and To The Bridge
What a night of blues at the Torrington!
The crowd was there to see Carvin Jones do his thang, and they weren't to be disappointed. The night started off with a bang as To the Bridge opened the show, with Matt Bullard and the lads grooving away with some tasty blues tunes, including Double Trouble by Otis Rush and one of their own tunes - Honey B. With a tight rhythm section behind him setting down a nice groove, Matt got down to some very tasty playing and soulful singing. I would've paid £6 just to see them - these guys should do more gigs!
Next was the main man - Carvin, and goddam it the man can play that geetar! To the Bridge had told the crowd that Carvin was something special, and he didn't disappoint - blowing the crowd away with his enthusiasm and amazing energy. If brilliant renditions of SRV classics like Scuttlebutting and Texas Flood werent enough, Carvin then got down to some awesome Hendrix tunes, in between walking out into the crowd, talking to the people and playing while lying on his back with his guitar balancing on his feet - the man is out there! It was just insane. I was exhausted just watching him throw himself around, but what a showman!
If you love the blues (and who doesn't?) then make sure you see the Carvin Jones Band and To the Bridge - coming to a venue near you soon!
Mark Peate
He came. He saw. He conquered.
Opening the bill for the final ever gig by the brilliant Hoax, Carvin Jones stepped into the footlights of the London Astoria to raise his profile by about 700 rock blues fans, and an adoring stage crew who gave him extra time to do his stuff. The healthy early evening crowd suggested that a couple hundred had just come in to catch the man in the sparkling purple top. He didn't disappoint.
Roaring into a melange of Texas blues, full of Freddie King and Stevie Ray style licks, Carvin departed from his normal full-on assault and headed straight for the blues'ers in the crowd. An unnamed Texas style shuffle blues song was incredible, whilst Elmore James' "The Sky Is Crying" gave the man with the plan the chance to indulge his die-hard fans. His walk about in the packed crowd was more like an aerobics workout. The spotlight just about picked out a flurry of notes, so fast, that I swear you could see them drift above the acres of heads surrounding the man with the blazing guitar.
There was time for an inventive, humorous and climactic Todd Jewell drum solo, complete with Todd's 'London Walkabout' around the kit, while Billy "O.D." James added some thumping bass.
Carvin eventually took his leave with surprisingly only his second Hendrix number of the night, but what an exit! Playing a quite startling version of "Purple Haze," Carvin momentarily eschewed his flamboyant approach for a straight from-the-board Hendrix rendition. By the concluding couple of bars, he was parading two guitars above his head as the 700 or so in the audience gave him the kind of reception that Jimi got at his Woodstock performance. Up came the roar of the crowd, out came the smoke machine, and in the blink of an eye Carvin was gone. Brilliant!
Happily for the UK fans, Carvin promises a post-millennium tour in the year 2000. Everyone here can barely wait.
Carvin just enjoyed a remarkable weekend of gigs. Starting with his 6th appearance at the famed Worcester Park Club, Carvin drew his biggest audience yet for the latest in his two set specials. He placed alot more emphasis on his use of dynamics rather than a full on blast. Mixing his trademark Stevie Ray Vaughan Texas shuffles with several unnamed instrumental pieces, Carvin gradually worked his way into a ferocious groove. His high intensity approach brought the majority of the crowd to the lip of the stage, affording Carvin the opportunity to dive in amongst his followers to great effect.
It is worth noting at this point that while at the outset of the tour, Carvin used to reserve his more spectacular efforts for a truly rocking night. Given the levels of excitement he has generated of late, he's having to pull out all the stops. Bearing in mind that he is playing to mature London audiences who are by no means starved of guitar players of international standing, the excitement levels generated by several of Carvin's shows are really impressive.
The Worcester Park show was featured in the Surrey Comet, the biggest selling paper in the whole of Surrey. The interest in Carvin was twofold. One, he was headlining the club's third anniversary, and two, it is unprecedented for anyone to play the club 6 times - let alone three - in such a relatively short space of time.
The following night was interesting again, because Carvin headlined the Albany Empire in Deptford, in his own right. This is a late night theatre gig, with a mixture of standing and seated fans. Bearing in mind the venue is in a tough part of town, Carvin pulled an excellent crowd, who snapped up no less than 43 CD's on the night. Carvin was slated to play an hour set, and ended up playing over double that!
He finished the weekend with a memorable gig on the coast at the Grand, Leigh On Sea, in Essex. A capacity crowd went absolutely wild! Such was the crush that Carvin at one point stood on two separate chairs to deliver another memorable solo. He was doubtless fired up by the presence of Snails Pace Slim, the guitarist from the Hamsters, Britain's most successful blues rock outfit. If people thought it couldn't get much better than the night before they were wrong, because Carvin again produced new levels of adrenilin, and for that matter, different material. He slipped in some splendid Latino licks, and a crushing "Tough Enough" from the Fab T'Birds. The PA could have been better, but hell with a crowd like this, nobody noticed the occasional bit of feedback. When you bend an E-string as much as Carvin, you're probably used to high frequency signals.
In summary, Todd Jewell has been magnificent on drums, and Billy "OD" James has never dropped a line. This is all the more remarkable, given the fact that after having witnessed 55 shows, I still haven't seen the man call out a song title to the band yet!
The other notable thing of late is the amount of dads who have brought their young sons along, presumably dreaming that one day, their son too might play like the Texas Tornado, from Phoenix!
Yet more: Carvin's been offered a weeks tour in Ireland - both North and South, and 3 dates in Switzerland, with Germany and Czeckoslovakia pending.
Carvin is roughly up to gig number 55. He's just conquered Wales, appearing on the same show as Tom Jones, and selling out his dates there. The Welsh media are calling him the new Jimi Hendrix!!!!!!!
Just about all the dates, except for two, have done well. One was washed out by a thunderstorm, and one was a public holiday, which should have done better, but that's another story.
Carvin has experienced some real fan attention. He sold out the Torrington Club (in North London) 3 times in a row, and also had Virgin Radio come out to see him (big cheese here). Incredibly, the first 6 weeks after he got here, the UK experienced a heat wave, and yet people still came out to see Carvin.
He's been played on the radio about 10 times, including on the prestigious Jazz FM station, and is receiving great write-ups. Also Wed 13th of Oct, Carvin plays his biggest show -The Astoria (big theatre in the middle of London) with the UK's leading rock-blues band, The Hoax. This is The Hoax's very last date, and they asked Carvin on to the bill, which is great.
This Saturday (11th Sept) he headlines in his own right at the Albany Empire Theatre, in Deptford, London. There's also a probable week tour of Ireland coming up.
Roger Mayer has been out to see Carvin over 10 times, as has all kinds of weird, wonderful and important (!) people.
Right now it looks as if Carvin's working through until October 21st.
There's also alot of interest in Germany and Belgium, as well as in Norway (loads of Norwegians in London follow him around at gigs). In fact in Wales, people literally followed Carvin around for autographs, and just like The Beatles, they were knocking on the Welsh promoter's door looking for anything they could get hold of.
There has also been interest from several record companies, but we'll have to see what develops.
Carvin started off his UK trip with a bang. He guested on Friday night at The Worcester Park Club with a band called Four Bills & A Ben. They are are basically an all star rock and soul outfit, who feature the Status Quo rhythm section, plus Spike Edney from Brian May and Queen, and Andy Hamilton on sax from Duran Duran, as well as Johnny Warman on vocals. He guested in front of a packed house & went down a storm with the crowd. Also sold tons of CD's.
His own show at the venue followed on Sunday when he packed the dance floor with revellers, and was joined on stage by Los Angeles vocalist Emmet North Junior. Emmet is in London right now working with The Atlantic Soul Machine. His rasping version of "Mustang Sally", allied with Carvin's drivin guitar had the crowd in raptures.
In between the two dates, Carvin played at Club Riga in Southend on Sea - you guessed it, it's a seaside resort of sorts, and a hot bed of R&B. A band called Pride & Joy, featuring 16 year-old guitarist John Priest, opened up for Carvin. Their mix of SRV/Hendrix is in the same vein as Carvin, and they played the perfect support gig. But when Mr jones hit the stage, the air of expectancy was matched by Carvin's incendiary playing. He played over 2 hours 15 minutes, and won over many converts.
There's already been two major articles in the papers
over here on Carvin, and Jazz FM played "Sweet Home Chicago" from
the Live at Joe's Grotto album. Last night saw Carvin play an up market supper
club, and former Hendrix effects man Roger Mayer with some special guests turned
up to see Carvin startle diners and rock fans alike by interweaving between
the tables, narrowly missing glasses and crockery, as he fired off an impassioned
set.