Bob Dylan Convention/6th Annual John Green Day: another view

Thanks to Gerald Bamford for his report:

“The Bob Dylan Convention/6th Annual John Green Day, which took place at The Park Inn, Northampton on Saturday, was organised as always by the lovely people who run the Cambridge Bob Dylan Appreciation Society and who put an immense amount of time, effort and probably a lot of their own hard-earned cash into a day not only to celebrate the words and music of Bob Dylan but also to remember one of the originators of the Society - the late John Green - who tragically passed away at the end of 1999.

“So .... a hotel ground floor filled with Bob Dylan T-Shirts and memorabilia from most of Bob's years as a song and dance man extraordinaire. The main emphasis was on the Rolling Thunder years in the mid-‘70s, since leading covers band Highway 61 Revisited, led by would-be Bob look/soundalike (well maybe not) Joel Gilbert, were augmented by actual former sidespersons, violinist Scarlet Rivera and bassist Rob Stoner, together with drummer Winston Watson from the early ‘90s touring band.

“Scarlet and Rob were part of the afternoon Q & A session, remembering scenes from inside the goldmine when Bob and the Rolling Thunder Revue were on great form revisiting the USA, trying out the new songs from Desire and putting together a film for posterity.

“A very interesting but generally gentle session. I should have asked what Bob himself would think of their involvement and what he thinks in general of tribute bands and their place in Modern Times (seeing as I play in a Bob covers band myself around the Norfolk area - Back Pages if you're interested).

“But I got scared. Trust me - no great revelations, but thank the Lord for that. Following this was a autographing session for which someone (Joel Gilbert?) had the bright idea of charging a fiver a scribble. Cue much mumblin' and grumblin' among the delegates.

“Preceding the Q & A were a couple of presentations, from Duncan Bartlett (whom I missed through no fault of his; so unfortunately no comment) and Michael Gray, the renowned author, who presented very well in respect of the history of rock music and his and Bob's place within that chequered history. Good fun. We now know that Spanish is the Loving Tongue!

“H61Revisited were preceded by a duo - Dylanesque - and a trio - Cold Overture - who sang and played Bob Dylan songs to gee up the audience for the main attraction.

“H61Revisited started by looking as if they weren't all that happy to be there, but slowly warmed to their task and just got better and better, so that the larger part of us aficionados were up a'dancin' and a'wobblin' to a whole series of great Bob songs, generally well performed, especially when Scarlet was allowed to be heard, on songs associated with the RTR tour. However, the endings need to be worked on - so see to it, band…!

“Everybody seemed to have a great time and the feeling of being in the presence of actual Bob bandspersons was a real treat, even at £5 a signature. So, onto next year.

“Perhaps we can play a game of selecting a favourite band of ex-band members for the next event - I'd certainly demand Larry Campbell and Charlie Sexton on guitars etc, with Elana Fremerman on the fiddle and any old bass player, with yes - Winston Watson - on drums. Or, perhaps, GE Smith on guitar, with David Mansfield doing the rest. Then, again, Back Pages would do just as well, especially if I asked my sax-playing friend to help us out on a reconstruction of the Blackbushe Aerodrome show - now that was a gig!

“Actually, the talk from the wonderful organiser persons was of calling this event the last, due to the stress involved in putting the show on the road. Well, from my point of view, I’d like to thank the guys at the CBDAS for putting so much effort into setting up the event. I just wonder why I hadn't been to any of the previous events.

“Thanks, then, to John Stokes, Chris Cooper and Keith Agar, and no doubt others, for a wonderful event.”