The Van Boys, a Scottish blues band based at Tokyo Joe’s in Bangkok have been booked to play the three-day KL Blues Festival in Kuala Lumpur in March, headline the blues day at the Nagaland Music Festival in India in May, and are on the bill at the Jonker Walk Music Festival in Malaka, Malaysia in late June.

From Aberdeen in Scotland, singer and guitarist Alex Pithie is bandleader of the Van Boys which works as a full five-piece band or as a duo, with Ron McMillan from Paisley in Scotland featured on harmonica in both formats.

Based in Bangkok for more 12 years Pithie is better known in the business as Mekong Doctor Blues and he also fronts Doctor Blues & The Mercy Street Blues Band and is the central character in his rock project ‘Billy The Mountain’.

www.myspace.com/mercystreetbluesband
www.myspace.com/theofficialbillythemountain

“We say we play the blues to make merit and that’s about right as practically speaking there’s no money in this specialised niche of the music business…but we love it,” says Pithie with a smile.

“And if they are willing to pay us some expenses to get there, that’s enough already. Bigger sponsors are not interested even if we do cover the world with our own professional promotional efforts,” he laughed. Pithie is the publisher of www.bangkokjungle.com.

“Our friends in India have been good enough to arrange music clinics while we are over there, and we can teach students how to deliver the blues on acoustic guitar and harmonica at the very least, although we cover stage craft, presentation, repertoire and other facets of the blues business too.”

The Nagaland International Fusion Music Festival, is an annual event organised by Abiogenesis Society and the festival gets underway 3rd May 2008 at Kohima, Nagaland, India.(www.ifmf.altpro.net).

“Nagaland is a tiny corner of India which requires an entry permit and you get there by flying to Kolkata International Airport, then fly to Dimapur Airport in Nagaland from where it’s a road trip to Kohima, the capital of Nagaland State.”

Pithie’s other band - Billy The Mountain - will also play a one-hour set at the Fusion Festival and he will be joined by Danish musician Nicolai Kehlet, a guitarist who also works out of Bangkok where he runs his own studio. (www.paradisepi.com)

“We are also really honoured to be invited to play the first the Kuala Lumpur International Blues Festival (klblues festival) which begins March 21 – 23 2008. Apart from the range of great blues musicians from around the world, the three-day event will witness the historic reunion of Malaysia’s first blues band, The Blues Gang and frontman Ito, together with his mates Julian, Jim and the rest of the gang will get back on stage and strut their stuff, just like old times.”

“In June we are hoping our diary works so that we can play the Jonker Walk Music Festival 2008 (myspace.com/jonkermusicfest) in Melaka Malaysia June 27 - 28, 2008 (Saturday & Sunday nights) 8:00pm till 1:00/2:00 am, an event organized and sponsored by our good friend and fellow bluesman Mark Ruffin from ‘My Rock & Roll Blues Café’ in Melaka Raya,” Pithie said.

“The main Jonker Walk stage will host as many as eight blues and rock and roll bands playing 45-minute sets on both nights. Mark tells us that apart from the main stage at Jonker Walk, Jonker Walk area pubs and bars will arrange additional entertainment in their own venues with additional stages set up on their streets. A guide book with a map will be available to give visitors an overall view of all the festival activities and locations.”

This entry was posted Sunday, January 27th, 2008 and was filed under Jungle News, Blues Artists, Rock Artists. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.