Long Street Blues Club: Gigs 2024
CERES Promotions present at the Corn Exchange, Devizes
Saturday 4th May 2024 - BEAUX GRIS GRIS and the APOCALYPSE | Doors 7.45pm
This is a triumphant homecoming gig for Hoax member Robin Davey. Based in California this band has seen a meteoric rise. With two albums under their belt and now heavily featured by Planet Rock this will be one special gig to savour.
Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse is the musical creation of Greta Valenti and Robin Davey. The pair met when their respective bands crossed paths on YouTube, having already established themselves as performers and musicians. When LouderSounds preaches “Let Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse twist yer melons and remind you of the wonder of life” it might be because the band vibe is easier to pin down than their unique take on the roots genres. Rockshot Magazine elaborates “This extremely entertaining collective is a New Orleans-inspired, American blues-folk-soul band, who refuse to be pigeon-holed”
To fully understand Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse is to experience the band live, a mix of soulful songs, intense energy, and world-class award-winning musicianship. RhythmBooze summed up the show finale as “A mind-boggling, blistering finish with everything thrown in including the kitchen sink...truly memorable”
Don't miss out on this special gig - tickets on sale now!
Advance Tickets are £20.00 from usual outlets or book online (online booking fee applies) Tickets £22.50 on the door
Saturday 18th May 2024 - THE DIRT ROAD BAND | Doors 7.45pm
The Dirt Road Band is the brainchild of guitar legend Steve Walwyn, mainly known as the longest serving guitar player in Dr Feelgood (32 years). During this time, he has amassed a massive reputation as a guitar hero in the UK, Europe, and beyond. He says, “I’d always liked the idea of the power trio-stripping everything back to basics. Guitar, bass, and drums”.
To help him in this he has recruited the services of Ted Duggan- professional since the 60s, including stints with Badfinger and world techno giants Banco de Gaia. “l'd worked with Ted before”, Steve says, “I knew he would fit the gig perfectly”. He certainly does.
Bass player Horace Panter is better known as a founding member of The Specials. Horace has ‘groove’ imprinted on his DNA. Holding it down comes as second nature.
This then is Steve's dream team rhythm section that swings as hard as it rocks. “We have started to develop that musical telepathy that makes a band more than just the sum of its parts. It is a really thrilling time and keeps music alive”.
Advance Tickets are £17.00 from usual outlets or book online (online booking fee applies) Tickets £19.00 on the door
Saturday 22nd June 2024 - KOSSOFF...The Band Plays On | Doors 7.45pm
Support | A Smile Two Bangs and a Legend
After unprecedented public demand we finally get this band back down south! Now joined by John Rhino Edwards of Status Quo on bass this is a gig no one should miss.
The stunning blues-rock music of Paul Kossoff, the lead guitar prodigy whose soaring playing lit up 1970s rockers Free, is coming to Long Street Blues Club. Kossoff, of course, died tragically young after a drugs battle aged just 25, but his music lives on with The Band Plays On, a band featuring Terry Slesser, the lead vocalist of Koss’s post-Free band, Back Street Crawler.
Forty years on since Paul Kossoff, one of Britain’s finest guitarists, tragically passed away at the tender age of 25 in 1976. Singer Terry Slesser, the voice of Kossoff's critically acclaimed post-Free band Back Street Crawler, and a close friend of Koss, keeps the memory of one of the greatest British Blues guitarist and his music alive.
Sless has chosen the guitarist John Buckton, (of whom Simon Kirke said "If Free were to reform, John would be my first choice as guitarist"), to play a series of special dates reviving for the first time since the 70s the catalogue of Back Street Crawler songs as well as favourite Free numbers.
Also included in the lineup is drummer Clive Edwards (UFO, Wild Horses, Pat Travers) and highly respected keyboard player Mark Taylor (Elton John, Simple Minds, The Alarm). The Band Plays On will feature the very best of Free’s back catalogue and also Back Street Crawler’s two-album sojourn.
The band’s name is fittingly also the name of BSC’s first album with Kossoff from 1975. Highlights include Free’s world-wide hit and rock anthem “All Right Now”, “Fire and Water”, crowd pleaser “The Hunter” and “Molten Gold”, one of the first tracks Slesser and Kossoff played together with Back Street Crawler.
ON SALE NOW - Advance Tickets are £20.00 from usual outlets or book online (online booking fee applies) Tickets £22.00 on the door
Thursday 10th October 2024 - HEAVY DRUNK, WATERMELON SLIM & LEONARDO GUILIANI
Mississippi Delta Blues Experience | Doors 7.45pm
Jumping Trans-Atlantic Artists Team Up For Electrifying UK Tour ‘The Mississippi Delta Blues Experience 2024’
Fans of blues rejoice as US and UK artists Watermelon Slim, Heavy Drunk, and Leonardo Guiliani team up for ‘The Mississippi Delta Blues Experience 2024’ tour this October.
The tour will see the three artists play just 10 intimate shows across the UK between Oct 2nd to 12th, starting and ending with unforgettable London performances.
Multi-award-winning Watermelon Slim was perhaps best summed up by the late Jerry Wexler (co-owner Atlantic Records, producer for Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin) who described him as “a one-of-a-kind, pickin’ n singing Okie dynamo”.
He is a 2x winner of the Blues Music Award for Band of the Year and Album of the Year, as well as a 2x winner of MOJO Magazine’s no. 1 Blues Album of the Year.
Sons of the South soul outfit HeavyDrunk has made waves with their signature raspy vocals and Americana infused sound.
Their Mississippi delta blues, powerful gospel, and hard-hitting rock ‘n’ roll energy charged their 2023 album You Don’t Know Me which was released to raise awareness and funds for the crumbling grave of music legend Robert Johnson.
UK based independent musician, guitar player, and singer-songwriter Leonardo Guiliani joins The Mississippi Delta Blues Experience 2024 fresh off the release of his 2023 album Rogue.
Produced by four-time Grammy award winner producer Tom Hambridge, Rogue showcases Guiliani’s talents inspired by the acoustic singer-songwriters and electric jam bands of the late ‘60s and the ‘70s.
The Mississippi Delta Blues Experience is set to be an unforgettable night for blues fans and will not be one to miss.ON SALE NOW Advance Tickets are £18.00 from usual outlets or book online (online booking fee applies) Tickets £20.00 on the door
At the Corn Exchange, Devizes
Friday 18th October 2024 -
WISHBONE ASH (Roadworks 2024: 55 Years Anniversary Tour)
Support - Ruzz's Guitar Trio | Doors 7.30pm
(Please Note: this is an all standing gig)
The classic rock bands of the late ’60s and early ’70s enjoy a unique place in popular musical history. The Beatles had gone their separate ways, Britain had already experienced the Blues Boom, and Psychedelia had made its impact. The creative possibilities were infinite.
Wishbone Ash embarked on the nascent Progressive Rock scene in 1969, taking full advantage of a fertile musical environment where they produced a distinctive brand of melodic rock. Inspired equally by British folk traditions and American jazz and R&B, the group played to public and critical acclaim.
50 years later, having pioneered the use of twin lead guitars, Wishbone Ash has gained worldwide recognition, based firmly on a regime of relentless touring.
The band includes founding member Andy Powell, who handles lead vocals and trades licks with Yorkshire’s Mark Abrahams. Bassist Bob Skeat, a 25 year veteran of the band, drives the rhythm section along with Joe Crabtree, one of the best of Britain’s new breed of drummers.
Wishbone Ash, the quintessential road band, is an acknowledged influence on many other bands including Thin Lizzy and Iron Maiden along with younger bands like Opeth. Power and melody have made the Ash a hard act to follow, while they are currently being discovered by new generations of loyal rock fans.
An exceptional recording and touring career has seen Wishbone Ash weather many changes in record labels, personnel and musical trends. Today, the band is still going strong, with most of their vast catalog intact on CD, an award-winning website and a date sheet the envy of many other bands.
Recording highlights are, of course, the multi-million selling 1972 album “Argus,” considered to be one of the all-time classic rock albums, together with “Pilgrimage” (1971) and “New England” (1976). More recently, “The Power of Eternity” (2007), “Elegant Stealth” (2011) and “Blue Horizon” (2014) garnered enthusiastic praise. It was not until 2019 that the album Coat of Arms was to be released and that has proved to be a real career-capper.
The band’s biggest seller, the double album “Live Dates” (1973), is one of the most highly rated live albums of the 1970s.
Support from Ruzz's Guitar Trio Internationally acclaimed award winning young guitarist and his band. Sponsored by Gretsch Guitars. "The nearest you'll get to Jimmy Vaughan this side of the Atlantic" Blues in Britain.
ON SALE NOW Advance Tickets are £28.50 from usual outlets or book online (online booking fee applies) Tickets £32.50 on the door
Please note: this gig is standing room only
Friday 25th October 2024 - CEDRIC BURNSIDE (New Album - UK Tour) | Doors 7.45pm
We are absolutely delighted to get this outstanding blues artist to the club for his first visit as part of a UK tour. This is a real coup for the club.
Grandson of the legendary RL Burnside he is built up a formidable reputation as one of the most original blues performers of his generation.
Burnside is a recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship, the country’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts and was recently recognized with the 2024 Mississippi Governor's Art Award for Excellence in Music. He has performed and recorded with such diverse musicians as Jimmy Buffett, Bobby Rush, and Widespread Panic.
Certainly, plenty of things have happened in Cedric Burnside’s life since he went on the road at age 13, drumming for his grandfather, the pioneering bluesman R.L. Burnside. His two albums before I Be Trying – 2015’s Descendants of Hill Country and 2018’s Benton County Relic – were both nominated for Grammys. He has also appeared in several films, including Tempted and Big Bad Love (both released in 2001) and the 2006 hit Black Snake Moan, and he played the title character in 2021’s Texas Red.
Burnside is a recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship, the country’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts and was recently recognized with the 2024 Mississippi Governor's Art Award for Excellence in Music. He has performed and recorded with such diverse musicians as Jimmy Buffett, Bobby Rush, and Widespread Panic.
Cedric tours the UK to support his new album ‘Hill Country Love’. The official credit for the album tell it like it is. “Recorded in an old building in Ripley, Mississippi” – that’s all the info we get, and all that we need.
When Cedric Burnside prepared to record Hill Country Love, the follow-up to his 2021 Grammy-winning album I Be Trying, he set up shop in a former legal office located in a row of structures in the seat of Tippah County, a town with 5,000 residents that’s known as the birthplace of the Hill Country Blues style. “That building was actually going to be my juke joint. Everything was made out of wood, which made the sound resonate like a big wooden box,” said Burnside.
He called up producer Luther Dickinson (co-founder of the acclaimed North Mississippi Allstars and the son of legendary Memphis producer/musician Jim Dickinson), who brought recording equipment into the empty space. “We recorded in the middle of a bunch of rubbish – wood everywhere and garbage cans,” Burnside says. “We just laid everything out the way and recorded the album right there.”
The 14 songs on the record were finished in two days and to Cedric Burnside, Hill Country Love is a culmination of a career that’s already seen astonishing accomplishments and only keeps growing. What he wanted this time out was a real sense of honesty and integrity. “I compromised a little bit with my albums in the past,” he says, “and I didn't really have to compromise with this one, because I did it by myself. I paid for the engineer, paid for the musicians, I didn't have a record company there. We just went to play music, and how it came out was how it came out – and it came out great.
“I have to be true to where I'm coming from,” he continues. “On this album, the feeling that I had was like, I’m going to write what I feel, I’m going to write what's going on. Life gives you good and life gives you bad and you have to cope with it however you need to cope with it. My way of coping with things is through my music, so I thank the Lord for music. I really do.”
Demand for this gig will be very high indeed so early booking is essential.
ON SALE NOW Advance Tickets are £18.00 from usual outlets or book online (online booking fee applies) Tickets £20.00 on the door
Saturday 2nd November 2024 - MISSISSIPPI MACDONALD BAND | Doors 7.45pm
Following a sensational support slot with Giles Robson last year, quite rightly, people have been saying you must get him back with his own band.
Mississippi MacDonald makes music with real gravitas. His IBBA no.1 album Heavy State Loving Blues demonstrated how this has developed, matching his expressive and economic guitar playing with eloquent, soulful yet still powerful vocals and strong original songs. A dedicated student of OV Wright and of Albert’s King and Collins, MacDonald has since honed his own playing style and song writing into a Traditional Blues tour de force, both Electric and Acoustic. His apprenticeship has paid off with recent seals of approval from co performers Vaneese Thomas, Oscar Wilson, Benny Turner, and producer Boo Mitchell. http://www.mississippimacdonald.com
Mississippi MacDonald is an English Soul-Blues singer/songwriter/guitarist, fronting a four piece band. Six times British/UK Blues Awards and three times US Independent Blues Awards nominee. In 2024, he was nominated for 3 UK Blues Federation awards (Best Traditional Blues Artist, Best Album and Best Acoustic Artist).
Since signing to APM Records in 2021, he has appeared on BBC Radio 2’s Blues Show with Cerys Matthews and has played extensively in the UK and the US including a Washington State Blues Society showcase on Beale Street during the International Blues Challenge, appearances on King Biscuit Time (Helena AK), and Radio Memphis. He has recorded recently in the US with established artists Vaneese Thomas (Rufus Thomas), Benny Turner (Freddie King, Mighty Joe Young), and the Reverend Shawn Amos.
Mississippi’s first record for APM, “Do Right, Say Right” was named in the top 10 Blues Albums of 2022 by Mojo Magazine, and was album of the year on HRH Blues Radio.Touring his second album for APM Records, Heavy State Loving Blues, Mississippi was appraised by Blues In Britain Magazine as “one of finest modern bluesmen in the U.K. and on this release he’s excelled in all areas.” Heavy State Loving Blues has charted for multiple weeks at the top of the RMR Global Blues Report, second only to Buddy Guy, was in the Living Blues (US) top 25 charts for January and February ’23 and has received major international airplay, including Sirius XM BB King’s Bluesville in the US.. In the UK, the record was #1 in the IBBA Blues Charts for 2 months running – a feat that hasn’t been achieved by any artist (UK or International) for many years.
Mississippi MacDonald’s blues are authentic, heartfelt, and reflect a lifetime of learning from the greats.
“Mississippi MacDonald represents the next generation of great guitarists who hail from the UK…wholly authentic, he’s earned the right to claim the name” Living Blues, USA
“Contemporary British bluesman Mississippi MacDonald proves he’s as legit as they come on his hard-charging new record HSLB…a compelling, engaging artist who is going to make a lot of new friends with this record. Make sure you’re one of them” Rock and Blues Muse
“Hell Yeah!….fabulous, very Albert King circa his Stax days and in my world, it doesnt get much better than that”, Blues Matters!
“Superior soul-blues singing and songwriting” Mojo, Issue 345
“Mississippi MacDonald has very capably demonstrated that he is a next generation blues man carrying on the soul blues traditions of his predecessors.” Blues Blast Magazine (US)
“MacDonald’s blues ring with authenticity — quite an achievement considering it’s mostly original music. He’s a powerful, soulful vocalist, and his guitar work is stunning” BluesRoadHouse.com
“British musicians have long had a burning passion for American roots music and none more than Mississippi MacDonald….. [he] continues to carry the torch as a next generation blues man”. Bluestownmusic.nl
ON SALE NOW Advance Tickets are £16.00 from usual outlets or book online (online booking fee applies) Tickets £18.00 on the door
Saturday 9th November 2024 - IAN SIEGAL BAND | Doors 7.45pm
We are absolutely delighted to be included on a very select series of dates for this amazing band.
Ian Siegal has got his original lineup of Johnny Henderson and Evan Jenkins back together to showcase their classic albums Meat and Potatoes and Swagger. One of the greatest British Blues performers, this will be one very special show.
Ladies and Gentlemen: Ian Siegal has entered the building. If you know the name, but not the game, it’s high time you made his acquaintance. He’s the multiple British Blues Awards winner and hot tip of everyone from Mojo to Classic Rock. He’s the songwriter whose recent CD releases sound like career peaks, but are only the start. From one night to the next, he might be a solo acoustic performer or a blood-and-thunder bandleader. Siegal is known as a bluesman, but it’s just one shade in the palette of an artist who slips between continents, eras and expectations.
They say you can’t sing the blues until you’ve lived the life, and when Ian Siegal steps up to the mic, you can hear the slings and arrows. Recent years have seen the songwriter catch fire, with British Blues Awards raining down and consecutive nominations in 2012 & 2013 for Contemporary Album of The Year in the Blues Music Awards - in effect, the Grammys of the Blues.
- Contemporary Album of the Year – BLUES MUSIC AWARDS NOMINEE 2012 & 2013
- Album of the Year – BRITISH BLUES AWARDS 2013
- Male Vocalist of the Year – BRITISH BLUES AWARDS 2011, 2012 & 2013
- Song of the Year – BRITISH BLUES AWARDS 2013
- Acoustic Artist of the Year – BRITISH BLUES AWARDS 2012
- Blues Band of the Year – BRITISH BLUES AWARDS 2010
- Blues Album of the Year – MOJO MAGAZINE ‘09
“One of the most innovative, gifted and engaging blues
performers on the planet today.” MOJO
“A national treasure.” CLASSIC ROCK
Siegal’s forte is playing to an audience. He takes command of the stage in a way very few artists alive today can match. Sweat, passion, humour, balls-to-the-wind slide guitar and a soul-infused voice big enough to fell trees! It has won him an ever-growing following of fans and a horde of female admirers.
His career got under way in 2003/04 with two successive European tours as the opening act for ex-Rolling Stone Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings (Wyman also invited Ian to record with the Rhythm Kings). This was followed by UK tours as a duo with Big Bill Morganfield (son of Muddy Waters). During this time Siegal was also capturing the hearts of audiences in Holland, Belgium, Austria and Hungary. In 2005 he topped the Soul/Blues/Jazz charts in Holland.
His 2005 album Meat &Potatoes has been universally praised and gained a maximum four star (excellent) rating in the Penguin Book of Blues Recordings – Ian is one of only two living British Blues artists to gain this distinction. Meat & Potatoes was later re-released as a limited edition together with a DVD of his stunning performance on the main stage at the North Sea Jazz Festival.
That was followed by Swagger his 2007 release, which again received universal praise, “No less of a testament to the talents of one of the most innovative, gifted and engaging blues performers on the planet today.” MOJO magazine ranked Swagger as their no.2 Blues album of 2007. Siegal is equally accomplished solo as he is fronting his band.
Tickets for this show will be very strong so early booking is essential.
ON SALE NOW Advance Tickets are £20.00 from usual outlets or book online (online booking fee applies) Tickets £22.00 on the door
Saturday 16th November 2024 - JOHN OTWAY & THE BIG BAND
Support - Billy in the Lowground | Doors 7.45pm
Pop's most amazing eccentric is coming to the club with his Big band!
John Otway is an English singer-songwriter who has built a sizeable cult audience through extensive touring, a surreal sense of humour and a self-deprecating underdog persona.
From the age of 9, Otway knew he wanted to be a pop star and set out to learn the guitar. Otway had to wait until 1977 and the rise of punk before his dream of fame and fortune would finally become a reality. Having caught the eye of the producers of the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test, Otway's performance on that show would grab the attention of the watching audience. Otway, ever the showman, decided to jump on to the amplifier of his colleague during a performance of Bob Lind's Cheryl's Going Home. (Un)fortunately for Otway, he misjudged his leap and sent Wild Willy Barrett’s amplifier tumbling as he crashed down straddling the box under the amp!
Otway's sixth single, the half-spoken love song Really Free reached number 27 in the UK Singles Chart. An appearance on the BBC's flagship music programme Top of the Pops, where Otway & Barrett were introduced by Elton John, Otway was finally a star!
The constant gigging over the years meant that in April last year John was able to fill London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire for his 5,000th gig - and produce a Free Newspaper listing every single one of those shows.
In September 2022, Otway became Dr. Otway after being awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Oxford Brookes University.
As anyone who's seen Otway live will testify, this will be a great night!ON SALE NOW Advance Tickets are £20.00 from usual outlets or book online (online booking fee applies) Tickets £22.00 on the door