Blue is grateful for the “strong community feeling” within the Burton music scene.
Blue Yates could be described alternatively as a guitar teacher or writer/performer. Yet these different elements truly go hand in hand.
Between tracks performed at Beeropolis (81 High Street) near the end of July, a week before the release of his latest album, The Violet Hour, Blue told me that some of the new material had been inspired during jamming sessions in lessons – joking that the ideas were initially his, and not stolen from students! These had been so inspiring, in fact, that despite having previously had no plans to produce another – 14th – record, he laid down the 12 tracks in just a few days.
The result is a delightful – at times ‘cinematic’, and certainly always reflective – listen, such that I’ve enjoyed listening to the CD a number of times and now look forward to receiving the vinyl edition. (I’m no music reviewer, but this should about sum up my feelings. You can get your own vinyl copy here, or listen digitally at blueyates.bandcamp.com)
His live performance was equally enchanting and ended with a properly unique cover of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Under The Bridge. I was especially struck by how lucky we are in Burton, of all places, to be able to nip to the pub on a Sunday afternoon and be transported through sound to some Spanish or South American landscape, far away from home.
Blue performs in Burton quite regularly – noting with a smirk that “I don’t know if many have done more gigs in the town than me” – and has professionally taught here now for more than two decades. Incidentally, the guitarists I meet around the town who have benefited from Blue’s teaching always have extremely positive things to say.
Blue is grateful for the “strong community feeling” within the Burton music scene, which he is, of course, party responsible for, and expressed particular thanks to local photographer and DJ Miles Dosher for spinning one of his tunes, Azan (from the 2018 album A Better Venus), at the July Burton Market Hall ‘Legends’ show.
Perhaps the most difficult stage of Blue’s instrumental songwriting, he says, is coming up with the names. He was largely inspired this time around by poetry, with “The Violet Hour” itself coming from T S Eliot’s The Waste Land:
“… At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea…”
Blue will be performing next at Beeropolis on Sunday 30 September, and again on Sunday 4 October. On Sunday 11 October, he will be performing at Bernie’s (Station Street). For teaching or any other enquiries, visit blueyates.com
Additional reporting credit should go to Luke and Cait for asking most of the important questions at Beeropolis while I sipped my beer and scribbled almost illegibly in my notebook.