The James Oliver Band are heading to The Prince Albert in Brighton on Thursday 25th September and will feature legendary bassist Norman Watt-Roy whose music career spans more than 40 years. Norman came to prominence in the late 1970s, during the punk and new wave era of rock music as the bass player for Ian Dury and the Blockheads and featured on their classic ‘New Boots And Panties!!’ (1977), ‘Do It Yourself’ (1979) and ‘Laughter’ (1980) albums. He even played on the last Blockheads album ‘Beyond The Call Of Dury’ which dropped in 2017. Prior to this he had previously been a member of the Greatest Show on Earth. In addition to his work with the Blockheads, Watt-Roy has been a session musician and has released one solo album, and is in certain quarters considered a true legend of the music business!
Not to be outdone is guitarist James Oliver who is also rated very highly within those in the business and folk in the know! Examples of these include legendary Sound Engineer John Leckie who James is working with on a new album. John has gone on record as stating that James is “Best guitarist in the UK”. Holger Engels of Rockin’ Music Reviews in Ireland has stated “Plain and simple… he’s a genius”. Giles Robson of UK Blues Harp Legend has said that James is “One of the UK’s most revered and incredible next generation guitar masters”. It’s been noted in Blues in Britain Magazine that “He’s regarded as a force of nature in his native Wales, an R&B icon in Sweden, and a guitar hero to his social media fans” and Music Republic Magazine have noted that James is “An incredibly inventive and exciting guitarist”.
It’s no wonder that James Oliver is regarded so highly as he certainly gets his practice in as he is one of the UK’s busiest acts playing over 300 gigs a year all over the UK, Europe, and the USA. He has performed over 3000 gigs and shared the stage with many acts including Albert Lee, Bill Kirchen, Deke Leonard, Greg Koch, Walter Trout, Steve Gibbons, Billy Bremner, Geraint Watkins, and many others.
In 2020 James won the UK Blues Awards ‘Emerging Artist of the Year’ and has since been nominated three additional times. Thus far James Oliver has released two studio albums and three live albums. His ‘Twang’ album was No.1 on Amazon Blues Charts for three weeks. At this moment in time his YouTube channel is boasting 10,546,286 views which is rather impressive!
If you like the sound of all this then you are in luck as tickets for their Brighton concert are now on sale and can be purchased from HERE and HERE. Support on the night will come from local outfit Basso!
