Photos courtesy of Dan Miles & Stephan Audiger

The Phuket International Blues Rock Festival began in December 2005 as a two-day event on the weekend before Christmas at the Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort and Spa. The reason those dates were chosen originally, was because we wanted to add a positive event, to offset the sadness associated with the upcoming tsunami anniversary.

This year the festival will be huge – the event will see twelve acts in total, with eight international bands imported for the occasion. It’s a great party with tremendous music, plenty of food and drink and other activities.

The event main headliner will be the legendary blues artist Charlie Musselwhite and his band from the United States. From the tiniest blues clubs to the world's biggest festivals, Charlie has played them all. Now he comes to Thailand for the first time, and on Saturday, February 27 he’ll play an exclusive concert closing the 2010 show. He featured, along with ‘everybody who's anybody’ in the blues world, in Dan Aykroyd's hit movie, ‘Blues Brothers 2000’. Charlie is a 40 plus-year veteran with more than 20 albums, 18 W.C. Handy Awards and six Grammy nominations to his credit.

Australian Richard Clapton, finishing the acts on Friday, is one of Australia's foremost musicians who emerged in the early 1970’s as a talented and ambitious singer-songwriter performing in the ‘troubadour’ style, featured by artists such as Neil Young and Jackson Browne. He paved the way for three generations of songwriters to write about the experience of being Australian.

While not widely known outside of Australia, he’s been a household name in that part of the world since 1975, when his title song from ‘Girls on the Avenue’ topped the Australian charts.

35 years later he’s as popular as ever, and Friday, February 26 he comes to Thailand exclusively to perform at the festival. Let there be hordes of Girls on the Hilton Arcadia Avenue to welcome one of Australia’s top rock 'n’ roll musicians and his band!

From Malaysia comes AkashA, a top-rated, world-famous band playing music with a soulful theme.

Famed Latino blues meister Andy Gonzales (USA) joins for the first time along with Robert (One Man) Johnson (USA) and Bangkok’s Retrovision.

By popular demand Rich Harper (USA) will return along with KNiKi from Australia. Our very own Tony Wilson and Rob Davies will also be back with a top notch local band.

The festival is a charity event with funds donated to organisations dedicated to providing schooling for under-privileged local children. For 2010 the festival will support the Rotary Club of Patong, Phuket and its local education program. The 2008 Festival DVD is available so you can re-live the highlights of that previous show

Advance tickets are available now from ThaiTicketMajor.com and from February 14th. with two different prices from numerous locations around Phuket. See website or posters for details:

- 1,500 Baht for the two-day event at the gate; only THB 1,000 when purchased in advance

- 3,500 baht for the two day VIP pass at the gate; only 3,000 baht when purchased in advance. VIP pass includes access to the Festival V.I.P. area and lounge with free flow beer and wine.

Schedule
Thursday, February 25, 2010:

• 15:00 Robert One-Man Johnson (USA) in the Hilton Arcadia hotel lobby crossroads
  
• 22:00 Festival Warm-Up Session @ Tai Pan night club, Patong
  

Friday, February 26, 2010:

• 15:00 AkashA (Malaysia) Acoustic World Music in the hotel lobby
  
• 17:00 Main Gates open – darts, other games and plenty of food and drink
  
• 18:00 Robert (One-Man) Johnson (USA), Retrovision
  (Bangkok), Andy Gonzales (USA) and the Rockin’ Angels, Rich Harper (USA) and Richard Clapton Australia)
  

Saturday, February 27, 2010:

• 15:00 Robert One-Man Johnson (USA) in the hotel lobby crossroads
  
• 17:00 Main Gates open – darts, other games and plenty of food and drink
  
• 17:30 AkashA World Music (Malaysia), George Cordeiro and the Fai JangBlues Gang (USA), the Prodigal Sons
  (Norway), the Groove Doctors and Friends (Phuket),
  KNiKi (Australia) and Charlie Musselwhite (USA)

See you at the
Hilton Arcadia,
26 - 27 February, 2010!

For an update on acts and schedule contact
Andy Andersen, Festival Director
Tel: +66 (0) 86 682 2639; email: phuketmusic@yahoo.com
Web: www.phuketbluesfestival.com