Is the blues still a musical life force? Is the cultural form which emerged as a black folk idiom, laden with social comment in the southern states of America in the 19th century and spread into white country music, providing big show business entertainment filled with sexual innuendo in the voices of Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith in the 1920s still relevant in the modern day?

Has the recent death of John Lee Hooker closed the door on the connecting links of over a century of blues?

Does the mellowing of Eric Clapton mean the electrifying influence on his generation of Robert Johnson is finished, leaving us nothing but the emptiness of over-amplified pop/blues bands?

Certainly not. On our patch we have the man with the talent, wit and derring-do to make the blues part of today's UK urban scene.

He is guitarist, vocalist and social philosopher Billy Jenkins from Brockley via Bromley. His take on that post-nuclear threat to humanity namely, mass consumerism is one we can take seriously while being amused and entertained by his performance.

Pete Martin, writing in Jazz UK magazine, described Billy Jenkins' blues as "... not so much southside Chicago of the 1950s more the desolate shopping malls of today."

He returns to the scene of his sellout success last year The Blue Elephant Theatre, in Bethwin Road, Camberwell for a musical project of genuine and immediate political concern.

Together with the theatre management and his Blues Collective Band Dylan Bates (violin) Rick Bolton (guitar) Thad Kelly (bass) and Mike Pickering (drums) Jenkins is using these blues nights to gear people up for some serious public awareness raising of safety and environmental issues which affect those who live, work and trade in this particular area of Camberwell.

Whether or not you live there, you'll be in for comedy and blues music of a cheering kind but born out of issues of today. Call the box office on 020 7701 0100.

July 24, 2001 11:27