Alfold Rock and Blues Festival

Although a young man relatively new to the scene, it would be wrong to think Dom Martin hasn't paid his life and musical dues. Brought up in the often tough, but community driven streets of Belfast Northern Ireland, Dom traded his craft for a time locally without a (self confessed) clue how to break into the (international) music business and possibly with too much humility to try. 'Discovered' by his present management, Dom has made a fairly 'meteoric' rise in terms of today's industry,

His jaw dropping, entirely natural sounding and unforced/unschooled skill on acoustic guitar, matched with an authentic 'Belfast Blues' voice, brings to mind comparisons with many from John Martyn to Rory Gallagher, with nods to many in-between, not least perhaps the likes of Van Morrison and Foy Vance. Dom has won multiple awards for his acoustic work with a 2019 European award, UK awards in 2020/2021 and 2022 and as a result is now an inductee in the UK Blues Hall of Fame.

Dom is equally adept on electric with his power trio, having won the UK Blues Awards Best Instrumentalist Award 2022. The trio is always an extremely popular addition to any blues/rock festival and Dom always likes to include a Rory Gallagher song or two amongst his originals as he strives “to keep Rory’s music alive”.

 Dom Martin is a very busy man indeed with a rapidly rising profile in the blues world. In April 2022, Dom released his sophomore studio album “A Savage Life” to rave reviews in the blues press and he was featured in and pictured on the front covers of “Blues Matters”, “Blues in Britain” and French magazine “Blues & Co”.  In May 2022 Dom was nominated in an unprecedented 5 categories at The UK Blues Awards (Blues Vocalist of The Year, Best Album of The Year, Best Blues Band of The Year, Blues Instrumentalist of The Year and Acoustic Blues Artist of The Year with Dom lifting the last two and playing at the awards ceremony in London. Also in May 2022 he played the KTBA Streamathon (hosted by Joe Bonamassa) and he also made his USA festival debut in Omaha Nebraska following him representing the UK at the IBC in Memphis in the solo/duo category, narrowly losing out in the semi finals to the eventual category winner.

 Hailed by many as the greatest Irish export since Rory Gallagher, 2023 is ripe for the picking for this multi award winner.

“Dom Martin is the next rising star in the global roots scene. Jump aboard now before he passes you by.” – Rock and Blues Muse

"A rare talent of SUCH sheer genius"  Blues in  Britain

"The Belfast guitarist is a sprawling talent" - Classic Rock Magazine

"Absolutely wonderful Stuff" Cerys Matthews -  BBC Radio 2

KANDA BONGO MAN

A glorious first appearance at Alfold for the joyous sounds of kwassa kwassa!

Kanda Bongo Man (born 1955 in Inongo, Democratic Republic of the Congo) is a Congolese soukous musician. His first solo albums where "Iyole" in 1981 and "Djessy" in 1982 and the success of these albums launched Kanda Bongo Man’s International career and led to an invite from world renowned progressive rock musician Peter Gabriel. Mr Kanda Bongo Man has also shared a stage with the late Grammy Award Winner “Mama Africa” Miriam Makeba and Jamaican Reggae Musician Jimmy Cliff just to name a few.

Mr Kanda Bongo Man is known for the structural changes he implemented to soukous music. The previous approach was to sing several verses and have one guitar solo at the end of the song. Kanda Bongo Man revolutionized soukous by encouraging guitar solos after every verse and even sometimes at the beginning of the song. His form of soukous gave birth to the kwassa kwassa dance rhythm where the hips move back and forth while the hands move to follow the hips. Your hips will be moving too!

JACKIE LYNTON is one of the grand old men of Rock’n'Roll, claiming Ritchie Blackmore, Rick Parfitt, Chas Hodges, and Chris Farlowe among his personal friends. As a performer his career spans seven decades! A young silver suited crooner with a quiff cut his teeth in the clubs of Hamburg in the late 1950s before transforming into the vocalist with The Savoy Brown Blues Band in the 1960’s. By the 70’s Jack was writing songs with Rick Parfitt for Status Quo, and in the eighties he was fronting Diesel – a band formed with John Coghlan, Status Quo’s original drummer. In the nineties Jack dabbled in acting – regularly appearing as an “extra” on Eastenders while at the same time he was forming his current band, which features some faces with great music histories of their own. Bass Guitarist Colin Pattenden was a founder member of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band; while the two lead guitars are Chris Bryant who played with Arthur Brown and Mike Windus, one of Britain’s best session musicians; the combo is driven by the drumming of Spud Metcalf, of The Nashville Teens. Look forward to an amazing set of Rock’n'Roll, Blues and the occasional rude joke. Oh, and did I mention that Jack also writes poetry and Children’s stories ?? A man of huge talent, and a born entertainer.

The Milk Men is a band made up from the cream of British R’n’B talent and pedigree.
Bringing together young veterans of the UK’s live music scene. The Milk Men have been tearing up venues and festivals all over the UK with their dynamic live show.
With former Pirate Mike Roberts on drums, Lloyd Green (son of guitar legend Mick Green) on bass guitar, husky blues singer Jamie Smy on vocals, the band is rounded off on guitar by Adam Norsworthy, also know as the singer and guitarist in blues scene mainstays Mustangs.
The band draws its influences from a wide range of classic bands from Dr Feelgood to Fleetwood Mac. Their original music is classic blues rock, but always played with attack, energy, melody and a sense of fun.
The band has released four hugely-acclaimed albums of original material, and their latest and finest album Spin The Bottle saw the band cement their reputation as one of the UK’s premier keepers of the British Blues Rock flame. In early 2023 the Milk Men released Mini Milk, a 5-track e.p. of some of their most popular songs, remixed and remastered as a sampler for the many new fans the band has been picking up all over the country. 
The band has headlined major blues festivals all over the UK including Swanage and The Great British Rock & Blues Festival in Skegness. In January 2023 The Milk Men were nominated for two UK Blues Awards – Emerging Talent and Best Blues Band. This year sees them take their unique brand of catchy blues rock all over the country playing at festivals everywhere from Cornwall to Carlisle.
“The finest rockin’ rhythm’n’blues band in the country” 
– Blues in Britain Magazine.
Brilliant – there aren’t many better exponents of the than The Milk Men”
- Maximum Volume Magazine
Fun, feelgood and wildly entertaining”
- Fireworks Magazine
In the tradition of British milk men - these guys certainly deliver!
- Blues Matters Magazine

The Farleys are a family band - all brothers - and all the songs they play have been written by their mother - Ma Farley - over the last hundred or more years.  She’s a remarkably well lived woman due to vitamins, prayer, and a voracious sexual appetite.

Unfortunately, over the decades, Ma’s peccadillos with the leading names in music have resulted in many of these amazing songs being stolen from Mama’s Chest as she lay sleeping in post-coital bliss.  This is why they might sound familiar to you.

Legal proceedings are underway.  We do not expect to win them.

Brother Charley Farley

Brother Charley was out toiling in the fields one day when he heard the voice of God.  It said “Form a band from your brothers and play swing/skiffle/country/rock”.  Even God doesn’t know how to categorise our music. 

He ran into the farmstead and excitedly shouted "Ma, Ma!  I've just heard the voice of God!" to which the sage Ma Farley replied "You still need to wash your hands before supper, Charles Humperdink Inglasias Farley". After supper, Ma brought down her chest of old songs from which the brothers now draw their musical inspiration.

Brother Adam Farley

It’s often been said that if it weren’t for his pivotal role in The Farleys, brother Adam would be a social outcast.  It’s not that he has any personal dysfunction, it’s just that nobody likes him. His mastery of music is unquestioned, unlike his sexuality, and it is the inspirational guidance of Brother Adam that keeps The Farleys on the skiffle straight and narrow.  Without his swing compass they would be adrift on the ocean of easy listening.  Lord have mercy!

Brother Bruce Farley

As a small child, Brother Bruce was bitten by a saxophone and from that day has been observed to have special powers; he can play a tune on practically any instrument.  Sadly that tune is Agadoo and of no real use to man. A constant disappointment to Pa Farley, Bruce was never able to play more than one instrument simultaneously, although several drunken attempts and visits to Accident and Emergency pay testiment to his determination to make it a reality.

Brother Jason Farley

Bizarrely the only Jewish member of the Farley family, it’s Jason’s job to keep his banjo out of tune to give the Farleys that authentic ‘caravan jazz’ feel. Jason in fact studied at the Royal Academy of Music and has had to throw away years of training to sound this bad.

In his early years he showed promise as a playwright, poet and stand-up comedian, although Pa Farley had the foresight to beat that out of him early on with a copy of The Old Testament of the Good South.

Brother Pete Farley

Previously kidnapped by disgraced brother, Martin, and forced to work as a drum slave, Pete was bravely rescued by his brothers when Martin was on the loo after a particularly heavy night topped off with a mutton vindaloo. Pete's talents extend way beyond drumming as he can also whistle Dixie through one nostril whilst hanging upside down. Don't expect to see this on stage any time soon.

What can I tell you that you don’t already know?

They’ve spent a fortune in pubs. They scrub up nicely. They’re not as bright as they think they are. And, even as I write, one of those rascals is probably chatting up your girlfriend. But you knew – or at least suspected – all of that already, right? 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the origins of Soho Dukes can be traced back to a pub. It was way back in ’82 – when all of this was just fields – that Johnny Barracuda (vocals) and Bomber (bass guitar) ambled into the back room of a boozer to make their stage debuts in a band that would become Empyre and then, eventually, Monterrez. The pair of chancers chased their rock’n’roll dreams all the way to London’s Marquee Club, where Monterrez twice appeared as support act for Guns N’ Roses. That was in 1987. When there were only four channels on the telly. 
Bomber eventually quit Monterrez to join London-based Waterbratz and then Drugdealer Cheerleader with whom he recorded an album and toured the nation. A rock ‘n’ roller to the core, Bomber has no recollection of either of these events. 
Meanwhile, after a subtle – and ultimately pointless – change of name, Barracuda-fronted Monterrey continued to bother the London public with a short run of Marquee Club headline gigs as well as support slots with Faith No More & Skid Row. A few weeks later and Barracuda was out on his ear. For not being David Lee Roth. He still isn’t.

Ready to move on? We’ll take a cab. Just a few miles south. And several years north.

This is where we find Col ‘The Duke’ Foster (rhythm guitar and inspirational songwriter) and ‘Appy ‘Ammer’ Blackwell (drums). These are the South London-based Dukes who, in the early 1990s – along with Johnny Barracuda and Bomber – formed most of the criminally short-lived Sawbones, a band celebrated for some riotous shows at Kingston’s Grey Horse. Another pub. See? Told you. They’re relentless.

We head on. A lengthier drive this time. To 2017. Park up where you like, mate. Anywhere along here will do.

As the newest Duke, Si Leach, (lead guitar), might have been expected to need time to adjust to the lifestyle; the hard drinking, the sharp clothes, the fast women, the slow horses. But you’d be wrong, my friend. What was intended as an audition quickly became a rehearsal. Si was born to be a Duke. Not only has he regularly shouldered a guitar with Bad Boy Boogie, a well-respected and reliably noisy and boisterous (noisterous?) AC/DC tribute band, but he’s known Stateside too, having starred in an impromptu gig in Key West by virtue of winning a drinking competition. These are admirable credentials and precisely why he was snapped up. Proper lively. Like.
So, there we are. Now you know. These are your protagonists – your bovver boys, fops and dandies. Your elegantly wasted weekend millionaires. SOHO DUKES are among you, my friends. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.