Kastav Blues Festival

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Kastav Blues Festival
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Alan Messer

• Grammy award winner, Alan Messer, has been
  photographing musicians for forty years. He has
  been widely published, has more than 800 album
  covers to his credit, many magazines and has
  numerous print media and advertising awards.
• Alan began his career in London in
  1967,relocating to USA in 1978. With "itchy
  feet", excited by America and it's commercial
  possibilities, Messer moved from his native
  England to Nashville and opened a studio there in
  1978. An amazing opportunity to photograph the
  country music scene unfolded. The Los Angeles
  based record companies hired Messer instead of
  importing their West
• Coast based photographers.
• He photographed The Rolling Stones, the Beatles,
  Johnny Cash, , Diana Ross, The Kinks, T.Rex,
• Stevie Ray Vaughan, Iggy Pop, Deep Purple, Kris
  Kristofferson, Elton John, Waylon Jennings...
• Alan has been published in Rolling Stone
  Magazine, Billboard, Uncut, Daily Mirror, melody
  Maker, Spin, Q Magazine,......

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Michael Roach

• Michael Roach, one of thirteen children born to
  Ted and Sadie Roach of Washington, D.C., USA,
  sings and plays guitar in an East Coast style of
  blues that dates back to the 1920s. After
  spending several years learning directly from
  such well known figures as John Jackson, John
  Cephas and Jerry Ricks, Michael Roach has
  developed his own style and is now an exceptional
  performer. He interacts with his audience and he
  entertains as he plays.
• Over the past 20 years, Michael has conducted
  numerous workshops throughout the USA and Europe.
  As a cultural arts performer, Michael has
  promoted African-American culture through the use
  of blues music. He has lectured for the
  Smithsonian Institute (USA), Oxford University
  (UK) and more recently at the University of Metz
  (France). In July 2004, he was involved in the
  organization of a conference held at the
  University of Gloucestershire (UK) called
  'Overseas Blues - European Perspectives on
  African American Music'. The University Press of
  Mississippi published the papers from the
  conference in 2007.
• Michael is the founder of the European Blues
  Association and serves as its Director of
  Development, Secretary and Newsletter Editor. He
  is the Director and Guitar Instructor for the
  annual Blues Week 2000 - 2008 programme (a week
  of lectures, guitar, harmonica, piano/keyboards
  and vocals tuition) at Exeter University
  (2000/2004) and the University of Northampton
  (2005/2008). Michael also presented 'Deep Blue',
  a three part series on blues music featured on
  BBC Radio 4 in March 2003. It is Michael's
  communication skills together with his
  musicianship that has enabled him to bring about
  a greater understanding of blues music and the
  Black experience.

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Michael Messer Ed Genis

• This is one of the finest guitar-based blues
  roots  acts in the world." Time Out Magazine
• Went to see Michael Messer and Ed Genis on Friday
  night. They were out of this world!!!
• BBC Radio
• Word pictures playing through my mind as I listen
  to the refreshing, earthy, panting sound of
  Rhythm Oil. I believe that Michael Messer and
  Terry Clarke didn't do a lot of vocal
  overdubbing. What I hear here is the real thing.
  Bare-bones blues gut-bucket rural rock. This
  record carried Me away to a long time ago, down a
  delta dirt road to a land of my musical
  good-old-daysing." "PS...Don't squeeze the
  trigger, if you can't stand the recoil." Johnny
  Cash
• Michael Messer is a virtuoso slide guitarist who
  has one of the best bands performing some of the
  greatest blues tunes produced this century. The
  American magazine, Spiritlisted Michael as one
  of the greatest slide guitarists ever alongside
  Duane Allman and Ry Cooder".
• Dave Tracey

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• The early '70s saw Marsden briefly join several
  renowned groups - Juicy Lucy and UFO - but each
  time, the guitarist exited before a full-length
  album could be completed (Marsden was also a
  member of a group that drummer Cozy Powell
  attempted to put together, Hammer, before quickly
  disbanding). The mid '70s saw Marsden join
  British prog rockers Babe Ruth for a pair of
  releases, 1975's Stealin' Home and 1976's Kid's
  Stuff, before the group broke up, as well.
  Marsden then supposedly turned down an offer to
  play with Paul McCartney, and eventually joined
  up with former Deep Purple vocalist David
  Coverdale in Whitesnake.
• A pair of Marsden-Coverdale compositions would be
  dusted off and re-recorded by Whitesnake in the
  late '80s ("Here I Go Again" and "Fool for Your
  Loving"), both of which became sizeable worldwide
  hits.
• Marsden has also sporadically issued further solo
  recordings, including 1992's The Friday Rock Show
  Sessions and the 1995 Peter Green tribute, Green
  and Blues. In addition to his music career,
  Marsden has also tried his hand at acting (the
  German TV movie, Frankie), and has provided
  soundtracks for several movie projects in both
  Germany and the U.S., plus serving as the art
  director, producer, and author of the three part
  TV series, The Delta Blues 1926 - Urban Blues
  1960. Greg Prato

Bernie Marsden
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Johnny Mars

• In the mid-1960s, Mars moved to San Francisco,
  where he met Dan Kennedy and formed the Johnny
  Mars Band, playing clubs and festivals in
  northern California, as well as shows for rock
  promoter/impresario/producer Bill Graham.
• However, Mars could not seem to expand his
  audience much in San Francisco. After hearing
  about the greener pastures across the pond from
  his friend Rick Estrin of Little Charlie and the
  Nightcats, he toured England in 1972. There, he
  recorded a couple of albums, eventually moving to
  West London in 1978. Working with producer Ray
  Fenwick, who also worked with Spencer Davis and
  Ian Gillan, Mars met with success on the much
  praised album, Life On Mars.
• In 1991, Mars became a featured soloist with the
  British New Wave pop group Bananarama. The group
  used him on their singles "Preacher Man,"
  "Megalomaniac," and "Long Train Running," and he
  appeared in the group's video of "Preacher Man."
  Through the 1990s, Mars retained his strong
  European fan base, and he enjoys particularly
  strong followings in Ireland, Scotland and
  Scandinavia. Critics there have called him "the
  Jimi Hendrix of the harmonica." Over the years,
  Mars has shared bills with Hendrix (before he was
  well-known) and Magic Sam.