Blues News #635
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Blues News #635

This fortnight sees an amazing gig coming up, though if you didn’t grab your copy of Forte on Thursday, you might be reading this too late.

On April 2nd Pistol Pete’s will be hosting Z-Star Delta from the UK. Z-Star Delta is headed by Zee Gachette, who has been immersed in music for as long as she can remember. This is their second tour of Australia, following a hugely welcomed tour last year.

On this tour her performances have sets featuring the full band full-on, and sets which are an acoustic duo exploration of her music, featuring guitar prodigy Sebastien Heintz. All well and good, but just what is her music?

Z-Star Delta has been described as channelling everything from Hendrix and The Who through to Canned Heat and Queens of the Stone Age, with a Morrison/ Doors undertone. Jimmy Page, from Led Zeppelin, described her as a “force of nature!” Just let that settle for a while …

In France they were noted as having “d’emportements funky et bluesy” and also “un cocktail de Blues-Rock Disco-Funk avec un brin Psychadelic …” Hell, I don’t even need Google translate to work out that this will be an insane night. I could go on quoting reviews from around the world, but I would probably and unknowingly quote the wrong thing – I can get away with the ones above!

The nature of her music can also be seen from the venues she plays – festivals, of course, but blues lounges, jazz cafes and high profile music venues such as Dingwalls in London, a live music hot spot since 1973, hosting local/touring bands and comedy nights within Camden Market, Cargo, Royal Albert Hall, Radio City Hall, Berlin Philharmonic. The list goes on, and will now include Pistol Pete’s.

It’s not surprising to learn that Z-Star has awards for Best Female Act and Best Live Act at many venues.

Z-Star will be launching her new album ’16 Tons of Love’ during this 2016 Australian Tour. This is one of the few bands whose tour list reads Geelong, Ballarat, Hepburn Springs, UK, France. Supporting Z-Star will be Sweet Felicia and the Honeytones.

Regulars to this column will not have to be told about Felicia and her company, but, now that I have snagged the interest of the casual reader, let me explain why this will be a superb support to Z-Star Delta.

The first and most obvious thing to know is that Sweet Felicia and the Honeytones are a headliner in their own right pretty much whenever they play – this session will be two full on headline bands and can’t be missed.

Felicia is well known as an excellent bass player, songwriter and performer. She has played with many including Phil Manning, Jeff Lang and Lil’ Fi and has spent the last eight years as the main bassist in The Chris Wilson Band. I always look forward to her!

So this will be a good one, it’s on Saturday 2nd April, at Pistol Pete’s. Definitely one for the calendar!

Written by John (Dr John) Lamp
Proudly presented by the Sleepy Hollow Blues Club