An island-based blues group are looking forward to a spectacular gig towards the end of the year, after being confirmed as headliners of a music festival on the other side of the world.

Simon Campbell and Suzy Starlite, from the blues group The Starlite Campbell Band, admitted that they were stunned and over the moon to find out that, not only had they been invited to appear on the blues stage of the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues, which takes place in Australia at the beginning of November, but also they had been confirmed as the headliners, finishing off the music on the Saturday night.

Simon said that they received the invitation from one of the organisers of the festival, who also presents a blues radio show, after the DJ had declared himself a fan of the band’s debut album, Blueberry Pie.

’I got a phone call at around seven in the morning, from a guy who sounded Australian,’ said Simon.

’Now, I’m not at my best at that time of day, and I just thought we were being wound up by some one.

’But he turned out to be a radio DJ, Frank Davison, who is also one of the directors of the Wangaratta Blues and Jazz festival.

’We’d sent him a copy of our album, and he’d been playing it regularly on his radio show. He had some good response from his listeners, so he thought he’d ask us to play. You don’t often get asked to play in Australia so, of course, we said yes.

’But, about four weeks ago, he sent through the schedule, and we found we were headlining! We couldn’t believe it.

’One of the greatest British blues guitarists at the moment, Matt Schofield, who is a world-renowned musician and far bigger than us, is headlining the Friday night, and we’ll be playing on the Saturday. We will also be playing an acoustic show on the Sunday.’

Previously this year, they played the Linton music festival, in England, where Suzy grew up.

Bass player Suzy has her own reasons to celebrate this month, after she was interviewed and featured in the music magazine Bass Guitarist.

’That has been a big surprise for me,’ admitted Suzy.

’I had an email from Joe McIver, from the Bass Guitar magazine, asking whether I would like to be in it. I didn’t really think anything of it, and just thought that it is nice to be asked. It was only after that I realised what an honour it is to be featured like that.

’I have only been playing the bass for the past four and half years, and only started to play when I picked up a cheap bass that was lying around in Simon’s studio.

’I played on Simon’s second album, "The Knife" and that was it. We then decided that we were going to write Blueberry Pie together.’

’I told Suzy just to pick it up and give it a go, and she only played literally one note,’ said Simon. ’But I knew right then that it was her instrument. It was just that feel she had, really groovy and relaxed. She got the timing really well, and she picked it up quickly.’

Following their headline gig down under, the Starlite Campbell band will be undertaking their own tour of the UK in the run up to Christmas, with an eye on recording and releasing more material next year.

’We are calling it the "Mince Pie" tour, which is a play on words around the Blueberry pie album,’ said Suzy.

’We start at the Tuesday Night Music Club in South London, Evesham, and then the Met in Bury, playing with the Mighty Revelators, who are also on Simon’s Supertone record label. We’ll be recording that show to make a live music album and video. Then we’ll be going to Newcastle, and then up to Aberdeen. We finish off at Saltburn Blues club, on the 22nd of December.

Following the tour, the duo will return to the studio to begin work on their second album, which has the tentative title of ’The language of Curiosity’.

The husband-and-wife team have their work cut out to produce a follow-up to ’Blueberry Pie’.

That release proved popular with blues aficionados all over the world, reaching the top ten in the blues charts in the UK, Australia and many European countries, and also receiving airplay with radio stations in the USA, and was eventually nominated for best album or recorded session in the 2017 European Blues Awards.

Blueberry Pie has also been released as an 180g gatefold vinyl edition, with support from the Isle of Man Arts Council.

by Mike Wade

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