{"id":1030,"date":"2025-02-25T11:01:01","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T11:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/?p=1030"},"modified":"2025-02-25T11:11:13","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T11:11:13","slug":"old-rockers-never-die-they-groove-on-over-to-bluesfest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/old-rockers-never-die-they-groove-on-over-to-bluesfest\/","title":{"rendered":"Old rockers never die \u2026 they groove on over to Bluesfest"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve never quite worked out why the American rock band Toto wanted to \u201cbless the rains down in Africa\u201d. I know their song\u00a0Africa<\/em>\u00a0only too well, because it\u2019s in the soundtrack of my life.<\/p>\n

Back in the early \u201980s that song was on the radio all the time. And the songs from that time have become etched in my consciousness. Actually, I would like some of those songs removed from my consciousness. I mean, why do I now need to know all the words to\u00a0Me and You and a Dog named Boo<\/em>? That does me no good at all.<\/p>\n

Africa,<\/em>\u00a0though, well, I\u2019ll keep that. And reading about the story behind the song is quite heartwarming. It was written by band members David Paich and Jeff Porcaro, produced by the band and mixed by engineer Greg Ladanyi. (Paich and Steve Lukather are the only original members in the current line-up.)<\/p>\n

In 2015, Paich explained that the song is about a man\u2019s love of a continent, Africa, rather than just a personal romance. He based the lyrics on a late-night documentary with depictions of African plight and suffering, which sounds a tad patronising now but I think his heart was in the right place.<\/p>\n

But why am I even thinking about this? Because I\u2019ve just been reading about the line-up at this year\u2019s Byron Bay Bluesfest, the 36th iteration of this popular festival, to run April 17 to 20.<\/p>\n

Word was that this might be the last Bluesfest, due to soaring costs and other inhibiting factors, but now I hear that might not be the case. Expect news about that soon.<\/p>\n

And this year, yes, Toto will be there, along with other stalwarts such as Christopher Cross and Chaka Khan. Chaka Khan is another one with a song in my memory bank. I could sing\u00a0I\u2019m Every Woman<\/em>\u00a0to you right now if you like? But I won\u2019t just in case the neighbours are in earshot.<\/p>\n

This is one of the things Bluesfest does \u2013 presents us with acts that we thought might be defunct or even dead. The retinue of stars that have played at Bluesfest is quite incredible \u2013 BB King, Santana, James Brown, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Tom Jones, John Mayer. The list goes on.<\/p>\n

I was chatting to some friends the other day and they recalled seeing my favourite reggae artists Toots and The Maytals at Bluesfest. I missed that but many years earlier I did manage to see Toots Hibbert and his band perform at The Playroom on the Gold Coast in the early \u201980s. Sadly, Toots died during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

But, hey, Toto and Chaka Khan are still on the planet. Toto is coming here as part of a world tour that started in 2022. It makes me tired just thinking about it. Chaka Khan is 71 now but, from all reports, she is still killing it on stage.<\/p>\n

Christopher Cross is 73. He\u2019s a bit more middle-of-the-road, but I do have some of his songs filed in the filaments of my memory.\u00a0Sailing\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Ride Like the Wind<\/em>\u00a0are there along with the rather lovely\u00a0Arthur\u2019s Theme (Best That You Can Do).<\/em>\u00a0I had some singing lessons in the \u201980s (they didn\u2019t take) and the main song I was working with was\u00a0Arthur\u2019s Theme,<\/em>\u00a0so I know that one only too well. Of course, the movie\u00a0Arthur<\/em>\u00a0is a classic. It starred Dudley Moore, Liza Minelli and John Gielgud.<\/p>\n

Toto, Chaka Khan, Christopher Cross \u2013 there\u2019s three legends right there. But wait, there\u2019s more \u2026 so much more. Crowded House, George Thorogood & The Destroyers, The Cat Empire, John Butler, Maoli, The Steele Syndicate and a long list of other hot acts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve never quite worked out why the American rock band Toto wanted to \u201cbless the rains down in Africa\u201d. I know their song\u00a0Africa\u00a0only too well, because it\u2019s in the soundtrack of my life. Back in the early \u201980s that song was on the radio all the time. And the songs from that time have become […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,6],"tags":[19,45],"class_list":["post-1030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-brush-with","category-podcasts","tag-featured","tag-podcasts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1030"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1032,"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030\/revisions\/1032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}