Monster Mike and Rival Sons at the Notodden: Photos, Videos

The festival at Notodden launched a new bundle of names for the summer festival. There will be a reunion with the blues guitarist Monster Mike Welch (pictured) and the rock band Rival Sons. Furthermore, it is Notoddendebut for British singer Kyla Brox and slider guitarist Jack Broadbent.

In addition to the new artists in the program, the festival has also announced some requested changes when it comes to ticket sales. This year, the audience can choose between festival pass, day pass and single tickets to the different scenes. It is also announced that on request, several of the smaller clubs in the city are back in the program.

Monster Mike Welch is invited as the festival’s special guest this year. He has created great furore at Notodden the last two years with Mike Ledbetter. They made some memorable concerts with The Welch Ledbetter Connection, and became the big favorites for many of the audience. The shock was great when the message of Mike Ledbetter’s sudden deaths came in January this year. An entire blues world has been in bottomless sorrow.

“When the worst shock had given us, we began to think of the possibility of bringing Mike Welch back to Notodden and to the audience so fond of him,” says festival manager Forsberg. – Mike Welch was booked for the Notodden Blues Festival for the first time as a 17-year-old in 1997. With that, he has a central place in our hearts. Nothing feels more right this year than getting Mike Welch back as our very special guest, he says.

Welch is himself from Boston and will therefore be playing with Anthony Geraci & The Boston Blues All-Stars, but he will also be hearing in several other contexts during the weekend.

Rival Sons (pictured above) took the audience by storm at the festival in 2014 with his energetic blues-inspired rock. The band’s live-recorded videos from Notodden’s Juke Joint Studio have also been a huge success on YouTube. The festival tells them they have received many requests to get the band back. They will end the Saturday program in Hovig’s Hangar, and here will also be single tickets in addition to festival pass and day pass.

British Kyla Brox can be heard at the festival on Friday. She was discovered by representatives of the festival during the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee in January, where she represented England. She made an immediate impression and Notodden’s representatives believed this band was the best in the whole competition. Kyla Brox will also represent the UK in this year’s European Blues Challenge. (Picture below. Photo: Phil Melia).

Many have become aware of the British slider guitar phenomenon Jack Broadbent on YouTube. The festival tells them they have had countless inquiries with the desire to get him to Notodden.
Jack Broadbent has built his career from countless street performances to becoming a regular at major festivals. The Montreux Jazz Festival described him as “the new master of the slide guitar”. Broadbent has released three albums and his videos are seen more than 10 million times on YouTube.

Other names that are announced are the new, young “heroes” in the blues environment at Notodden, Blue Energy. The band consists of dedicated, young musicians aged 15 to 17 years. Local Terry Lehns and American band The Northern Belle are also on the program.