Joe Bonamassa

2006 saw the UK release of the album YOU AND ME by blues singer-guitarist Joe Bonamassa who at the time was making his first inroads at breaking into the UK market. Fast-forward three years and by May 2009 he was playing to a sell-out crowd at the Royal Albert Hall and has now released his tenth solo album BLACK ROCK. I met Joe during a brief promotional visit to London and he talked about his UK success story.
“Everybody used to tell me horror stories, you know all the other artists: ‘Don’t worry about the UK stick with America, the possible breaks will be that you will do well in Germany, Holland, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, but don’t worry about the UK because it is impossible.’ Well I saw the challenge, so we knew what to expect, but I had heard these disclaimers: ‘Don’t bother! Don’t bother! Don’t bother!’—but I didn’t buy that because I am a rebel by nature. So I thought I would give it a go and just see what happened. We booked a five-show tour of the UK, and we were playing places like the Running Horse in Nottingham, I don’t know if it is still there but it literally held about a hundred people. The Borderline in London, we weren’t even at the Manchester Academy three levels—I mean we were at the Flowerpot in Derby. Ok, I mean this was our first tour—just five shows—we played the Renfrew Ferry Glasgow to 65 people, that was the weakest one. We eked out about 150 at the Borderline, which looked good, it looked full. We sold out the Running Horse in Nottingham which was 100, and we did this little gig in Blackpool, which held 93. It was above the Royal Theatre, which is a beautiful theatre in Blackpool, and we was like ‘wow this is finally a proper theatre,’ but it was: ‘oh no you guys are playing upstairs.’ We sold that out and we were the first band to sell it out, they have had a few other blues acts come in, so I am like ok cool. You know triumphs and tragedies are measured in how you perceive them, so for me, I thought it was a good start.”