Snowy White & The White Flames
Gevarenwinkel Festival Herselt-Belgium
Friday the 26th of August 2005
Herselt is situated north-east of Bruxelles.And for the Lahouste family(my wife Brigitte,my daughter Caroline and myself),it took us 3 hours to reach this blues festival. But who cares ? Although I
am 56, I am used to go far away to see some good bands.We were
very exited, even anxious for it was to be the first time in our life
we would see Snowy in person. Cecil had planned everything for us,
and we’ll be thankful all our life for what she did: arrange a meeting backstage with Snowy and his musicians !
The festival organizers have to be congratulated too; they organized everything well: a big top able to shelter some 2000 persons,places to drink, to eat, etc..And more over the weather was clement:not too hot and a bit windy. The day was looking promising !When we arrived, we showed up at the reception.Snowy hadn’t turned up yet,so we went under the top and listened to a good blues band from America:“Little Charlie and the nightcats”. It wasn’t bad at all. There were a good harmonica and great guitars.
Then we finally received the authorisation to enter in Snowy’s
bungalow. The whole family was anxious, but Snowy and his band
welcomed us so warmly that we almost immediately felt well.Snowy
was defining the set order with Richard, but he immediately took
care of us. He’s a very friendly person. Not a bit proud and soooo
handsome (as my wife and daughter said). In a few words: he’s a
great man !We talked for a while.He asked us where we came from,
what we were doing. And we offered him some good white wine
from France, which he appreciated a lot.Then, while we were
having fun with Walter and Richard,we took many pictures
of our "star". Max was sitting on a chair,very calm and
visibly amused to seeing our complicity. I also have to say
that they were in good company with my two ladies.After
15 minutes of discussion, we’ve let them go preparing
the gig. They had to check instruments,make the sound
check, etc... And it wasn’t easy with the festival conditions.
The concert started at 23 PM in front of some 2000 persons.
For the first time we saw Snowy and his fellows live. What a
concert ! And what a deception to see the public,a large
majority drunk,keeping on talking, laughing, without really
listening what was going on on stage.There was so much
noise that for Terpisah, Walter’s solo song, Richard had to ask
for silence. And what a surprise: no way to get a bit of silence !
Snowy had put “Bird of paradise” on his playlist, but because of
all the noise around, he finally didn’t play it. Apart a few technical
problems, the show was exceptional and the band on great form.
Max seemed a bit tired, but it might also simply be his nature as
well.In any case,he is a very talented musician. Walter spent the
gig watching Snowy for whom he seems to have a deep admiration.
And last but not least: Richard, who offered us a drumming lesson,
never lost an occasion of playing the fool and made us signs when
he saw us in the crowd.It has really been great to see and listen
our long time idol. What a talented musician, what a guitarist of
great distinction !
It seemed to me that the show lasted 1 hour and 30 minutes
with a nice and complete playlist: No stranger to the blues;
What I’m searching for; Little wing; I loved another woman;
The answer; Land of plenty; Lucky star; American dream;
Terpisah solo; Working blues; Angel inside you; then
the encore with: That’s when I’ll stop loving you;"This
time of my life" and "Piece of your love".All the
songs were great and perfectly performed,but I have
a preference for "I loved another woman" "The answer"
for its metal side, and also "Angel inside you "(from
Snowy’s last CD) which does it well on stage.
After the concert, we went back backstage to congratulate
the musicians with whom we had a last drink. We took another
pictures; Snowy signed some of his cds for our friends.And
all of this in a very friendly atmosphere.Then we had to go.
The ladies didn’t miss the occasion to steal some kisses.
In short, it has been a great moment. This day will be forever
in our memories: to rub shoulders with such a star wouldn’t
have been possible without the very efficient Cecil. A big
thanks to her ! To spend some time with someone who
played in front of some 350.000 persons (the Wall, with
Roger Waters), for sure that’s all what we could wish for.
So farewell mister Snowy and his band ! We’d like to see
you soon… maybe in France ?
Michel,Brigite & Caroline La Houste -France
Translation by Clint Gasser
Concertreviews 1997-Noorderligt,Tilburg,
The Netherlands-13 february 1997
If you ever saw Snowy,Juan and Walter play live,you would know
something interesting might happen one day. "No faith required"
is the CD on which it happens. A bounch of very distinctive songs,
styled to the earlier work Snowy has done.Together with some
creative input from these musicians,created a style of their own
for the band. All in all it was enough to get hopes up high for some
memorable live performance and it was lucky Mr.white found his way to Holland to play live!The show started with a slow,very laid back,completely redone version of the Mayfield's classic"Memory Pain".After that things went along with a mixture of the old and new.All the songs were played with great ease and confidence and they took time to improvise when they felt like it.A great performance with some beautiful guitar,firece drumming, a solid bass and a nice solo from Walter(encouraged by his family in the crowd).Although it was not the best of the Dutch shows,the mixture of styles went down really well with the crowd.
Mark Hazenberg-The Netherlands

Michel & Snowy
The White Flames Band- France-New Morning
Paris-France-20 September 1996
The concert started at 9.10 pm.There were two of Peter
Green' songs and several tracks from Snowy's recent album
"No Faith Required" which were full of feeling and warmth.
I was very impressed by Juan's powerfull drum playing tremendously effective and joyful.Walter sang a great solo;
he made the samesound as his bassguitar.Really impressive.
During a new track Snowy gradually reduced his amplifier
until there was no sound and thinking it was finished,the
audience started to applaud...but they loved when he turned
it back up and continued playing.What i noticed was the
empathy between the three musicians they were brimming
with inspiration the whole time.I discovered two long compositions,more jazzy and professionally orientated.
Afterwards my two friends and I went backstage to see
our hero.I got his autographs on my two "Blues Agency"
Cd's covers.
The Previous day Peter Green had attended his gig in the
UK,and the good news was that he was getting beter and better.Briefly Snowy is a gifted artist who deserve more recognition.
©Michel Bornibus-France
Snowy White & The White Flames Band
Live-Shephers Bush-London-1996
http://www.dprp.net/concrev/snowy2.htm
Concert Review Germany-1996
Snowy White & The White Flames
Sallerhalle,Winterbach Germany-July 1st-1996
It was more or less by change that I heard the news four
weeks before the concert took place:Snowy White,one of
my musical heroes since the days of "Bird of Pardise" was
going to play in a small town.Winterbach(near Stutgart)
about 40 miles away from my hometown.There were two
bands announced for the evening"Snowy White & The
White Flames which had been flown in for this single
concert in German,and Roger Chapman + The Shortlist.
The quite small hall(Sallerhalle) was visited by about
500 people;most of them seemed to have to come for
Roger Chapman,who is very popular in Germany.Only
a handfull of Snowy White fans could be identified,
so I was curious about the way the audience would
react to him.
Snowy opened with a 6 minutes version of "Looking For
Somebody" a Peter Green written blues song which had
been Snowy's contribution to the Peter Green tribute
album "Rattlesnake Guitar".The band was welcome by
the audience very friendly,those not being familair with
Snowy's music were suprised about the virtuosity and the
unique feeling of his guitar playing,and the handfull of
harcore fans like myself were just happy to see this highly
gifted musician and his bandface to face.The second song
was called 'Welcome To The Blues' in spite of the title not
a real blues song.but a hot rock song with great work by the
rythm section Juan and Walter (their playing in this song
reminded me a bit of Golden Earing's "Radar Love") and a
catchy rif guitar by Snowy in the second half of this 7
minutes song. The next song was announced as the Title track
of the forthcoming album"No faith Required,that should
released in september as Snowy told the audience.
This song was one of the highlights of the show,soulfull guitar
playing,dynamic rhythm work and as much as I could understand
with my very knowledge of the English language,very thoughtfull
lyrics.Following was"Memory Pain" an old Curits Mayfield song that Snowy had learned in Thin Lizzy.Another song of the new album"In The Name Of The lord" was the highlight of this wonderfull evening for me. Minutes of inspiring melody,suprising changes of rhythm and good lyrics again I'm curious how the studio version of this song,which could become one of Snowy's classic's sound.The next song called "Working Blues"(aka" Keep On Working") was announced by Snowy as follows 'I'd like to dedicate it to everyone here who can' get up on a monday morning" and someone in the crowd yelled"I can't get up on any morning ".Then two more new songs followed"The More You Give" and a 20 minutes version of"A Miracle I need'.The latter being a real" tour de force" featuring an extended bass solo by Walter and outstanding drumming by Juan.
By the way I wasn't suprised about the brilliance of Snowy's playing because I had known that for many years,but I was really suprised about Juan's drum work.he must have been the best drummer I've seen for many years in any concert,and the people standing around me agreed with me.An encore followed,the well-known "Long Hot Saterday Night" and then Snowy's part of the evening over much to soon.The audience was left really enthusiatic and I'm sure Snowy and The White Flames won a lot of new friends.Afterwards I went backstage with some friends to congratulate Snowy with his great show and to collect autographs.
I had bought a gift for Snowy.He's such a kind hearted and humble guy.He told us he regretfully had to shorten his show (that lasted 80 minutes in Winterbach) for about 20 minutes and promissed to come back for a tour in autumn.I'll be there Snowy and I'm sure your next album featuring nuggets like "A Miracle I need" and
"In The Name Of The Lord" will be a big step forward in your carreer.
©-Richard Eck-Germany