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| Swanage Blues Festival The Sixth Swanage Blues Festival (3, 4, 5 March 2006) with such musicians, as Pete Saunders' Fat Tuesday Band, Sonny Black, Cal Batchelor Band, The Mustangs, The Guv'nors, Robert Hokum Band, Hightown Crows, Roland Chadwick, John Crampton, Hollow Bone, The Jives, is a wonderful holiday for all blues fans. Pete Saunders' Fat Tuesday Band creates the Music of Street Carnivals. Think of Dr John, Professor Longhair, Alan Toussaint, the Meters and a glorious New Orleans Mardi Gras, and you're on your way! Pete Saunders is an amazing keyboard virtuoso and singer. He is engaging, energetic, enthusiastic and entertaining with a varied range of pace and style. Pete was in The Damned and Dexy’s Midnight Runners. His rhythm section consists of Amy Baldwin on double bass, and accomplished author, songwriter and Simon Charterton, who played with Charlie Higson and Alex Harvey, on percussion. On trumpet is Barbara Snow, who has worked with The Bellestars, Maxi Priest, The Blow Monkeys, Manic Street Preachers and Jools Holland. On saxophone is Clare Hirst, who has written and played on many recordings with artists such as David Bowie, The Communards, Mica Paris and Maxi Priest. She spent some time working with Mervyn Africa before embarking on a solo career based around her Quartet, and since then has played with many of the country’s finest jazz musicians including David Newton, Alan Barnes, Clare Teal, Mark Nightingale, Don Weller, Art Themen, Phil Lee and Dick Pearce. The Mustangs, four-piece Hampshire based band, was formed in 2001 when guitarist and singer Adam Norsworthy, already a young 'veteran' of live performing, joined forces with harp player Derek Kingaby. Augmented by the dynamic drumming of Jon Bartley and the rock solid bass of Ben McKeown, the band cut its teeth in the many music pubs and clubs on England's south coast. Since then they have played the Hackney Empire, Boogaloo Blues Festival, Blues at the Fort, Eel Pie's Bluesquest, Southsea's Blues at the Pier, the International Festival of the Sea, The South Coast HOG, Guilfest and many others. A Mustangs stage show is like no other, with the phenomenal energy of lead singer Adam Norsworthy the focal point around which they build their shows, climaxing in a sonic and visual crescendo that is sending crowds home ecstatic time after time. Their last two CDs - Let It Roll and Rocking Horse - have been in the CD WOW Unsigned Top 10 for two years, and they will shortly sign a three album deal with Blues Matters. Roland Chadwick - Half Man - Half Guitar. Some say he’s the Guitar Slinger. Some say he’s the Wizard of Oz. Others say they saw him in the Cotswolds selling his soul to a blind man with a Red Hat holding a magic plectrum made of solid sound. The mystery deepens and the truth may never be told but those in the know, know that Roland Chadwick is music to his bones. Cal Batchelor, Canadian guitarist, singer and keyboard player came to England in 1969 and helped to form Quiver, the first group to play at the Rainbow Theatre supporting The Who, later touring as support to Mark Bolan and Pink Floyd. After two albums Quiver decided to merge with Sullivan Brothers, and Cal left to form 747 with Archie Leggett, Henry Crallan, and Freddie Smith. They joined with Kevin Ayers for a while, and then Cal joined Long John Baldry supporting The Faces. In 1977 Cal formed Kicks with two members of Hawkwind and an ex-Vinegar Joe member Steve York, before joining Ronnie Lane's band in the 1980s and then returning to Canada. Cal appears on albums with many artists including Kevin Ayers, Sam Mitchell, Mike Oldfield, Steve Nye, Rupert Hine, Lol Coxhill, Nico, Doris Troy, Cochise, Tim Renwick, Curtiss Muldoon, Tony Ashton, Richard Thompson, Al Stewart, Brinsley Schwarz, Ronnie Lane, Steve Simpson, Jimmy Jewell, Henry McCullough, Chrissy Stewart, Graham Lyle, Hughie Flint, Benny Gallagher, Mick Green and Eric Clapton. He has recently returned to Europe for festival gigs including a headline appearance at the Great British Rhythm 'n' Blues Festival in Colne, Lancashire. John Crampton: a one-man blues explosion with a big, powerful sound of hard-hitting and danceable up-tempo blues. John plays slide or bottleneck style on a 1930s National Steel Guitar with fantastic harmonica and thumping stomp box to provide a driving rhythm. If you like John's influences - Howlin' Wolf, Bukka White, John Lee Hooker and Ry Cooder - you'll really enjoy John! He has recently played in Florida, Greece, Ireland, Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Czech Republic, Poland, France and Slovakia. Robert Hokum Band: Using small amplifiers and a stripped-down drum kit, Robert Hokum and his band get back to their roots and play classic Chicago and Delta Blues the way it was intended. Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson and Son House would all have been proud of the way their songs are portrayed. From fast and furious to breathless, a guaranteed stunning performance by these superb entertainers. Rolling in from the Purbeck Hills are the rockabilly barons of Dorset, The Hightown Crows. Don’t be fooled by their country gentlemen names: Hinton Admiral guitar, Rufus Stone on stand-up bass, and Emery Down, whose curious but highly effective panoply of percussive instruments fits into one suitcase. These guys may emanate from the blue-rinse bone yard of the south coast, but they generate wild, high-octane, quality entertainment – Blues To Make You Sweat – and deserve their titles “The Shamen of Shake” and “The Witchdoctors of Boogaloo”. Unmissable. Sonny Black is a guitarist who takes the blues from the Delta to the borders of jazz and back again. Sonny’s CD ‘Heart and Soul’ was met with critical acclaim from major American publications such as Living Blues and Blues Review. It was also made album of the year by the Blues In Britain Magazine and received extensive radio play on Jazz FM, Radio 2 and many commercial stations throughout the UK. The readers of Blues In Britain voted Sonny Black the best UK blues guitarist of the year in 2002. He continues his success with his latest album ‘Blues of a Kind’. The Jives, brilliant guitar and harmonica duo featuring Jeff Chapman, ex-Wilko Johnson sideman and frontman for The Roosters, and Al E Bye from R&B band AM5. Together they offer a compelling mix of R&B ranging from Little Walter's harp style to the more rocky side of Chuck Berry. These good old Essex boys have established a brilliant reputation at festivals such as Banbury Blues Festival, the Great British Rhythm 'n Blues Festival, Monmouth Festival, Cromer Folk Festival, Broadstairs Folk Week, Upton-upon-Severn Blues Festival, Barnard Castle Festival, More Blues Festival (Belgium), and Boogaloo Blues' Weekends. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page |