Chris Jagger July 2022-4 — Chris Jagger-Ealing Blues Festival. Photo by Paul Clampin.

By Paul Clampin, Rock At Night London

Day One: The Ealing Blues Festival – Walpole Park, London, UK-July 23-24, 2022

Robert Hokum doing a tribute to Alexis Korner & the birth of British blues. Photo by Paul Clampin.

The founding of Britain’s first dedicated electric blues club – The Ealing Blues Club on March 17 1962 by Alexis Korner & Cyril Davies was to be the catalyst which sparked the Blues boom of the ’60s and subsequently British Rock Music.

The club became the destination for a golden generation of blues-influenced musicans who would help pass the genre onto others and eventually provide a template for much of the classic rock sound of the 70’s.

Chris Jagger-Ealing Blues Festival. Photo by Paul Clampin.

The club helped bring together the Rolling Stones and while members of Cream (Jack Bruce & Ginger Baker) Eric Burdon (The Animals) Pete Townshend (The Who) Paul Jones (Manfred Mann) Terry Marshall (Marshall Amplification (To name but a few) have all referenced the significance of Ealing from 1962-65.

UK Rock Magazine, Mojo Magazine has described Ealing as: ‘The Cradle of British Rock Music’.

That said, while much of contemporary London forgets its key contribution of the ‘blues-rock’ The Ealing Blues Festival, which started in 1987 continues to celebrate this heritage and has become London’s longest running Blues Festival.

In what has been coined the Diamond Year of British Rock Music, The Ealing Blues Festival headliners include the Chris Jagger band and Wilko Johnson alongside host of other performers, all of whom are helping find a future for blues-rock & live music in London’s Western suburbs.

Chris Jagger remarked that he’d spoken to Mick last night (who was in Paris) . Mick wished the festival all the best. Chris commented ‘he should be here’.