Hand of Latham

Here is a short promo video to promote the new Scott McKeon album. There is still no word on a release date as yet, but will post something here as soon as I hear it. In the meantime check out the video, it features a track called the girl that we have been playing live for a while and some stills from the recording sessions.

Sean Webster

My Second gig during the Maryport Blues Festival was with my old band mate Sean Webster. Three years ago I played the same festival with Sean, we had a headline slot in the Civic Hall. During the day Sean arranged with some of the other artists also playing the festival a small jam session on stage after our show. This year the organizers asked sean to put together another jam session as part of the main stage program.

The Sean Webster band kicked the show off, we were then joined by our first special guest, Jon Amor. Starting with Jon’s Hard Hat into Can’t Keep Living Like This followed with a jammed track started by Jon.

Giles King

Highway Man – Sean Webster Band Featuring Giles King & Jon Amor

We were then joined by Stuart Dixon (Guitar) and Giles King (Harmonica). I had met Stewart once before at one of his shows with his regular gig ‘Marcus Malone’. Giles on the other hand I had met many times before but had never had the privilege of sharing the stage with him. Using a wireless kit, Giles Made his entrance to the stage from the back of the crowd playing the intro to ‘Automatic’. Stuart then led the band into Kenny Wayne Shepards Loving Kind.

Loving Kind – Featuring Stuart Dixon, Giles King & Jon Amor

Here is a clip from the slow blues, featuring solos from Giles and Jon with Sean taking the lead vocal.

Throughout the show more musicians appeared on stage, including Mark Barrett (Drums), Dave Doherty (Guitar), Joel Fisk (Guitar).

L-R Jay Tamkin, Sean Webster, Joel Fisk, Stuart Dixon, Giles King, Phil Wilson, Tom Latham, Jon Amor, Dave Doherty

Have You Ever Loved A Woman – Featuring Giles King, Dave Doherty & Joel Fisk

The whole festival was recorded by the BBC for a two hour special Paul Jones show to be aired on the 31st of August. It will be available on the BBC iPlayer for 7 days after airing. You can link to it HERE

I really enjoyed the whole set, it was a pleasure to play with all of those guys. Its something I hope to do again someday.

For more about the artists mentioned here check out:

Sean Webster

Jon Amor

Hokie Joint

Stuart Dixon

Thanks go to Tony at Bluespics.co.uk and Anna Sailsbury for the use of the pictures.

Dave Doherty

Here are a few shots from rehearsals for a Jon Amor gig at Mryport Blues Festival. The band was made up of Jon (obviously) Dave Doherty (2nd Guitar), Mark Barrett (Drums) and myself. It was good to see Jon and Mark again, we had not played together since the Hoax gigs last May. It was great to get to know Dave Doherty as well, I had only  met him briefly once before in Essex at one of the Hoax gigs.

Mark Barrett

We met at Carlisle University where Jon’s friend Russell had arranged a rehearsal room for the day. The plan was to rehearse for a few hours then grab some food and crash at Russell’s place before heading out to Maryport the next day.

It was a real pleasure to play with Jon and Mark again after so long. The rehearsal went well and we decided to retire to Russell’s before heading out to the pub for what I think was the largest pie I have tackled in a long while! With pie devoured we headed back to base and had a few more beers before grabbing some sleep.

The following morning we made preparations for the gig before making the drive to Maryport. The gig was a lot of fun, the set included a broad selection of Jon’s back catalogue (including a Hoax tune for the encore)  and couple from his new album.

Jon Amor

Check out Jon’s official web site HERE.

Check out Jon’s myspace HERE.

A short film depicting the journey to the Larmer Tree festival. We had two shows at the festival, a full electric set with Bill Mudge on Keys and a chilled out acoustic set the following afternoon. The weather was not the best but everyone carried on regardless in true British style. I could not help but smile when a shaft of sunlight broke through the grey sky resulting in a warm cheer from the whole of the festival sight. Unfortunately the optimism was  short lived as the weather gods looked unfavorably on the Larmer Tree festival this year.

We arrived a day early, this was good news to us as it gave us the opportunity to see ‘Chicken Foot’ a new band featuring Michael Anthony (bass), Sammy Hagar (vocals), Joe Satriani (guitar), Chad Smith (drums). Phil was especially excited at the possibility of meeting his hero Chad Smith.

Once we were checked in at the hotel Phil made enquiries as to how we would be getting to the festival as it was a good 15 miles away. The festival crew ensured us that they would do their best to accommodate us. As events unfolded it was apparent that we were going to have to get to the festival under out own steam if we were going to get there at all, as all the festival crew were tied up with other duties and could not come and get us. We managed to find the train station and decipher the timetable. We were in luck, there was a train that would get us to the festival with minutes to spare. We hopped on the train and managed to dodge the fare by hiding on the top deck of the carriage.

Chicken Foot

The Main stage was set in the main square in the town of Pistoia its self, we arrived and explained to security who we were in out best Italian. Once we made our way to the production office we were admitted to the festival but it was explained to us that under no circumstances were we to venture backstage as Chicken Foot had expressed that no one was to be backstage, not even production staff were permitted. So we decided to join a steadily growing crowd and waited for the show to begin. Chicken Foot eventually made their way to the stage 30 minutes late to find a large crowd eagerly awaiting their heros. I have to say that Chicken Foots music did not really hit my musical spot but I still found the show very entertaining. after the show we were due to meet a driver by the stage door to take us back to the hotel. The stage door was fenced off and heavily guarded, we would have to wait for our driver to escort us through security. We watched Chicken Foots encore from here and saw them leave the stage and enter the backstage area through the stage door. Phil was beside himself, as he could not quite believe that he was so close to his idle yet a couple of muscular Italians stood between him and his childhood hero Chad Smith. Our driver soon appeared and waved us through, the muscle bound Italians parted and let us pass. The driver gestured for us to follow him toward his parked car, Phil however had other ideas. He darted through the throng of production staff that were starting to gather by the stage door and disappeared from view, it wasn’t until we reached the car that the driver realized we were one missing. Shaking his head he started back towards the stage door when he was greeted by a member of the production staff marching a sheepish looking drummer in front of her.

Once reunited Phil regaled us with tales of a lord of the rings style backstage area with countless corridors and vast open courtyards. His wild description affirmed the impossible task of tracking down the band let alone one particular member. Phil’s account of his trespass made the fifteen miles back to the hotel fly by and before we knew it we were boarding the lift to take us to our rooms.

Statue of Aragon

The following day as the production assistant led us through the grand hall, into the court yard and up the vast stone steps toward another production office. I couldn’t help feeling that we had perhaps been a little unfair to phil. His description of a ‘Lord of the Rings’ backstage area was not far from the mark. With further exploration we discovered this was the mayors office and was to be the venue of a wedding due to take place before the first act on the main stage!

Lucky for us we were on the bill with the likes of Derek Trucks and Joss Stone. I had not met either of them and was looking forward to the show. Derek and his band were nice guys and sat with us for while in the courtyard after their show. Joss stone was also very nice and watched the wedding that took place (An unexpected guest, but im sure the Bride and Groom did not mind that Joss Stone attending their wedding!).

The Leaning Tower

The next morning we were driven to Pisa to catch a plane home, but thanks to a speedy driver (110mph!) we had just enough time to take a look at the famous leaning tower before heading back to London. I have never really been bothered about seeing the leaning tower of Pisa, but I have to say there is something about it that captivates a person. Its one of those things you can quite put your finger on. but its pretty amazing all the same.

Scott Mckeon had been invited to play in Spain at the guitar festival in Madrid some months ago, however the festival had to be cancelled. This did not rock the spanish promotor at all though, a replacement gig was arranged along with dates in Bilbao and Catalonia.

The Cotton Club - Bilbao

We Drove up from London to Stantead for an early flight and landed in Bilbao, where we were booked to play the Cotton Club. most of the soundcheck was taken up by the sound engineer and one of the promoters associates having a heated discussion about the volume of the band. Eventually it was explained to us that there was a Volume meter that must not exceed 100 or the police would be called! We promised faithfully not to play too loud and we left for some food leaving the engineer happy. I don’t think we managed to play below 107 the whole gig but the engineer seemed happy with that and no one called the law!

5hr train ride to Madrid

The following day involved another early start and a train to Madrid, where we were met by Chris who had set up our previous Spanish tour with Jonny Winter and his assistant Francisco who was to be driving us to Catalonia the following day.

This is the Post Office in Madrid! Mental!

Chris took us to a great place for steak and orderd two kilos of the stuff! I have to say I think it was the best steak I have ever had, Chris knows his steak!

The Show in Madrid was largely made up of people expecting to see the band at the festival, It was a shame that the festival did not happen but we still had a good time in Madrid.

Our final show before we left spain for home was in Catalonia. It was a fun night with a jam session after our set. We agreed to stick around for the jam for a couple of hours before we went back to the hotel. Im glad we did, as we would have missed the Spanish Bon Scott! My only regret is that I did not get a picture of him, he was a bit of a legend!

The Stage @ the Paradiso

I have just got hold of a live clip recorded a couple of weeks ago at one of our shows with George Thorogood in Europe.

This was (I think) taken from the Amsterdam show on the 17th of May 2009.

Currently on tour with Eric Clapton and in the middle of a string of dates at the Albert Hall the Arc Angels (featuring original members Doyle Bramhall II, Charlie Sexton and Chris Layton) used their only day off to play a show at  Bush Hall in London. 

The Scott McKeon band was the opening act that evening. Upon our arrival at Bush Hall the Arc Angels were still sound checking. I don’t know if it was the presence of the Arc Angels or the dramatic look of the room we were about to play but there was a real ‘vibe’ inside. 

Our forty minutes seemed to fly by and it was not long before I found my self amongst the crowd waiting for the Arc Angels to hit the stage. A little after 9.15 they arrived, playing songs from their first album and a few new ones. The Arc Angels show was also a great social event as there were gig goers from all over the country in attendance, including one Jesse Davey of the Hoax. 

Check out the Arc Angles here

Photos by S.Mckeon

The Girl @ Off The Tracks

Thought I would write a few words about the George Thorogood dates the Scott McKeon band opened in Europe recently. George is quite a character, he walked into our dressing room on the first date and announced that there were only two rules. 1. You can play better than me, and 2. But you cant look better than me! We did not see much of him after that, but when we did he informed us of a meeting he had with Jeff Beck after a show and how Jimi Hendrix gave him a pair of sunglasses. I guess some people are entertaining on or off stage.  

Brussels

Our first date with George was in Brussels, this was my first gig in Belgium and I was looking forward to it, the fact that I got stopped for speeding earlier in the day was not going to stop me having a good gig! By the time we got to the venue that was a distant memory and we were all in good spirits.

Paradiso

Bourbon St.

Our second gig led us to Amsterdam and a venue called the Paradiso. This was the second time I have played here, I have fond memories of the first time when we opened for Joe Bonamasssa and it was a real pleasure to be back. After the gig we had time to grab a beer in the bourbon St. Blues bar that I have also played a couple of times with Sean. It was nice to visit the place as a regular punter and enjoy the music.

Our third and final gig was in Eindhoven, at the Effenaar. A first for me! Was a good show, but we did not have time to hang around afterwards as we had a train to catch at 1.30am. But unknown to us at the time we were to be delayed by road works in Belgium and miss our connection. This added another two hours onto the journey, but the dream team assured me they would keep me company for the drive home and not fall asleep.

The Dream Team

Check George out here