Blue Nation are still basking in their win of the Emerging Blues Band of the Year award at the UK Blues Awards in Milton Keynes in April 2025.
Before Blue Nation took to the stage, MeMe Detroit (who is married to Blue Nation lead singer/guitarist Neil Murdock) and her band of Kallim McEwan (acoustic guitar and backing vocals) and Abbey Welch (bass) with MeMe on lead vocals and acoustic guitar. This set was an acoustic version of her hard-hitting alternative/punk style music, which gave it a more mellow approach but still with a hard edge.
The band played a selection of their songs including ‘Mean Rock n Roller’ and ‘Can’t get you out of my Mind’ as well as first live playing of a couple of tracks ‘Got a Feeling’ and ‘Green Monday’ which had been featured in MeMe Detroit’s weekly live stream to her fans.
With a shimmy in middle, after only one rehearsal, we had the powerful ‘Run Riot’ followed by Roaring at the Preachers a very alternative song with strong vocals.
To finish MeMe gave the audience her new single ‘Good Life’, a version of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ and as requested by husband Neil ‘Now She Runs’.
Then after a short break the headline act took to The Greystones stage after their Beatles inspired intro music, featuring Neil Murdock (vocals & guitar), Luke Weston (bass and backing vocals) and Nick Sharman (drums).
After Neil sorted out his plectrum’s attachment! The band kicked into ‘Hand Me Down’ before we had the heavy drums and great vocals from Neil with ‘Gimme Some Time’.
The title track from the band’s latest album ‘Ordinary People’ with its passionate vocals mixed with heavy blues rock was followed by a slower number ‘She’s A Storm’ with its great harmonies between Neil & Luke and Nick’s powerful drumming.
Neil then made the point that this venue at The Greystones in Sheffield had a great promotor in Matt who had been very helpful in setup and supplying food & drink, which does not always happen at other venues.
Throughout the night the band’s bass player Luke came up with some great phrases about the band’s music and live performances with his best being ‘Not a gig but a functional skills lesson’ which went down a storm.
After this verbal interlude, which are a feature of the bands gigs we had ‘The Ranger’ which we had heard in acoustic version on the last band livestream, but this time with full throttle including the extremely long note held at the end by Neil.
The harmonies between Neil & Luke are a highlight and were well demonstrated in both ‘The Reason’ and ‘Rich Girl’.
Then while the bands manager Ron Murdock came with gaffer tape to fix the stage carpet, so Neil didn’t go a tumbling, there were more Spinal Tap references and Neil trying out his Sheffield dialect to varying success!
Written for a friend Becky who was struggling with cancer (and sadly died) we had ‘Time is a Thief’ before a Luke inspired riff-based song ‘Old Friends’ shared initially via WhatsApp, which starts with passionate vocals with mellow backing before it takes on a heavier tempo.
On the 2018 album ‘Kaftan Society’ Luke had brought in a Sitar which he wanted to feature on some of the songs, but only was used on ‘Run Straight Ahead’ which meant that Neil had to play in a Sitar style on live shows.
Then we had some more ‘Conversation jazz’ according to Luke as the younger Fletcher son with his Mum needed some support, so Nick went off and gave the lad some chocolate and a drink, before getting back behind his drum kit before we kicked into ‘Once in My Life’ again with great harmonies and strong drumming from Nick. Next up was ‘Strangers’ which was about Luke being there for Neil, not as a stranger but a close mate.
The show was finished with a melody which incorporated George Harrison’s ‘When My Guitar Gently Weeps’, a slower funky number ‘I Feel Low’ with its strident vocals and ‘Good Times’ before which Luke brought the bands winning at this years UK Blues Awards, which they were proud of.
Neil was very grateful to help the band had from other UK Blues artists in particular Chantel McGregor, Laurence Jones and Dom Martin.
For an encore the band played the evocative ‘Echoes’ after Luke raised the importance of Mental Health for Men in particular and the fact that they are raising money for the charity. They finished with ‘Down By The River’ which has taken on a like of its own as the set closing song with its mellow start before it kicks into a heavy blues rock classic song.
As a final thanks the band thanked Chris on sound for his excellent help, support and professionalism.