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Today's Track Of The Day is the very latest Blues Club Podcast - hot off the press! It's just Jim this week - returning to the studio following his visit to the Colne Great British R & B Festival. This week's playlist is: The Brian Setzer Orchestra, Joe Bonamassa, John Mayall, Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters, Zak Harmon, Chris James & Patrick Rynn, Jesse Davey, Andy Twyman (pictured at BluesFest 2013), Buddy Guy, Charles Wilson, The King's Parade, BabaJack, Slinky & Petit Loup, Jon Cleary, The Dove & Boweevil Band, Half Deaf Clatch, John Primer & Friends, Muddy Waters, Robbie McIntosh, Wily Bo Walker, Trevor Sewell, Tommy Castro, Jarekus Singleton, Selwyn Birchwood, The Laura Holland Band, Gerry Jablonski And The Electric Band, Malaya Blue, Blue Swamp Band and B.B. & The Blues Shacks. Phew!

The fourth Bowness Bay Blues Weekend takes place from Friday 27th March to Sunday 29th March - with the organisers particularly excited about this year’s line-up, which includes some award-winning acts. Sunday headliners David Migden and the Twisted Roots represented the UK at the 2014 European Blues Challenge in Riga. And Laurence Jones, the Saturday headliner, was not only nominated in our 2014 WRC Awards, but actually won ‘Young Artist of the Year’ in the British Blues Awards. He has followed that up by being selected to represent the UK in Brussels in the European Blues Challenge in March 2015, only a couple of weeks before his appearance at Bowness Bay Blues! Tickets are now on sale here from The Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal.

This week's podcast from our old mucker Rory Auskerry features the latest release from Robin Trower -'Something's About To Change' - which is his most recent studio album since 'Roots And Branches' in 2013. Our 'Track Of The Day' also marks the announcement that Chris Slade will replace Phil Rudd on drums for AC/DC on their 2015 tour and of course that ZZ Top, Joe Satriani (pictured) and Joe Bonamassa have all announced UK tour dates for this this year. Enjoy!

Blacktop Deluxe have announced their new bass man - Rob Martin! Rob (pictured) will be 'killing it' on that Fender jazz bass and anchoring the groove alongside Alan and Keith from March 21st. Rob comes into The Blacktop's from the highly acclaimed outfit, 'The Smokin Olives' and he joins in good time to be part of the second Blacktop Album due for recording/release in the summer. News also reaches us that Absolution bass guitarist Ben Gardner left the band at the end of 2014. His replacement is Andy Palmer who already has an established track record of playing with top names the world over. You can see Absolution in action on both our Bluesfest DVD's on sale here.

Not only did Kevin Beale have the multi-talented Steve Morrison playing live in the Blues On The Marsh studio last night, but also the Marshman played some of the great new releases that have come his way recently! Therefore music from around the world fills today's Track Of The Day to the gunnels with the likes of Black River Bluesman (Jukka Juhola ) & Bad Mood Hudson, Cotton Belly's, Dan Doiron, Gunther Brown, Guru, Ina Forsman, Meschiya Lake and The Little Big Horns, The Mighty Boss Cats, Rebecca Downes, the Swing Ninjas, Thornetta Davis, Wily Bo Walker and The Danny Flam Band, Bing Futch plus Cecil B Fardoulli and The Big Boo!

With just 7 category winners left to be announced in our 2015 WRC Awards - today we reveal the winner of our Best International award - none other than those 'beards' from Houston, Texas - ZZ Top! Hard lines to runners-up Lynyrd Skynyrd who we saw at The Hammersmith Apollo in April and Blues Pills who were part of a very wet Ramblin' Man at the end of July. Consequently our Vid Of The Day is of course ZZ Top - filmed when we saw them at Wembley Arena in June with the added bonus of a certain Jeff Beck!

Before we hear cries of "fix fix" - the WRC are really grateful to all of you that voted for BluesRockFest as 'Best Festival' in our 2015 WRC Awards! Previously under the banner of BluesFest in the last two years - BluesRockFest fought off the illustrious company of both Ramblin' Man and The Broadstairs Blues Bash to clinch the prestigous prize. And of course BluesRockFest 2016 returns to Leo's Red Lion, Gravesend, on Saturday 24th September with headliners The Stevie Nimmo Trio with limited Earlybird Tickets on sale here for £15 (instead of £20). Beware - once they've gone - they've gone! Anyway go to our Troy Redfern Vid Of The Day in order to check out one of the many highlights from 2015 and why you should book now for 2016!

The latest news from Marshman Towers is that tonight's Blues On The Marsh show is in the bag! So prepare to be lambasted here from 7pm with tunes from Celluloid, Charles Sayles and The Blue Disciples, Diane Durrett, Jared James Nichols, Jesse Davey and Friends, Kern Pratt, Michael Falzarano, Mick Pini, Mighty Sam McClain, Mike Vernon, Mississippi Fever, O'Donel Levy, Pinetop Perkins, Storm Warning, The Juke Hounds, Johnnie Johnson, Universal Blues Band, Wink Burcham, Zkye Blue and another brand new track from The Mighty Mojos!

Thankfully the London Tube strike has been suspended - so all roads still lead to the Hammersmith Apollo for 2015 WRC Award nominee Steven Wilson's gig tonight. The four-time Grammy nominee, multi-instrumentalist and producer, follows up on his acclaimed 'Hand. Cannot. Erase.' with the new interim album '4 ½' (gettit?) released last Friday. Produced and mixed by the man himself, '4 ½' (see Our Vid Of The Day) features a stellar group of musicians including Adam Holzman (keyboards), Nick Beggs (bass), Guthrie Govan (guitar), Dave Kilminster (guitar), Marco Minnemann (drums), Chad Wackerman (drums), Craig Blundell (drums) and Theo Travis. And we will be there - including Mr. Prog himself whose SW 'The Raven That Refused To Sing' picture (pictured) adorns his kitchen wall! Expect a review and a few pics but no videos (in-joke) of the evening!

They were our stage sponsors last year and they are again our stage sponsors this year! Yes a big WRC thank you to Strongbow for supporting BluesRockfest and no doubt both our bands and our other treasured sponsors will be enjoying a nice glass of Extra Cold cider courtesy of our stage sponsors in our 'Blues Room'. You deserve it!

So it's Friday evening - the sun is shining and four intrepid WRC Members are ready for a night of memories at Hampton Pool singing along to the ELO Experience and T.Rextasy. The day had been planned like a military operation - a 'healthy' fish and chip lunch - rail tickets bought in advance to ensure maximum drinking time in The Wellington before catching the 6.13pm train from Waterloo to Hampton - arriving at 6.45pm giving ample time to settle in and enjoy the barbecue before the ELO Experience took to the stage at 7.45pm - what could possibly go wrong? National Rail that is what can go wrong! Five minutes out of Waterloo and the train shudders to a halt - after several minutes it is announced that the points ahead have jammed presumably due to the hot weather and what follows would be comical if it wasn't ruining our evening! Seemingly unable to deal with the situation we are given a number of contradictory messages before the train driver walks past us and takes us back to Battersea and then eventually forward to Clapham Junction informing us that the train would be going to Fulwell. We decide to carry on and get a cab - however at Clapham Junction we are told we need to get off and go to another platform - we get off and a platform assistant announces we need to get back on but then announces a different itinery for the train followed by "can the guard tell me where this train is going?" That was enough! A hasty retreat back to Victoria for a few pints and a burger - nearest we got to a barbecue! Anyway - have a look at today's Vid Of The Day to see what we missed - sob - roll on Wrinklystock IV!

Not that you needed any reminding but take a butcher's at this new Loose Moorings poster leaving you in no doubt that their gig at the Red Lion, Gravesend, on Friday 1st May is not just all about Virgil and the boys! And if you have not got your tickets yet then go here for ticket information or here for discounted ticket info.