Can you tell us an interesting story about
your job at Smokie Blues?
I can tell you a lot of interesting stories
about the Smokie Blues. We have people
who travel from England, people who
travel from Europe and the people who
travel from USA who all come over to
Scotland to play blues music. This
particular guy’s name is Doug MacLeod
and MacLeod is a Scottish name and is a
fine blues man. In his early sixties when he
came to Arbroath, I took him to the Abbey
and showed him around the town. And
when he was standing in the Abbey, he
says to me “Alfie, my roots are definitely
here in Scotland”. Another person was
from Nottingham, his name was Ian
Campbell, another Scottish name, Ian
Campbell. He came to on second festival
with the band called “Ugly” and Ian was
the leader of this band. After the festival
we sat at the harbour and both had a
whisky and Ian said to me, “This is where
my roots are”. Everybody wants their
roots in Scotland. Those were interesting
stories and I have a hundred of them but
we don’t have the time.
Can you recommend a place in Arbroath,
where we can listen to live music?
Yes, indeed. I’ve organized the festival for
this
year.
Remember
this
date
26.04.20014; we have a full day of blues in
Arbroath and two venues. One is The
Coast in Grace End and the other one is
DeVitos in Millgate, two clubs. From 3pm
to 12pm continuous music all the way
thru, you can listen to the blues bands.
There are three bands coming. One is
from Stoke in England, a band from Halifax
in Yorkshire and another band from from
Scotland. All are coming up to Arbroath to
play in this day of blues, and it’s all free.
Thank you
very much
for
the
interview,
Alfie.
I’ll give
you my
website
www.smokieblues.com where you will get
all the information about this day. I will be
there and I will be looking for you.
By Silviya Danchova & Aleksandra Wrona