Saturday 14 July

Tickets from Lyme TIC 01297 442138

Paul Jones,   Dave Kelly,   Rob Townsend, 

Gary Fletcher  and   Tom McGuinness.

Tickets are flying out of the box office for the Blues Band, playing at the Marine Theatre on Saturday 14 July. Many people regard them as simply the best purveyors of the Blues in the UK today. Fans have been ringing 01297 442138 for tickets since it was announced that they’re back for another barnstorming performance. The band love performing at the Marine Theatre, “the venue is so welcoming and the crowd are so responsive, we always have a great evening” said a spokesman for the band. “It’s such a special theatre, and the atmosphere makes it one of the high spots on our tour” added Dave Kelly.

The story of how the band formed in 1979 to play the music that was their passion - the blues - just for fun and a bit of beer money, and then found themselves with whole new careers on their hands, has been well documented in countless magazine articles and record company biographies.

They’ve released 17 or so albums (they’re losing count!) culminating in their current release – ‘Thank you Brother Ray’ – a tribute to the late great Ray Charles, and have regularly rung the musical changes, albeit within the context of the blues.  Their extensive canon of recorded material includes a large catalogue of original songs as well as their own readings of songs from the genre’s finest writers like Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Sleepy John Estes etc.

In the past 30 years the band have played all around the world in venues ranging from intimate clubs through civic halls and theatres, and have wowed festival audiences in many countries including headline appearances at Glastonbury.

Whilst not unique in being the only band to have survived together for 30 years they are one of the few outfits to have consistently recorded new material throughout such a long career, and whilst staying true to their blues roots have constantly developed their music & redefined their approach on several occasions. Their 1994 album ‘Wireless’ saw them venture into the purely acoustic arena for the first time and the 2000 release of the ‘Scratchin’ on my Screen’ album confirmed the presence of purely acoustic settings of the blues in their repertoire. 1999’s ‘Brassed Up’ album was, as the title suggests a foray into big band blues whilst ‘Stepping Out’ released in 2002 saw a return to the band’s basic 5 piece line-up with the double barrelled vocal frontline of Paul Jones and Dave Kelly being joined by Tom and Gary both singing lead on a couple of songs.

With 4 singers and songwriters in the band the quality and variety of performance and material offered by The Blues Band is pretty much unrivalled elsewhere, either in the blues world or elsewhere, and the band’s passion and reverence for the music, their presentation and showmanship all combine to deliver the definitive ‘good night out’ available from any artist currently operating within the blues field in Europe and beyond.