Hand of Latham

April saw Scott McKeon embark on a quick tour of the UK. Starting in the north of England, Newcastle was first up. Along for the tour was the Mitch Laddie band, who hail from the North East. After a long drive south we played Mr. Kyps in Poole a local gig for Scott in front of a packed room. We were also joined by a certain Mr. Macintosh who was fresh from the John Mayer world tour. We played Robbie’s own track Scarecrow and Crossroads.

Next up was Swindon, a new territory for Scott. Although the turn out was not as healthy as the previous night we were pleased to see a few familiar faces who had made the trip.

We had been invited to perform at HMV on Oxford St. London to promote Scotts new album, before the performance we did a quick interview for the Music Blog site Milky Tea Kid. Check the interview out below.

We followed the instore with a gig at the Border line. It was great to see a healthy crowd in attendance along with some of the management team.

This December I finally got to see ‘the’ Hoax, Including original bass player Robin Davey (who was absent last year which led to myself standing in). The opportunity came through a couple of support slots in Holland.  It was a pleasure to open up for these guys, they played great! The set included a Beatles cover in the form of ‘Come Together’ along with other Hoax penned classics, Dont Shake my hand, 20 ton weight. Needless to say the Dutch crowds went home happy. I think with whispers of more dates for the summer festival season!

They all seemed to enjoy the experience of playing together again, the Hoax dynamic that I had seen on video was even more apparent in a live situation. I managed to get a few pictures with my iPhone while we were touring with them. They are not really up to much but thought I would throw a few up here for the hell of it.

Scott has just posted this video on youtube, so I thought I would throw it up here

I just got back from another trip to Holland with Scott McKeon, this time to open up for Johnny Winter. It was cool to open up for him again, the last time being July 08 in Spain. Johnny is still a creature of habit, he still likes to sit in his RV before a show with a few tunes on just chilling before he makes his way to the stage. Apparently he never deviates from US time no matter where he is in the world and always has Taco Bell flown out to him while he is on tour!

I think the guy has the right to do what he wants though! After all, he is a legend, producing what is arguably the best electric blues album ever recorded, playing at Woodstock, being nominated for several Grammys.

Johnny has been playing to audiences all over the world and is still making a habit of it today.

Check out Johnny Winter here
Photo by DutchSimba

A recent trip to Holland with Scott McKeon involved a special surprise guest appearance from the Dutch X-Factor winner 2009 Lisa Lois. Lisa and her family had made the trip along to the gig and with a little persuasion from Scott and the crowd she reluctantly made her way to the stage and sang on Scotts own track ‘Cant Take No More’ I had met Lisa 18months ago(at a previous SM gig), but never heard her sing. I was quite unprepared for the shear power of her voice! Winning the X-factor does not seem to have inflated her ego though, she seems very down to earth.

You can check Lisa out here, her new album Smoke is due for release on Sony, November 27th.

It was great to play with Scott again after a few months off. Im looking forward to the next few gigs before now and the new year. Below are a few more shots from the Eindhoven gig.

This one has been a long time coming, but here are a few shots from the Colne R&B festival that took place last month.

The gig consisted of an hour long SW set followed by another jam session, this time featuring Tommy Allen of Trafficker and Chantel McGregor. Check out the gallery below for some shots from the gig, thanks goto Tony @ BluesPics

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.