Biography of Christophe Le Bleu


	Christophe Le Bleu

		Lead Guitar, Slide Guitar, Lead Vocals

Christophe Le Bleu was born in Toulouse, France, the son of a French sailor and an Irish mother. The seeds of his music are not difficult to uncover. Le Bleu’s father Conrad “Hornblower” Lebleu was a harp player as mean on the harmonica as Le Bleu’s grandfather had been on the banjo. However Le Bleu’s formative musical years were spent in Bristol, England to where his father had sailed the family when he was small. He was always a better harp player than sailor and had meant to sail the family back to his wife’s roots in Ireland but had turned right instead of left at the Bristol Channel.

However, Bristol was a port with many historic America connections and it was there, walking past the city’s prime blues venue, the Corn Exchange, in the 1960s, that Christophe’s blues roots were stirred for the first time. Hearing though not yet understanding the strange but magnetic strains of ‘Spoonful, he was hooked. Compelled by the irresistible pull of the music he spent a night learning the bass guitar and was inspired, with his brother Franck Le Bleu to form a five piece R ‘n’ B band, the Exiles. They served up classic rhythm ‘n’ blues in church halls, strip joints and bus shelters all over the West Country and occasionally in bigger venues, supporting many chart-toppers of the 60s like the Kinks, the Moody Blues, Them and the Spencer Davis Group. In fact the Moody Blues borrowed their maracas one night and have never given them back.


	Le Bleu eventually left the Exiles and followed other paths, playing solo acoustic guitar to anyone who would listen. No one was particularly interested and so eventually, his blues roots resurfacing, he came out of hibernation in the 1990s to play lead guitar in ‘Fat Hen’ a Lincoln R ‘n’ B band where he joined up for the first time with drummer Lord Robert Hamilton. ‘Fat Hen’ evolved some time later into Mr. Mojo and graduated some time after that into Dr. Mojo. There being no more qualifications available, Dr. Mojo disbanded in 2004. However this musical resurfacing had failed to totally satisfy Le Bleu’s blues roots. The blues was still jostling with soul and rock ‘n’ roll in the music.

	And so it came to pass that, the spirit of the blues in the shape of the son of Muddy Waters appeared in the year 2005 (see ‘BluesTrain’ link) and breathed ‘BluesTrain’ into existence. The paths of Le Bleu, Lord Robert, Whispering Smith and JJ Benson crossed, a rehearsal arranged and within three chords and a rim shot of starting, it was clear that a band had been born where at last Le Bleu’s blues roots could flourish. The four BluesTrain crew were bluesmen at last playing down the same track. Instrumentally it sounded good. Unfortunately for the other three no one could find a proper singer and when the obvious question was asked Lebleu was the last to step backwards. But he’s not that bad. And anyway sometimes he’s just happy to let the instruments play the blues. There are times when he doesn’t need to give them too much voice. Just a spoonful...