ONE of the two stages at this year’s Ealing Blues Festival has been named in honour of founder Robert Hokum, who died last year.
Hokum was the Ealing blues musician alter-ego of the late Bob Salmons, who died in October.
Bob started the Festival in 1987 for a few local bands in the Walpole Park bandstand. Now, 38 years on, audiences regularly reach 10,000 at one of the biggest blues events in Britain.
Alistair Young, director of the Ealing Club Community Interest Company that helps curate the festival, said: “This is a fitting tribute to a man who did so much for music in west London.”
The festival combines up-and-coming acts with established talent.
The 2025 version will kick off in style with a DJ set from Gaz Mayall, whose bluesman father, John Mayall, was inducted into the US Rock Hall of Fame in October 2024, the same year as Ealing Blues Club founder Alexis Korner.
It was at Korner’s basement venue, opposite Ealing Broadway where blues-based rock music originated with groups such as the Rolling Stones, Cream, The Who, Manfred Mann, The Yardbirds, The Pretty Things, Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Animals.
Alistair Young said: “Our community-based roots continue to be reflected in low advance admission ticket prices.”
They are available now from https://www.ticketline.co.uk/ealing-summer-festivals.
Over the weekend of July 26-27 in Walpole Park, Ealing, other highlights include Cedric Burnside, grandson of the legendary R L Burnside, the Errol Linton Band, smoky-voiced Elles Bailey and Ian McHugh with a Robert Hokum tribute.
