An Audience With B.B.King

The National Boxing Stadium in Dublin was always a most unlikely music venue. Throughout the late '70s and into the 1980s it was, however, host to a range of standout gigs – Rory Gallagher's annual visits were pilgrimages and Irish blues fans were served well in what became known as The Stadium.

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee, Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal and many other blues acts performed there. My band and I had the privilege of opening the Stadium shows for John Lee Hooker, Fats Domino and of course the late, great, "Blues Boy" Riley King, who regularly performed there to full houses.

Accompanied by the guitar he named Lucille, B.B. King always worked hard, playing more than three hundred nights a year – which was one of the lessons I absorbed from him as I started to find my own voice in blues. B.B. always had a brilliant band, who watched every flick of his head for signals, immediately responding with the appropriate dynamic… dropping the volume to barely a whisper, then blasting back with full brass and rhythm sections to accentuate each one of Lucille's carefully chosen notes, complimenting B.B.'s distinctive voice. That dynamism demands great musicianship, intuitive communication, confidence and sometimes a sense of humour!

In his unforgettable live performances, B.B. King brought together power, presence, exquisite guitar playing, a phenomenal work ethic and unmatched showmanship. He explored the range of human emotions at every show; howling with anguish and bringing the crowd to the very edge of desperation only to break the spell with some self- –effacing remark or joke. Blues music has always expressed our human need to have fun. B.B. played sublimely, but he also played mischievously. He showed us that an audience deserved a laugh after shedding tears and that blues music was entertainment as well as art.

[pictured Mary Stokes and B.B. King in the 80s]

On the night we opened for B.B. King, afterwards we had the privilege of watching him and his band from beside the stage. It was an unforgettable opportunity to observe a master at work in brilliant close-up. As the show was ending, a barely discernable extra stir of excitement rippled though the crowd. Bono, Edge, Adam and Larry were being whisked through the darkness into the backstage corridors of The Stadium to discuss an idea for a new song, and B.B. King began another chapter in his amazing life.
[pictured A thank you to Mary Stokes from B.B. King]

Later, there would be 'When Love Comes To Town' on Rattle and Hum and U2's Love Town tour, featuring the great bluesman himself which came to The Point in Dublin. But on that night in the National Stadium, B.B.King had himself demonstrated the extraordinary power of love. In the warmth of his personality, the subtlety of his musicianship, and his evident love of humanity, he represented a positive force like no other.

The name of the boy from the cotton plantation in Itta Bena, Mississippi is writ large in the history of 20th Century music. It will still be spoken in awe and reverence in a hundred years time...