FORMER Rolling Stone Mick Taylor left 8,300 music fans feeling anything but blue in a former County Durham pit town.

The guitarist and singer's headlining appearance at Saturday's Stanley Blues Festival attracted the seven-year-old event's biggest crowd.

With a top notch backing band, Taylor, who played on many of the Stones' albums in the early 1970s, performed an hour-long set.

Afterwards, Taylor said: "I actually enjoyed it very much. We didn't have our piano player with us but it wasn't a worry.

"I was delighted with the way the band played and the way the crowd responded. It was very good.

"I enjoy playing more than ever today. I know what I did with the Rolling Stones was fantastically popular, but this is more satisfying and enjoyable."

It was a big day for festival newcomers The Blue Shoulders, a blues rock trio from Waldridge, near Chester-le-Street.

Guitarist and singer Pete Shoulder, drummer Adam Sinclair and bassist Graham Sinclair have a combined age of just 48 - but their opening set, mostly self-penned songs, drew a standing ovation.

The quality of the music was maintained by other North-East bands, Paul Fletcher's Usual Suspects and Alive and Kicking, plus Nashville's Fred James Band and The Nimmo Brothers, from Glasgow