I’ve mentioned in other blogs about the Les Gets Blues Festival, but it probably deserves a little mention of its own, as it’s been a pretty important part of our lives for over a decade now.
Briefly, I used to be a patron of the Bath International Guitar Festival. Every year they would hold a week of teaching and workshops/concerts for guitarists from all over the world.
I ran a class there with my buddy Matt Smith for many years, and we enjoyed it very much.
In 2002, there was a student in my class who was to become a good friend, and to have a powerful influence on my life.
His name was Hugh Monney, and he was the Director of The British Ski School out in the French Alps.
One day, he told me about this beautiful, tiny French Village called Les Gets, which was trying to put together a Blues music festival. He asked would it be possible for me to play at it. We worked out some details re: payment etc. which meant that the very next January, I headed off with Lana and the kids for the Alps. At the bottom are some pics of our first trip out there..
I basically played alone and with backing tracks, and I’m glad to say it went down a storm, and we were asked back the next year. During that week we all got involved in the skiiing thing (so much so that now, many years later, my eldest son Danny is a fully fledged ski-instructor teaching out in Italy… told you it had a powerful influence on my life….)
The next year we went back with the full Crosstown Blues Band, and the rest as they say is history. For the next decade we trekked out there every year to play the festival, and it became a highlight of the year which we all looked forward to.
Jean Michel Pelluchon runs the Boomerang Bar & Hotel in Les Gets, which was the scene of many great nights, and I’d personally like to thank him and Hugh for making the thing happen for so many years….. It was an absolute blast…….
