Blair backs Fat Tuesday invasion
Everyone has had a bad day at work, but luckily for most people it is not witnessed by hundreds of paying punters.
For Hastings' musical hero Blair though, his nightmare unfolded in front of a packed Royal Albert Hall.
"I was playing with Lisa Stansfield at a big benefit night – the keyboard was set up wrong, a wind machine blew the music off the stand and then when it was all finished I got stuck and had to do a long, lonely walk across the front of the stage in front of everyone."
Fingers crossed Blair's evening will go smoothly when he headlines next week's multi-venue mardi-gras style musical mash-up, Fat Tuesday.
"I absolutely love playing in Hastings. It is the purest form of pleasure to be on stage and getting instant feedback and the Hastings crowd has really taken to us.
"When we played at Porters last month people kept trying to climb in through the windows.
"All the guys in the band are local and whereas sometimes we do gigs in other places where the audience takes a while to get going, the crowds here are always up for it from the word go."
Blair moved here seven years ago after his wife fell in love with Hastings during a weekend break, and he clearly revels in the strength of the music scene.
"It is such an artistic community with so many great bands and great opportunities for people to play live.
"All the musicians get on really well and so bringing us together is going to be brilliant fun."
Blair refused to single out any one act he is looking forward to seeing on Tuesday, but did have some high praise for 17-year-old wonderkid Sam Wills, with whom he is "touring" during the event.
"He is getting better and better so quickly.
"When we play together I introduce him saying he is better looking than me and sings better than me, but he's brilliant so I don't really mind."
Fat Tuesday organiser Adam Daly admitted securing Blair for Tuesday's event was always important and hopes it acts as a showcase for the many talented musicians who ply their trade in the town.
"If you look at Paris in the 1960s it was quite poor but the music and artistic scene was incredible.
"In this country too you have smaller places like Coventry in the 1970s and Bristol in the 1990s which suddenly threw up loads of fantastic talent. I think Hastings could be similar."
For more details visit www.hastingsfattuesday.co.uk.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Bexhill-on-Sea
Tuesday 14 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 3 C to 9 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North west
