A Poundful of Blues

Belfast has changed a lot over recent years. People leave and move on, businesses both create and follow public tastes and fashions and the City evolves as each generation makes its mark. The music scene is no exception. Belfast's Maritime Hotel is, quite rightly, celebrated as the labour ward for Rn'B in the early 1960s and a generation later the Harp Bar became synonymous with Punk. What happened during the years in between? A Poundful of Blues tells the story of one of the most iconic music clubs in Belfast, The Pound.The Pound was in Townhall Street just opposite Oxford Street Bus Station and it played host to some of the greatest Rock and Blues musicians that Belfast has ever produced. The Saturday afternoon sessions there in the 1970s have become legendary. Declan Forde, then a student teacher from Omagh, was often in the audience and in the documentary he retraces the path to The Pound and tells it's story through interviews with many of the musicians who played there. With the hindsight of forty years both the presenter and the interviewees reflect on the influence The Pound has had on their lives. Luckily there are some archive recordings and with these as a soundtrack the glory days of The Pound are brought vividly back to life.