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Gary Wood [trumpet/vocal], Tad Newton [ trombone/vocal], Tomas Pedersen [bass], Ronnie Fenn [drums] Alan Haughton [piano] and Richard Exall [clarinet/sax]

Gary Wood [trumpet/vocal], Tad Newton [ trombone/vocal], Tomas Pedersen [bass], Ronnie Fenn [drums] Alan Haughton [piano] and Richard Exall [clarinet/sax]

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Warren and his band have had to cancel this date today. Apologies for any inconvenience. Replacement band, we are pleased to announce, are our friends and a club favourite, The Martinique.

Following the UK’s Skiffle music boom of 1956 kids became known as ‘teenagers’ and for the first time had a music that they could call their own. Many who cut their teeth in Skiffle Groups now began exchanging their washboards for drums, their tea chest bass for an proper electric bass and their old banjos for real guitars as their own musical tastes widened to the sounds across the Atlantic Ocean. It was in 1958 that Buddy Holly brought the first Fender Stratocaster guitar into the UK and from then on the door was wide open for the magnificent and energetic sounds of America to shake up old blighty forever. A new breed of music hero now dominated the British Hit Parade – with home grown talent such as Tommy Steele, Joe Brown, Lonnie Donegan, Adam Faith and Marty Wild and many other American stars such as Johnny Cash, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, The Everly Brothers and more. Enjoy 2 hours of musical nostalgia with Warren James as he remembers his Hit Parade Heroes.

This Midlands based band was formed over 20 years ago with some members from the Hazel Slade Big Band. They always promise to please the audience with some fabulous numbers from a varied repertoire. Presented in a light hearted fashion with some banter between Jon & Robin. They really are a little big band! Tunes from W C Handy, The Ellington Orchestra, Dizzy Gillespie, Django Reinhardt to name just a few.  As the band name suggests, this band don’t ‘alf swing! One of the clubs favourites.

Coming from a family of strong musicians, Carl first started playing the piano when he was six years old. He had classical lessons to the age of twelve (just listening and learning to copy the sounds) and went on to win ‘Young Musician of The Year’. A few years later, he switched to a teacher that gave more direction on improvisation, jazz and pop. By the age of eighteen, he’d mastered the art of playing boogie-woogie piano – relying on a strong left hand and a quick technique. Since 2007, he has become one of the resident pianist at Jools Holland’s live music venue ‘The Jam House’ in Birmingham. But he’s also very privileged to have performed at some of the country’s top music festivals and theatres and at countless weddings/private parties – and even done a few for some celebrities! One of our club favourite acts, Carl Sinclair (piano) will make a return visit to us alongside Howard Smith on Drums.

Coming from a family of strong musicians, Carl first started playing the piano when he was six years old. He had classical lessons to the age of twelve (just listening and learning to copy the sounds) and went on to win ‘Young Musician of The Year’. A few years later, he switched to a teacher that gave more direction on improvisation, jazz and pop. By the age of eighteen, he’d mastered the art of playing boogie-woogie piano – relying on a strong left hand and a quick technique. Since 2007, he has become one of the resident pianist at Jools Holland’s live music venue ‘The Jam House’ in Birmingham. But he’s also very privileged to have performed at some of the country’s top music festivals and theatres and at countless weddings/private parties – and even done a few for some celebrities! One of our club favourite acts, Carl Sinclair (piano) will make a return visit to us alongside Howard Smith on Drums.

The Shooting Stars were formed in 2008 from a nucleus of musicians from the Big Chris Barber Band. Collectively they share a love and respect of
all forms of jazz but have their roots firmly planted in the vintage, golden period of jazz history.

The band benefits from it’s unique position of being a relatively young group of musicians with an extremely deep and varied wealth of  experience, who between them, have probably played at every major concert venue and jazz festival in Europe.

The Shooting Stars are as at home playing the beautiful melodies and stomping jazz from the 20’s 30’s and 40’s as they are playing mainstream jazz, swing and jump jive, where they exploit the band’s virtuosity with exciting solos and tight ensemble passages.