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.

Scott had talked about recording a podcast to talk about the recording of Trouble. An obvious date for the recording was the day of our gig in the new forrest. Scott happened to mention the idea to Steve at room with a view studios where we recorded the album and he suggested recording it there. So the date was set along with the venue.

Although, I needed to nip in to see the guys at Ashdown before hand to collect my amp as a few weeks ago I had noticed a lack in the usual high performance that I was used to. Like anything I guess its good to have it checked out every once in a while. I have had the amp for some years now and its been in and out of countless vans/trucks and carted half way round the world and back a few times so a service was long over due!

Ashdown ABM 900 EVO II

Upon arrival I was greeted by Jeff who was taking the rare opportunity to enjoy his tea break in the sun. Jeff is one of Ashdown’s amp builders. He took me into the workshop to show me what he was working on, along with some of the new models that Ashdown have planned. ‘Big Dave’ apparently was the man I needed to talk to regarding some of the more technical aspects of the all new tube amps that were lying around the workshop in a semi complete state.

As luck would have it Big Dave entered the workshop not long after. Dave is the head designer at Ashdown and knows every part that goes into each and every unit that Ashdown manufacture. Jeff explained how Dave could identify the exact component that may be at fault just by listening to the amp! Dave is a straight to the point Yorkshire man, A quality that is evident in his amp designs. I like the way that these amps are able to deliver quality sound by not over complicating things. So after a chat with Dave it was time to head off to the studio for the podcast recording.

I got to the studio as the others were arriving, It was good to catch up with Scott, Phil and Steve again. It has been around a year since we recorded the album at Steve’s studio. Just being in the Studio together brought it all back. The first day of recording, the day Robbie Macintosh came in, oh and the fire! The podcast recording was a lot of fun, it needs an edit but once its done I will post the link up here for you.

We streamed the recording sessions live at the time, here is a video of the first days recording. Phil and I are getting levels and tones here.

The gig was the Rydal, its a cool venue and not too far from the studio. It was good to play together again. We played a bit of the old stuff along with some of the new album tracks. I was so happy to have my amp back. some friends of mine had been nice enough to lend me their amps while mine was in the shop but once I got mine back I realised what I had been missing. But I have to say thanks to Greg and Mick for the favours! You helped me out of a couple of tight spots!

We will be gearing up for the tour in April with some rehearsals soon. Im looking forward to it. Not long to go before ‘Trouble’ is released! I cant wait to see what people think of it.

Room With A View Studios

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

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.