A Wilde Night At The Memorial Hall Dereham

Dereham Blues Festival 2026

Dereham: Wednesday 1st July / Sunday 5th July 2026

Will Wilde: Harp-led Blues at Dereham Memorial Hall 1st July 2026 

Whoah, the summer we have been having has been real Blues country weather!  The unrelenting, enervating heat and hot breezes, have set up the 14th Dereham Blues Festival perfectly. Five straight days and nights of the finest, free, live blues music in the country are on the way in the old market town and it looks like all its hours will be blessed with good weather for wandering from pub to pub to cricket club and the Ellenor Fenn Garden to soak up the free music on offer. 

The whole shebang kicked off last night with another stunning opening show at the Dereham Memorial Hall. It was sold out of course.  The star attraction for the opening night was Will Wilde and his band, who hail from the Brighton.  Will’s specialism is playing the blues harp, the entry level instrument for so many to blues musicians. Whether this is how Will began life as a blues musician I don’t know, but the harmonica is his forte and the main feature of his show. Across his shoulder and around his chest, Wilde wears a bandolier of harmonicas of different keys, so that he can slip seamlessly from song to song without hesitation, but he claims that the quantity of harps he carries in that belt is still not enough for him to play all he wants on stage.  Check the photo to see how many it wears on stage. Maybe one day he will wear a second crossing bandolier, to meet his harmonica needs?

Will Wilde’s red and white guitar stood neat, bright and unused to the back of the stage, tantalising the audience, as all the guitar work was led by Bobby Harrison, who relished the responsibility. Steve Rushton on drums was having an absolute ball at the back of the stage, driving the Wilde band on, with Russell Carr’s bass keeping feet tapping.  In fact the quality of Carr’s bass was not truly revealed until the last number of the night when he was given a solo in the closing number. His solo revealed him to be a captivating jazz musician, his piece was a lovely counter-point to the rock-leaning style of Wilde's performances.

I think everyone in the Memorial Hall would have loved to have been entertained by Wilde on guitar too, but we were left to digest how he orchestrated his band with the harmonica. Also I think we might have been accused of being greedy, as the opening act, the 220 years of Blues represented by The Tony Edwards’ Blues Express had more than filled our boots with just some of the most soulful, very best rocking blues music you can get on a stage. So, to have Wilde topping off the night with more guitar might have been over-egging the pudding to be honest. 

The most beautiful song of of the evening was the poignant Gypsy Woman, written by Wilde in Brighton when he was  recuperating in hospital from a motorcycle crash that broke his neck. The song has really moving lyrics, “…if something don’t change soon, I am going to be…buried in my grave. So tell me, gypsy woman what kind of future do you see for me?” And in this rendition the keyboard solo of Tom Maxwell was perfectly played, amplifying the pathos of the song.  The harp does sad beautifully and in this song, when Wilde was deeply affected by the one of life’s toughest challenges, the Blues genuinely came to the man.  Other songs, delivered by this tightest of tight bands, touched on Blues themes, but when you hear something like this Gypsy Woman, coming from that life experience, the other songs are just so much entertainment.  Forget Wilde’s virtuoso harp playing, just be grateful that he can walk, talk and sign his merchandise.

I bought a copy of his 2015 Live in Berlin CD last night and that turned out to be a great choice, capturing the power of his stage show, although with a different band from last night’s line up.

A comment about the show I feel it fair to pass on was that The Tony Edwards’ Blues Express must be one hell of a band to have to follow, because they are such damned good fun! Edwards’ knows that playing lead guitar is a bit of a giggle and as the fifty-four year old, youngest member of his Blues Express, he hammed it up with his poses, tongue in cheek, for the festival camera man, as he blew the amps apart with his blistering solos.  Gee, he was having fun!  With respect to the keyboards, you cannot beat a Hammond organ and Andy Cooper is the real deal there.  Edwards gave him plenty of airtime, of course, because Cooper is that good he is worth the entrance money alone. He tried his serious face poses too, but he just loves his keys to absolute pieces and try sitting on your hands to his playing, because that joy is wholly infectious.

The early arrivals at the Dereham Memorial Hall, particularly those queuing so long and so politely for the besieged bar staff were able to appreciate the RockaVox choir, who unfailingly turnout to open the opening night of the festival.  It looks great fun to be part of this set up. In fact their singing helped guide me to the venue from the bus stop, singing as they were with the doors open at the back of the Memorial Hall. 

RockaVox of Dereham  

I knew I was close as their harmonies and interpretations of rock classics filled the evening air, despite competing with the screaming swifts swooping over the old market town. Follow the link above if you want to give it a go, the choir, not flying like a swift! 

I wish every success to the serious talent of Will Wilde and his band. Opening for EC will be a thrill for them and a treat for the Clapton is God Squad. 

Aa for the other guys in the Tony Edwards' Blues Express who trod the boards at Dereham Memorial Hall last night, you can catch them in various places and band line ups, around Dereham Town over the coming weekend. 

The wheat is ripening in Norfolk fields and until the harvest, what better way to spend your time than soaking up the blues at The Gemini, The Cherry Tree, The George, The Red Lion (the original home of Dereham Blues Festival), Ellenor Fenn Garden, The Bull and The Cock. There ain’t nothing like the blues and nowhere does Blues in the UK better than the Dereham Blues Festival.

It is all free, so go help yourself. 

~

Spencer Ide

2nd July 2026