QUEST ENDS by Craig Nelson, Surrey Comet, June 2006.

The first BluesQuest came to a fitting finale last Wednesday night with a re-union of all nine finalists, live at the Eel Pie Club in Twickenham.

Bands chosen to lay down tracks on the BluesQuest CD, following a series of monthly heats at the Eel Pie, came together for one last, big concert.

Cool Jerks, Chicago Thieves, Blues Academy and others who entered the competition, backed by Newsquest, performed tracks from the CD to a packed audience.

Eel Pie musical director Tom Nolan even got in on the act, performing an hour-long set with his Stones tribute band, Rollin Bones, as an impromptu get-well gesture for Keith Richards.

It was a great night, but not what BluesQuest set out to achieve, as Nolan himself admitted.

"The idea, initially, was to find young bands who had embraced the rhythm and blues culture of the area, but taken it on to the next level," he said.

"What we have got is a really great CD, better than I ever expected, but possibly not quite what we had hoped for."

The demographic of the audience at the CD launch told its own story. It was brilliant fun standing on a makeshift dance floor in the middle of a crowd of empty-nesters giving it everything they'd got to the strains of the Stones.

If you closed your eyes you could have been in the Eel Pie Club circa 1962 when The Rolling Stones and the whole R&B scene took off. The problem was, most of the audience were. And, unfortunately, most of the BluesQuesters were, too.

Almost all the acts that caught the ear were not so easy on the eye. All brilliantly talented musicians, great at what they do, but the point was to find fresh talent for a new generation.

In that sense, two BluesQuest bands really stood out.

Collectively, To The Bridge had to be one of the oldest bands in the competition, but the insanely talented young front man, guitarist and songwriter Matt Bullard, stole the limelight.

His song, Blues Alone, is traditional blues in every sense, but he looks to have the vigour and the vision to make it into something all his own.

The Mustangs have already done that. Watching The Mustangs' front man Adam Norsworthy pogoing on stage, while drummer Jon Bartley and Ben McKeown shared knowing smiles, it was obvious these guys had their own agenda.

Adam, 25, of Dulwich, doesn't deny it: "We will never forget our blues roots, but we don't want to be playing cosy blues festivals all our lives.

"The best example of what we want to achieve are The White Stripes. We want to take 12-bar blues and freshen it up."

To order the BluesQuest CD, visit www.eelpieclub.com