Despite the obvious potential for comparisons with his father, Jakob has always managed to justify himself as a musician in his own right. His band, The Wallflowers rose to fame in 1996, with album Bringing Down the Horse, which sold over 6 million copies worldwide, and won two Grammy Awards, including Best Rock Song for the single ‘One Headlight’.

Following a number of successful follow-up albums, including Red Letter Days (2001), Jakob eventually signed a solo deal with Columbia Records, releasing his first solo album Seeing Things (2008), which The Times described as “juxtaposing relaxed arrangements with reassuringly bleak moral certainties.” Rooted in a more acoustic country style than the rock-orientated music of The Wallflowers, Jakob states his new sound is the product of feeling like he “doesn’t need to shout so much anymore.”

www.jakobdylan.com
www.myspace.com/jakobdylan
www.facebook.com/jakobdylan

“The younger Dylan carves his own territory, and for all the right reason…An artist that has truly come into his own on the journey from bandleader to solo musician.”
Soulshine

Links:

• BBC Review of Jakob Dylan’s Women and Country
• Jakob Dylan interview with Acoustic Guitar magazine:

Video: Jakob Dylan performs ‘Everybody’s Hurting’ from album Women and Country

The son of legendary British blues musician John Mayall, Gaz Mayall lives in London and was raised on a diet of R&B before falling in love with reggae and ska music in the late 1960s. A self-confessed ‘musicaholic’, he runs the famous one-nighter Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues, a Soho institution since 1980 that sees an eager crowd rocking the dancefloor every Thursday night to ska, blues and rock n’ roll. The club has also been graced with performances from the likes of The Pogues and The Stray Cats, and celebs from David Bowie to Bruce Willis have even dropped by to soak up the rockin’ vibe.

Mayall’s ska band, The Trojans, were formed in 1986 and have been recording and playing live ever since, releasing 15 albums to date. Gaz’s Rockin’ Records was started in 1985 as Gaz sought to create his own label modelled on the ska labels of his idols such as Prince Busters and Coxones. Still going strong today, the label remains devoted to ska music but has branched out to release some world music titles. And, like his Jamaican heroes, Gaz can also add a sound system to the list of his musical enterprises, being a hugely popular fixture at the Notting Hill Carnival each year.

A huge hit at Port Eliot in previous years, Gaz Mayall will once again be rockin’ the Cabaret Tent into a frenzy in the wee small hours.

www.gazrockin.com

“We do what we want. Where else will you hear Little Richard, old ska, drum’n’bass and a Louis Armstrong record from 1928? We’re like musical chefs, mixing the ingredients.”
Gaz Mayall

Links:

• Interview with The Times
• Gaz Mayall’s MySpace page

Video:

Gaz rocks the Notting Hill Carnival:

Interview clip:

Lead singer Jessie writes her own material and plays multiple instruments and cites everyone from Billie Holiday to John Frusciante as influences. “I’ve been brought up on soul music, 1960s Motown, Northern Soul, 1930s/40s jazz… stuff like Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, The Supremes,” she says. “Mind you, my dad was a rocker so the love of Hendrix, Led Zep etc came from him.”

Their debut single, ‘Forever and a Day’ was produced by Jon Kelly (Kate Bush, Tori Amos) and released in 2009. Following the single, they won a recording trip to LA at the legendary Village Recorder Studios courtesy of John Kennedy’s X-Posure show and recorded several tracks including their new single ‘You Won’t Forget Me Boy’.

With her incredible vocals and guitar playing Jessie leads a versatile and charismatic performances showing inspirations from Jimi Hendrix to The Doors, with a twist of Motown into their own unique performing style.

www.thejessierosetrip.com
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“Not only is the band’s sound polished, but so is their image: readymade for TV and magazine appearances. Rose, with her Minnie Mouse bow, flame-red hair, vintage Oxfam outfit and electric guitar, milks her audience for all they’re worth, bounding around the stage and climbing atop of speakers; the crowd responds in kind, hooting and howling at every turn.”
The Fly Magazine

Video: Watch The Jessie Rose Trip perform ‘You Won’t Forget Me Boy’

Songdog are Welsh-men Lyndon Morgans and Karl Woodward, and Dave Paterson from Dundee. Their albums include A Life Eroding (2010), A Wretched Sinner’s Song (2008) and The Time Of Summer Lightning (2005). They have received great reviews from Jonathan Ross and Janice Long of BBC Radio 2 and Gideon Coe of BBC 6Music.

Their influences form an eclectic mix of musicians and authors including: Leonard Cohen, James Joyce, Joni Mitchell, Samuel Beckett, Tom Waits, Marcel Proust, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Franz Kafka, The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen and Baudelaire. Lead singer Lyndon would happily join this crowd for a summer-afternoon’s chilling out in the hills.

Amongst Songdog’s fans is Bruce Springsteen, who used their track ‘Days of Armageddon’ on his last European tour and personally requested a copy of their album A Wretched Sinner’s Song.

They’ve toured extensively, with shows at the Roundhouse Studio, Bush Hall, Union Chapel, ICA and Spitz in addition to supporting Joan As Police Woman at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Go-Betweens on their last UK tour. They are regulars on the festival circuit and have appeared at the Analog, Wireless, Guilfest, TDK Cross Central and Secret Garden festivals as well as at international festivals in Canada, Spain, Sweden, Holland and Russia.

Lyndon’s non-musical writing includes Water Music (for which he won the Verity Bargate Award for Best New Play), Jitterbugger: a cartoon for the stage, a French monologue, Conte de Fées and a screenplay Crazy House. He was recently invited to submit a piece on Samuel Beckett for a forthcoming book about musicians and their literary heroes: Filthy Lyre. The lyrics for his song ‘Cold Coffee and Ava Gardner’ are featured in a new poetry anthology Ava Gardner: Touches of Venus by US academic Gil Gigliotti.

www.songdog.co.uk
www.myspace.com/songdog1

“Lyndon Morgans’s Welsh wanderers explore the soul’s secrets and heart’s longings.”
The Mirror

“Their music is dark and sinister and beautiful and Lyndon’s songs are by turns sexy, scary, funny, creepy, heartbreaking and usually always brilliant.”
Uncut

From riches to rags, love at first sight on the radio, a risky relationship in space and a song in French about mustard, Police Dog Hogan is “the most literate non-literary band on the circuit”.

Police Dog Hogan began in 2008 as a group of friends who had been playing together on stage and in recording studios for around 25 years. Originally influenced by the Nashville and ‘Babylon’ country scenes of the mid 1980s, the Dog has created its own sound, combining pop tunes and harmonies with a bluegrass line-up and Latin/jazz rhythm section. It’s a genre that the band calls urban bluegrass.

Front man James Studholme is a songwriter with a mordant wit and a great ear for melody. Supporting him is a group of seasoned writers and musicians who have all made music an important part of their lives.

Their recorded work includes the triple-A-sided single ‘Fuzzy Folk Riot’ and a debut album Police Dog Hogan launched in June 2010.

BBC Radio said, “Police Dog Hogan stole the show!” at this year’s Maverick festival in Suffolk.

www.myspace.com/policedoghogan
Police Dog Hogan’s Facebook page
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Known in his native Andalucia as El Nino de Granada, Wilfredo took the UK festival circuit by storm last year on the back of his multi-platinum, best-selling albums Solo Para Las Damas (Only For The Ladies) and Julio Ni Siquiera Pueden Cantar Como Yo (Not Even Julio Can Sing Like This).

Wilfredo extends the sweaty palm of invitation to come and witness the spectacle of a performance that will no doubt leave you emotionally tattooed for a lifetime. Singing classic covers, original songs and parody, the Wilfredo experience is an assault on the senses.

Creator and comic performer Matt Roper found himself touring the world of smoky clubs and theatres as a young teenager on the road with his father, a stand-up comic. At eighteen he made his own stand-up debut, before writing and performing a number of satirical sketch comedies on the London fringe to both public and critical acclaim.

www.myspace.com/wilfredoofficial

“Musical character comedy at its most disturbing… but compelling, hilarious stuff.”
LondonTown.com

“A nice mix of innocence and aggression, of the unexpected and the truly odd. Oh, and funny.”
Martin Freeman

“He’s a splendid piece of character comedy… a triumphant debut for a slice of wilted Manchego.”
Venue Magazine

“I left having spent the evening roaring with laughter.”
Camden New Journal

The roots of the band started when lead singer Dildar, was a child. He was well known as a child performer, singing at family gathering and community events.

RSVP was formed in the early 1990s with Dildar recruiting Chris Horn (a talented studio engineer), his cousin Rajoo (playing Dholak) and his brother Judge (who had to learn the bass from scratch).

They’ve wowed the crowds with their “unique danceadelic Bhangra sounds” from Bhangra gigs in London to world music gigs in London, Reading and WOMAD, and have supported acts like Fun-da-mental, Peter Gabriel, Labbi Saffri and Tony Hadley (Spandau Ballet).

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www.myspace.com/rsvpmusic

“One of the hottest bands on the Bhangra scene.”
Asian Times

Video: RSVP at Glastonbury 2009

The all-star line-up also consists of internationally acclaimed guitarist Vince Lee, and bass player Al Wallis. The band also features the vocal talents of 20-year-old Becca Langsford (Thomas’ sister), Junior Pearson (a stunning multi-instrumentalist who adds saxophone, piano, vocals, violin and percussion). Timmy Langsford (Thomas’ brother), plays a three-piece drum kit and is one of the finest drummers around.

Rooted in old-time blues, the band write nearly all their own material, and have had a busy 12 months playing to festivals across the country and thousands of blues fans in Europe.

www.myspace.com/thomasfordblues

Video:

Watch them at The Saltash Regatta:

Entering their fourth year together, the ensemble comprises four friends who have all played professionally with orchestras both in this country and abroad, including Nederlands Ballet and the Dutch Philharmonic. They play in some of the most beautiful places in Cornwall and Devon, from stately houses, grand hotels, river boats and have even managed to squeeze themselves, quite literally, into the tiny church of St. Enedoc, nestled amongst the sand dunes on the Camel Estuary.

Their playing has been described as “magical”, “captivating” and “a joy to listen to”.

www.melegaristringquartet.co.uk

They are raring to go having already toured the UK and Ireland in ‘The Big Green Rum Shebeen Machine’ on their own self-financed tours and filling supports slots with the like of The Lemonheads, Jamie T, Florence and The Machine and more.
Hypnotising crowds with tunes like ‘Lo Salt’, ‘Cinderello’ and ‘Tropical’, Rum Shebeen encourage you to “Keep your blood pressure down”, slay “Charming princes and take charmless belle alives” and “try not to make your melon crumble!”

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Video:
‘Watch Lock a Monkey Up’: