Editorial May 1998
 THE
BIGGEST HAPPENING and boost to Bluegrass since the first
Edale festival was The Event - Extravagaza - Bonanza - call it what you
will - at the Barbican Centre in London on 11th April, so I make no apologies
for the amount of American band coverage in this issue. We have interviews
with important personalities and accounts of workshops and the day in general.
We haven’t tried to describe the actual concerts because it would take
forever and personal opinions vary so much it might not be productive - a
very heated debate was raging on the Internet after the event, with some
band personnel defending themselves! Though no NW bands or personalities
played and it wasn’t a NW event directly, it was the property of the
whole of the UK and even Europe! Our NW region was quite well represented,
mainly via the clubs, and there were many visitors from abroad - 13 members
of the French BG Society attended as well as fans from Germany, Belgium,
Holland, etc.NWBN did it’s share by promoting the event internationally, free of charge, on our “web” site, even displaying the superbly-designed promotional poster. It was so good that Bill Watson (Springfield, Nashville, TN, wwatson@cms.net-serv.com) started a fashion by using the poster as “wallpaper” on his computer screen, so we’ve had to leave it up! I hope Dan Quinton is suitably pleased! NWBN HAS RECEIEVED quite an accolade - we’ve had an article re-printed in a USA Bluegrass Association magazine! Central California’s Santa Cruz Bluegrass Society, which boasts over 800 members and circulation of over 1000, included Ted’s ‘Frank Wakefield’ article (NWBN, Jan 1998) in its’ April 1998 edition of Bluegrass By the Bay because Frank is booked to appear soon at one of their events. Jean’s article on Tony Furtado (NWBN, March 1998) will be reprinted soon in BBB; see “Letters”. WE’VE HAD A REQUEST for merchandise! “Would your club (NWBN) sell me a decal, a sticker, or perhaps a T-shirt, size XL?” asked Terry, an old guitar picker and Ralph Stanley fan, from SW USA! (smithxx@swbell.net). Opportunists take note!
|
