It's a Jazz Joint

On Saturday I took the train up to York for this year's Bill Nelson fan convention, Nelsonica 2006, held at the Hilton hotel.

I met up with, er.. let's just call him The Miltman (aka SM23) and lager's in hand we headed straight for the merchandise stall to pick up Bill's latest CD Return to jazz of lights (The Miltman also wanted to buy a T-Shirt but apparently size L wasn't big enough for him).

All prepared and a few quid lighter, we squeezed into the packed main function room and tried to get a view of the stage.

The timetabled events kicked off with Bill being interviewed about his songwriting methods by Simon Warner of Leeds University. Bill then gave an interesting presentation about his guitar playing technique and some of the guitarists who have influenced him; take a bow Chet Atkins and jazzy Joe Pass!

After a tribute to Bill's late brother Ian it was time for the main event...

A good 90+ minutes solo instrumental guitar performance set, with lots of new material. Bill's complicated jazzy sci-fi noodlings were staggering to watch close up. Theo Travis (flute, sax), Dave Sturt (bass) and Steve Cook (keyboards) joined in towards the end with some 'challenging' off-beat improvisation.

The evening drew to a close with an entertaining auction of paintings and guitars - and the prize draw - from which I won the last, minor prize: a signed original poster from the film Dream Demon (the film may have sucked but Bill's soundtrack was good). It's nice to win something at last but I'm not sure where I'm going to stick the bloomin' thing (suggestions welcome).


This was the best Nelsonica event yet. Roll on next year... and perhaps Nelsonica USA?