Michael Littlefield (guitar, vocals); Scott Taylor (harmonica, guitar, vocals); Dominic Hornsby (piano, guitar, vocals); Simon Hedley (double bass); Giles Holt (drums)
(Review by Russell)
Newcastle's number one dive bar was quiet, at least it was some forty five minutes before the scheduled nine o'clock start. Yes, of course, punters were elsewhere watching eleven not-so-famous Belgians knock out the samba boys. At ten past nine with Billy Bootleggers rapidly filling up King Bees went to work.
I Don't Know protested Scott Taylor, but dive bar regulars knew different, yet again King Bees were on it from the start. Front line co-star Michael Littlefield claimed he was going Cuckoo, what wasn't in doubt was the audience going cuckoo for the best rhythm and blues band in town.
Harmonica man Taylor invariably takes the lion's share of the vocals and this evening he reeled off three classics - Just a Feeling, My Babe and Big Walter Horton's Hard Hearted Woman - with convincing vocals and superb harp playing. Littlefield's finely-tuned Chicago style guitar playing compliments his vibrato-laden vocals and he closed the first set with a brace - Walking by Myself and the clarion call Caldonia.
Goose IPA the pick of the bunch, the boys in the band went to the bar. The Nelson Street basement venue doesn't do introductions, when the band is ready to go you'd better be ready, too. Hey! The second set is about to start!
Scott Taylor tore in to Wynonie Harris' early fifties hit Lovin' Machine riding on drummer Giles Holt's inviting shuffle rhythm. Tyneside's swing dancers follow King Bees and, Billy Bootleggers being the kind of place it is, a couple of them took the floor. Littlefield sang about an Automatic Woman, piano man Dominic Hornsby, grabbing a vocal number, rattled the Kansas City 88s before Littlefield resumed centre stage to tell us about Tommy Johnson's Big Fat Mama Blues. To close their first Friday residency, by way of an encore, King Bees got their Mojo Working.
Russell.
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