but in January 2022 ‘Villa Jukejoint’ was also nominated for the UK Blues Awards as “Blues Album of the Year”. Indeed, in January 2023 their follow-up, ‘No Country for Bluesmen’, was also nominated for the UK Blues Awards as “Blues Album of the Year”. The band's well-received set included tracks from their three studio albums and had dedicated fans out of their seats and dancing in the aisles.

Giving the youngsters a break came a laid-back acoustic set from legendary lead vocalist and harmonica player with 60s hitmakers Manfred Mann, Paul Jones and slide-guitarist Dave Kelly, who had previously played with The John Dummer Band. Both were founding members of The Blues Band, which was formed in 1979. After releasing twenty-two studio albums, the group broke up in 2022. Paul Jones was of course there at the birth of British Blues back in the early 60s when he and Brian Jones made a pilgrimage to the famous Ealing Blues Club in West London to see Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies evolve Trad Jazz to incorporate Chicago Blues elements. The rest as they say is history! The duo’s chilled set included covers of influential classic Blues tunes by the likes of Lead Belly, Robert Johnson, Jesse Fuller and Muddy Waters to name but a few. A couple of highlights being their take on Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘Georgia on My Mind’ and George Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’.

Bringing the soul to the day's musical extravaganza was the enchantingly charming Jo Harman and her amazing band. Jo has been mesmerising audiences with her blend of Blues and Soul since her debut album ‘Dirt on My Tongue’ in 2013 and toured extensively marking out of a good solid following. Her critically acclaimed second album ‘People We Became’ appeared in 2017. As well as being a hugely successful solo artist, Jo is also a much in demand vocalist for other artists and projects. She is currently co-lead vocalist in Leo Green’s ‘Van Morrison Alumni’ band, which is currently touring extensively through Europe. Jo and her full band, featuring the great Stevie Watts on keyboards, Terry Lewis on guitar, Sonny Winslow on bass and Martin Johnson on drums, were joined by guests including Mike Mayfield, Leonie Elizabeth Gale, Emily Francis and Amba Tremain. Jo unleashed a set that included many of her greatest songs from her two studio albums such as ‘(This Is My) Amnesty’, ‘Sweet Man Moses’, ‘Cold Heart’, ‘Silhouettes of You’, ‘When We Were Young’ and ‘Lonely Like Me’. Beautiful harmonies abound!

Fifth on the bill was the stunningly delectable Mollie Marriott who has spent much of her life from the age of fifteen growing up in the music industry working mainly as a backing singer with artists including Oasis, Proud Mary, P.P Arnold, Paul Weller and her stepfather Joe Brown. Mollie is the daughter of the late great legend Steve Marriott of Small Faces and Humble Pie fame, who sadly died on 20th April 1991 when Mollie was just six years old. Mollie’s debut solo album ‘Truth is a Wolf’ was released in 2017, her second solo album has been in the making for many years now, but due to her increasing live work schedule as lead vocalist of choice for not only Rick Wakeman but the Led Zeppelin Symphonic company, the album remains a work in progress. Mollie’s appearance at Milkfest was her first solo gig in almost four years, to which she did admit to being a tad nervous. It certainly didn’t show as she delivered a strong set that featured several brand-new tracks and a selection of gems from her ‘Truth is a Wolf’ album including the bewitching title track and the foot stompingly fabulous ‘Control’. A couple more set highlights included her spellbinding rendition of the Led Zeppelin classic ‘Since I've Been Loving You’, and an arresting performance of ‘Trouble and Shame’, a song Mollie co-wrote with Judie Tzuke. Mollie’s brilliant band featured CJ Evans on drums, Sam Tanner on keyboards, Jon Clifford Cox on bass and Adam Chinery on guitar.

Sixth performer of the day was twenty-year-old Oxford born Toby Lee, a naturally gifted guitarist who became a global sensation after playing guitar at B.B. King's Blues Club in 2015, when he was just ten years old. From there he went on to star in the musical ‘School of Rock’ at the New London Theatre in 2016. Joe Bonamassa has called Toby Lee "a future superstar of the Blues”, and indeed in 2018 he won Young Blues Artist of the Year at the UK Blues Awards. His first EP ‘10’ came out in 2017 with debut album ‘Aquarius’ being released in 2021, a covers album ‘Icons Vol. 1’ appeared in 2022, with his latest album ‘House on Fire’ coming out last year. Toby’s dynamic set included selections from his new album, which suitably impressed the tentative crowd of Blues enthusiasts.

The penultimate act of the day was multi-award winning When Rivers Meet, who are husband-and-wife duo guitarist Aaron Bond and vocalist Grace Bond. Grace, and Aaron first met at a pub in Downham Market in 2004, initially performing as Holmes and Bond before going on to form When Rivers Meet in 2016 after moving to Brightlingsea in Essex. Their 2017 debut album ‘Liberty’ was more of a mainstream Country Rock album that failed to make much impact. Dissatisfied with this direction they decided to concentrate more on Roots Blues for their next project. Two years on the first of two under the radar EPs would appear ‘The Uprising’ in 2019 followed by ‘Innocence of Youth’ in 2020. By their second full-length album, 2020s ‘We Fly Free’, they were starting to get noticed and lauded on the Blues scene. The album was listed ninth in the Top 20 Albums of 2020 by Blues Rock Review and reached number one in the Blues Album Charts on iTunes.

On a roll, their third studio album ‘Saving Grace’, released in 2021, reached number eighty-four in the UK Albums Chart, number two in the UK Official Jazz & Blues Albums Chart, number five in the UK Official Album Downloads Chart, and number six in the UK Official Independent Albums Chart Top 50. Their fourth studio album ‘Aces Are High’ came out in October 2023 and reached number nine in the UK Albums Chart, number one in the UK Official Jazz & Blues Album Charts and number one in Classic Rock Magazine’s Blues Album 2023. At this gig the duo were joined by a full electric band which delivered an eclectically spirited and elegantly executed set featuring hand-picked selections from their last three studio albums, plus a couple of new tracks for good measure, including 'Infected', 'Play My Game', 'Bound for Nowhere', 'My Babe Says That He Loves Me', 'Battleground', 'Addicted to you', 'He’ll Drive You Crazy', 'Break free', 'Walking on the Wire', 'Free Man' and 'Did I Break the Law'. Exquisitely radiant stuff indeed!

Headlining the evening’s soiree was legendary British Rhythm ’n’ Blues band Dr. Feelgood. The Feelgoods, as they are affectionally known, formed in 1971 in Canvey Island, Essex by school friends Lee Collinson (Lee Brilleaux), Chris White (Chris Fenwick), John Sparkes (Sparko), John Wilkinson (Wilko Johnson) and John Martin (Big Figure). Their debut album 'Down by The Jetty' was released in 1975 with a second 'Malpractice' being quickly recorded and released in the same year to monopolise on their widening profile. Their breakthrough happened in 1976 when their live album, 'Stupidity', reached number one in the UK Albums Chart. The band went through many lineup changes and stylistic leanings after guitarist and main songwriter Wilko Johnson left in 1977 with varying degrees of success, but as a live band they were always second to none. Having released around twenty albums and with eighteen members passing through the ranks at one time or another they continue to tour extensively around the UK and Europe to packed houses.

After vocalist, and last remaining original member, Lee Brilleaux, passed away in 1994 it was his dying wish that the band should continue without him, so bassist Phil Mitchell, drummer Kevin Morris and guitarist Steve Walwyn recruited a new singer in the shape of Pete Gage. After four years Pete left and in came current vocalist Robert Kane who has been with them for twenty-six years now. Sadly, long serving guitarist Steve Walwyn decided to leave Dr. Feelgood in 2021 after thirty-two years of active service to pursue other projects, one of those being the formation of a new three-piece Blues Rock band with The Specials bass player Horace Panter called The Dirt Road Band.

With the return of Gordon Russell in 2021 the band have had a new lease of life, going on to release a brand-new studio album of all new material, ‘Damn Right!' in 2022. Their first album of original songs in twenty-six years! Guitarist Russell and vocalist Kane were responsible for writing all the tunes. The current lineup of Dr. Feelgood might not contain any original members, but it does feature long time members Morris on drums, who joined them in 1983, as did Mitchell on bass (1983 - 1991, 1995 - present), plus Kane who came onboard in 1999, and Russell who is now into his second stint with the band after a thirty three year break (1983 – 1989, 2021 - present).

Sadly, due to it being ten o’clock on a Sunday night and after a long day of live music, a great many of the audience left before the band’s set. Fortunately, those that remained witnessed a formidably tight live band of first-rate musicians blaze through a dazzling set of indomitably potent R&B tunes including such Dr. Feelgood classics as ‘I Can Tell’, ‘She Does It Right’, ‘Damn Right I Do’, ‘Back in the Night’, ‘Roxette’, ‘Milk and Alcohol’, ‘Going Back Home’, ‘Down at the Doctors’ and ‘Gimme One More Shot’. Sensationally adept performances all round. It is fair to say we had a blast!

A huge shout out must go to the sound engineers for providing crystal-clear balanced audio throughout the day, and to the organisers who delivered a well executed, friendly and thoroughly enjoyable event.

Steven C. Gilbert

Photos: Simon Green, SCG and AJ