Good Friday ~ Part 2

Crowds were streaming from both directions towards Mojo in anticipation of tonight's triple header: Reggae superstar Jimmy Cliff, The Gangster of Love himself Steve Miller, and world music originator Carlos Santana. As if that wasn't enough the Tedeschi Trucks Band would close the night's proceedings.

Great!, Amazing!, Impressive! Just some of the responses of my compadres`when assessing Jimmy's energetic show. His yellow garbed ensemble laid down a rocksteady storm with many of the crowd reacting in amazement when his wide repetoire revealed the hits. Did he sing that too??? You can get it ..., The harder they come, Wonderful World, I can see clearly now, they were all there and faithfully performed. We called this music ska when we were young and used to dance. Used to dance???. What do you call that then Jimmy?, his nonstop bop displaying many classic moves. Great!, Amazing!, Impressive.

Next up, The Steve Miller Band.

Under the Big Top Steve didn't disappoint. Terrific crowd pleasing stuff that ticked all the boxes, playing all the songs the punters wanted to hear. Abracadabra, Fly Like an Eagle, Jet Airliner and the all-time closer The Joker hit the spot. The band, well what can you say, many had been with Steve for years and it showed. They were tight, and to quote Jon displayed great synergy. Steve's voice was fabulous and the joker, smoker, midnight toker lived up to our expectations. To the man who speaks with the pompitus of love, we can only offer one piece of advice: Leave the hat wearing to Jason Mraz!

Santana. What a performance!. Great songs and instrumentals that were tight as, with multi-focal rhythms a feature. This concert had it all. With a kick of his leg, a dip of his hat, Carlos had all members of the multi-cultural band reacting instantly. No need for a lot of chat, just music. According to Jon the key ingredients to a successful act are: A group of individual artists who are geniuses in their own right. An ability of musicians to seamlessly play together plus an artistic director who knows every nuance of his band members'abilities. Carlos' leadership ensured he got the very best from them at all times. Time and time again, the first note caused the audience to break into raptuous recognition and release. It is almost hard to believe he played Woodstock so long ago. It was just a pity Soul Sacrifice wasn't included.

Every member of the band was clearly enjoying themselves including that amazing percussionist. As passionately stated by Jon This performance was "airtight"and for mine possibly the best act of the festival.

Overall the big three acknowledged what the punters were expecting - All their favourites with no filler, performed with passion.

Unfortunately, the rain and a packed-to-capacity Mojo meant some of us were going to miss Santana's amazing performance. The alternate offerings, however, were great: Robert Cray smoothly brilliant at Jambalaya and Trombone Shorty powerful at Crossroads. At Jambalaya Kim and I got up close and personal with Wanda Jackson and her rockin' combo.

Wanda told stories of her 58 year-long career spiced with representative songs. I want to take you on a musical voyage, and here's my first No.1 hit. No, it wasn't in Australia or even the US ~ I can thank Japan for my hit of 1958 ~ Fujiyama Mama! She told us about the time Elvis (much whooping and applause) asked her if she would like to go on a date. Being a good Southern girl, I had to refuse him, (pause) No of course I didn't!!. Wanda was great!!!

After such a stellar night, it was disappointing to be confronted with such poor departure and transport facilities. It raises the question Should organisers expand the site or even limit the number of tickets. More than once did we hear five-day ticket holders say they were not returning despite paying premium prices for this year. Given the amount of groundwater, Chris' text stating they were bailing was apt.