Bob Dylan Goes Electric

Bob Dylan Goes Electric is not a standard, continuously touring band, but rather a group that comes together for specific concerts and events to offer a varied selection from Dylan's extensive catalog. 
Key information about the band:

  • Concept 
    The project was initiated as a ‘one-off’ gig but expanded through the summer 0f '25, allowing the band to dive deeper into the words and music of Bob Dylan.
  • Performance Style 
    Rather than imitation, the band focuses on capturing the essence of the era in which the songs were created, delivering them with "verve and humour" and a distinct sound, drawing on that achieved when Dylan ‘went electric’.
  • Band Members 
    Steve Dagleish (vocals, guitar/harmonica), Mark Thistlewood (bass) and Nick Burson (drums) in the rhythm section, with colour from Rhiain Price (organ), Dale Harris (guitar).
Bob Dylan Goes Electric
The Green Note 20/11/25
Fans of the modern folk scene will already be familiar with the Green Note as absolutely the best venue in London to watch acoustic sets in a classic club setting. And for almost as long as the Green Note has been in business, they have featured performances by Steve Dagleish, a near-perfect folk talent who they first booked twenty years ago and who is still packing the rafters. (For those who haven’t come across Steve’s music, check out the album Live from Fiction Studios).
But tonight’s performance promises something different. In a break from his usual blend of sweet and sharp pieces, Steve has promised us a set of Bob Dylan, delivered by his newly assembled band, Desolation Row. It’s a popular choice and the venue is packed to the gills as Steve introduces a slew of Dylan classics, kicking off with “Blowing in the Wind” and moving quickly into “Maggie’s Farm”, “Desolation Row” and a heroic gallop through “Subterranean Homesick Blues”.
In the hands of anyone else, this could quickly stray into tribute act territory but Steve has this music in his genes. This is not sterile fan fiction – Steve’s performances bear his own musical fingerprints and perfectly deliver the emotional charge of songs written at a time when it felt like music really could change the world. Close your eyes and it’s Greenwich Village, 1965.
The second set kicks off with “Times They are a Changing” and an energetic “Don’t Think Twice” and we’re off again. Steve has assembled some serious talent in Desolation Row – special mention goes to the multi-talented Ed Hopwood who plays a mean percussion as well as the sweetest and most soulful harmonica known to man (seriously, if Bob had taken some lessons from this guy, his career could have really taken off). Rhiain Price delivers keyboards with Christine McVie elegance while down in the engine room, Dale Harris and Mark Thistlewood on guitar and bass generate the power to keep the machine on the road.
The set concludes with a soulful “Rolling Stone” and “Chimes of Freedom" as an encore – and it’s over too soon. Never seeking to produce a perfect likeness of the originals, Bob Dylan Goes Electric still manage to capture the essence of the era in which they were created – one in which politicians acted like gangsters, civil rights were an endangered species and oppressive governments sent other people’s children into wars no one wanted.
And if all of that feels familiar, then tonight was as relevant as it was sixty years ago.
Allan Boroughs
November 2025