supplied by Alan King
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Roger Hubbard and The Prisonaires – The Piper Friday 13th December 2019
The Piper’s proud to present a rather special show for December, with Roger HUBBARD & The PRISONAIRES – playing alternately.
Roger Hubbard – Nana Tseboe – Henry Isaac – Paul Baverstock – Dr King – Tony Reeves
The Prisonaires will play 2 sets, one at 8:00 pm and the other 10:00 pm
Roger Hubbard will play 2 sets, one at 9:00 pm the other at 11:00 pm
QUOTES
‘Roger Hubbard is as good as any guitar player in the USA and UK’ – Muddy Waters
‘Absolutely brilliant music a joy to watch them play’ – The Green Man Festival
‘One of the finest gigs I’ve seen anywhere for years’
‘Really one of the most remarkable and memorable live performances I’ve ever seen’
The Prisonaires definitely a supergroup, pivotal to the most ground-breaking music of the 1960s and ’70s’
‘King provided the platform for Bert Jansch to move out of the shadows and into the sun’
Tickets are £10, available on-line in advance or directly from the venue in advance or on the door on the night. For more information and tickets… https://www.thepiper.club/events
Wee Jock… Awesome
Neil Partrick… Is this liable to sell out in advance? I mean it should.
Alan King… Don’t know! Best to try to get advance tickets. The venue uses a ticket app called DICE, which is smart phone / mobile only and you need to download the app, i’m sure it works for youngsters but possibly not appropriate for the demographic for this gig – i’ll try to set up a wegottickets page to accommodate those who can’t handle the new technology – but there is also the walk up – tickets on the door approach – so get there early.
David Edwards… The trouble is people in Hastings are breastfed when it comes to music and begrudge paying to see artistes of such calibre when they should pay. I hope it is jam and packed full
Tom James Cowan… If you use DICE to book but don’t have a smartphone you can just print off the ticket, or the Piper have a list of ticket purchasers on the door as well….
The Prisonaires – Searching for The Old Folk Rebels – Review of Electric Palace Hastings gig 1st July 2018 by Neil Partrick
Photo: Neil Partrick
Alan (left) with Bobby Valentino (fiddle), Les Morgan (drums) and Tony Reeves (right,bass)
The Prisonaires Live at the Electric Palace Hastings
“Is this a supergroup?” asked a friend of mine as we took our places last night in the third row of this tiny, historic, yet barely half-full Hastings cinema. If about 250 years of combined experience playing with some of the most important western musicians of the 20th Century fits the bill, then The Prisonaires are definitely a supergroup. While not household names, any blues, jazz-rock, folk, or rock enthusiast will understand that these gentlemen were pivotal to some of the most ground-breaking music of the 1960s and ’70s. Yet there were plenty of empty seats in a venue that only has 48 of them.
Acoustic guitarist and leader of the band, Alan King commented wryly that scheduling a gig during an international football tournament is always a disaster. But can it be that south-coast music buffs preferred staying at home to watch telly in the hope that Argentina would defeat the French, than attending a gig of this quality? When The Prisonaires finished their set a member of the audience stood up and shouted that it was the finest gig he’d seen in Hastings in years. It was one of the finest gigs I’ve seen anywhere in years.
Musical impresario, Alan King was a doyen of the famed 12 Bar Club, the ‘60s Soho music venue that gives the name to Dr King’s ‘12 Bar Music’, the platform for this and for some forthcoming Electric Palace gigs. King told me outside the Gents – the Electric Palace is so small that the toilets are never far away – that he is lucky enough to have played with his favourite guitarists, Davy Graham and Bert Jansch, and his favourite singer, Miller Anderson For many years King also played with his favourite songwriter, Alan Hull (of Lindisfarne).
The aura of Graham and Jansch hung over proceedings as King opened the set riffing on the rite of passage folk guitar tune, ‘Anji’. What the advance publicity promised would be a hybrid of The Pentangle and Can, “with a touch of Miles Davis’” jazz-rock-funk fusion, was underway. ‘Anji’ went from sounding like The Pentangle were performing it, to something with a lot more attitude. Almost like Fairport Convention’s ‘A Sailor’s Life’, but lifted beyond even that wonderfully free-flowing, folk-jazz hybrid However I couldn’t detect the influence of Can on this or on any of the other tunes The Prisonaires performed last night. It was undoubtedly an eclectic set though, and The Prisonaires have certainly embraced Can’s determination to kick against the musical pricks.
To read more of this review please click the following link… http://oldfolkrebels.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-prisonaires-live-at-electric-palace.html
Alan King’s 60th Birthday – Filo – Thursday 7th September 2017
Alan King says…
Despite my obit recently being published in a few place, the rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated and have got a gig at the FILO in Hastings on Thurs 7th September (my 60th birthday) and am putting the band back together for it – Tony Reeves (John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Colosseum, Curved Air, Greenslade) will be playing bass, Bobby Valentino playing the fiddle, Les Morgan drums and ROGER HUBBARD will also be playing, anyone wanting to come and sit in – then let me know, hopefully something will be happening from 6 ish til 11. drinks from 6 – band set up about 8, play from before 9 to just after 11. Above is a link to a bit of the full band (dunno if they ALL can make it but most will)
The following Thursday, 14th Sept at The Nelson, Roger Hubbard will be playing from around 8:30 ish
Both FREE entry
Bert Jansch – Live at the 12 Bar. Reissue.
Alan King… I’ve just became aware that an album I produced some 20 years ago has just been re-released to some very good reviews 5* in Mojo magazine this month, it’s Bert Jansch ‘Live At The 12-Bar’ and is worth a listen, it’s available on vinyl as well. The downside is that the label that have put it out claim to have acquired the rights to it, despite the fact that I recorded it, produced it and the original came out on my own label – but I guess that’s just the music business for you .
Stuart Huggett… Has Alan been in touch with Earth Recordings (a recently established subsidiary of long-running indie Fire Records) yet? If he wants to, I got sent the album and press release (pasted below) from the label’s Head Of Press, Jenna Jones (who’s a fan who saw Jansch in concert). As the press release says, Earth are planning an extensive set of Jansch reissues, so I’m sure she’d be happy to hear from him: jenna@firerecords.com PRESS RELEASE: “An excellent 16 song set.. the music is powerful and gentle, thoughtful and utterly riveting.” 5* Mojo
“Live at the 12 Bar stands out in part for the sweep of its songs, a range that reflects the roots of his work and how much he was able to grow within its traditions” Pitchfork
“Performed with a gorgeous lilt.. Jansch’s playing manifests a very particular physicality, working to its own internal logic, voice and six strings running in refined tandem” Uncut
“Jansch’s playing betrays no loss of nimbleness.. he’s in good voice too: over warm, cyclical guitar, his delivery effortlessly evokes the languid torpor of “Summer Heat”’ Independent
“Jansch’s guitar arrangement makes it truly stand out. He ditches a standard chordal accompaniment and brings his percussive, fingerpicked inventions to the fore — almost on equal footing with the words.” NPR
Roger Hubbard to record a live album at The Royal Standard – Feb 2015
The Old Town Blues Club… The Royal Standard. From 9:00 pm until midnight – Bar until 1:00 a.m. FREE ENTRY
Thu 12th Feb 2015 – Alan King (solo) with guests, let me know if you want to come down to play and I can get a house band together
Thu 19th Feb 2015 – The Prisonaires & Roger Hubbard (recording a live solo album)
Fri 20th Feb 2015 – The Prisonaires & Roger Hubbard (recording a live solo album)
Alan King… I’ve finally managed to get my London band, The Prisonaires, down to Hastings for 2 nights and as Tony, the bass player, records the gigs and has previously produced both John Martyn & Sandy Denny we will be using the opportunity to try to record ROGER HUBBARD solo sets on both nights for a projected solo ‘live’ album from Roger
The Band comprises of : Bobby Valentino – violin (Bobby has played with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty & Mark Knopfler, The Pistoleros with BJ Cole and Pete Thomas, The Fabulous Poodles and is probably best known for the court case surrounding the Young At Heart violin riff – which he won)
Tony Reeves – bass (Tony was in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Mick Taylor, before becoming a founding member of Colosseum with John Hiseman, moving on to Greenslade and Curved Air, with Stuart Copeland and along the way produced both John Marty and Sandy Denny, he also played bass on Davy Graham’s first few solo albums)
Mike Paice – sax & harp (Mike was in Jools Holland’s Millionaires alongside Pino Palladino, he’s played with Ronnie Wood’s band, he was in Lonnie Donnegan’s band, The Jo-Anne Kelly Band, was a founder member of Red Beans & Rice and currently plays in Dana Gillespie’s band)
Les Morgan – drums (Les was in pub rockers Juice On The Loose, Ron Kavana’s band and The Jo-Anne Kelly Band with Mike. Miller Anderson who fronted the house band for three series of the German TV show Superdrumming, featuring the world’s best drummers, regards Les Morgan as the best of the lot.)
Martin Brown – guitar (Martin has spent the last decade working in Vintage & Rare, Guitar Shop in Denmark Street, he is the go to session guitarist in London, our very own James Burton.)
Alan King – guitar (I worked with Bert Jansch, Davy Graham & Alan Hull back in the 1990’s, producing 2 albums for Jansch – both Mojo albums of the year – and one cited in the US Acoustic Guitarist magazine as being one of the 10 best singer songwriter albums of all time – and doing several arrangements with Davy. In a previous life, according to Malcolm Hardee, the godfather of alternative comedy, I was most of the brains behind Vic Reeves’ Big Night Out – which in the light of overwhelming evidence I now apologise for.)
Martyn Baker… Strangely enough….. I’ve just recorded a series of “down the pub” concerts, in my local in Shoreham-by-Sea, that feature the aforementioned Miller Anderson. He’s Brilliant!