The King Bees @ The Globe's Summer Festival - July 24

Michael Littlefield (guitar, vocals); Scott Taylor (harmonica, vocals); Dominic Hornsby (piano, vocals); Simon Hedley (double bass); Giles Holt (drums)

The Globe's Summer Festival was in full swing with the Sour Mash Trio approaching the end of their late afternoon set playing to an appreciative, largely standing, audience. Wrist bands issued at the door, ground floor and first floor bars open, yes, we were in festival mode. The 'new normal' is weird...punters standing at the bar. It'll never catch on! We were on Railway Street in Newcastle to hear some electric, electrifying blues. If anyone thinks 1950s South Side Chicago blues is a thing of the past, think again. 

The King Bees were to close the evening's entertainment, it had been some time since the full band last took to a stage. Here at the Jazz Co-op's HQ the five piece outfit fronted by Michael Littlefield and Scott Taylor hit the ground running with Little Walter's Duke. It's moments like this that we've missed: an 'authentic' Chicago blues band, superb frontline vocals, stinging blues guitar, astounding blues harp and an ace piano, bass and drums rhythm section. 

I Don't Know (Taylor with lockdown-acquired ponytail, blowing harp with killer vocals), Walking by Myself (Littlefield the living embodiment of the Chicago greats), Jimmy Rogers' If it Ain't Me, this was the kind of gig you didn't want to end. The band's remarkably authentic sound isn't solely down to the front two, far from it. Dom Hornsby rattles the 88s as if in a juke joint, just like Otis Spann, string bass man Simon Hedley, studiously phlegmatic, towers above the fray, drummer Giles Holt a strict adherent of the style.

Hornsby's vocal on Otis Spann's I'm in Love with You Baby matched those of Littlefield and Taylor. Memphis Slim, Louis Jordan (Caldonia!), pure Muddy Waters on Got My Mojo Working, we were at fever pitch. The Globe hollered for more, King Bees are the band to hear. And, they're making up for lost time, catch them on Friday 6 August, upstairs at Prohibition Bar.        

King Bees should/must record an album, preferably 'live', in concert. CD, vinyl, whatever the format, it would garner rave reviews, receive radio airplay either side of the Atlantic and top the blues charts. A crowdfunder would do it!
Russell