Louisiana Hayride

April 9, 2012

When Elvis Presley was making his name as a singer, before he was famous, he played in a show called The Louisiana Hayride. It doesn’t quite have the pedigree of the Grand Ol’ Opry (which he also played in), but I’ve always liked the sound of the name.

The Louisiana Hayride is a long way from the Louisiana pub in Bristol, but maybe not so far tonight, because it was where we were celebrating live music and rock ‘n’ roll in general, and the music of my late nephew, Trevor, in particular.

When he died just over a year ago, aged only 37, he had managed to pack a lot of honest music into his life, as tonight’s event underlined.

Somebody had the brilliant idea of getting virtually all the bands he had played in to perform on the same bill, including some that reformed especially for the event, which was called the Trevor Carter Memorial Gig. This included Trev’s younger brother, Richard, who came out of rock star retirement to front a surprisingly good band called Blueprint. Several people played in several of the bands.

I’ve never been to a gig before where they needed a playlist to list all the bands. Trev’s elder brother, Stuart, by the way, was the enigmatic MC, and his widow Conny also took part, singing backing vocals with the last band on, Your Robot Overlords/The Familiar Sound.

So a good night was had by all friends and family who packed into the upstairs room of the pub, and although some of the older members of the audience weren’t quite sure what to expect nor whether they would like the style of music, I did, especially those who played or veered towards old-fashioned (1970s) punk. It was certainly easy to be impressed by the general enthusiasm and musical ability of a lot of the players, particularly (for me) the drummers.

I, Julie and Holly all went, but not Sean, who is still on tour with his band in Europe – the best reason anybody had for not being there, and definitely one that Trev would have approved of.