This is the farewell tour!

As live entertainment finally steams out of Covid’s long, dark tunnel, there may be a few carriages missing. In music terms, survival has depended on the durability of the genre. Thankfully, no vehicle is as robust as the reliable goods wagon called The Blues Band.

It is now 42 years since five experienced musicians, no strangers to the pop charts of the 60s and 70s, decided they’d ignore the cultural slurry of disco and the tail-end of punk and throw caution to the wind by returning to their solid roots – The Blues.

Harmonica hero Paul Jones, charismatic front man of chart toppers Manfred Mann, fellow Manfred Tom McGuinness, who brought along the other half of top act McGuinness-Flint, drummer Hughie Flint. Completing this seasoned line up was slide guitar virtuoso and powerful vocalist from the John Dummer Blues Band, Dave Kelly, brother to England’s renowned blues singer Jo Ann Kelly, plus the young, experienced and talented bass player Gary Fletcher.