The Chelsea Rhythm and Blues Festival

Martin Barre
Martin in a Grammy Award winning guitarist and has been the guitarist with Jethro Tull for 43 years, his sound and playing having been a major factor in their success. Album sales have exceeded 60 million units and they continue to be played worldwide, representing an important part of classic rock history. The word legend is over used and mis-used but in the case of Martin Barre - it's pretty much the only term that will do. He's the real deal.

As well as numerous Jethro Tull albums, Martin has worked with many other artists including Paul McCartney, Gary Moore and Joe Bonamassa.

As Jethro Tull is taking a long break from touring, Martin has put together a great band to play all the classic music from the band's back catalogue. This is going to be a rare treat from a true master.

Chantel MacGregor
Guitarist and singer-songwriter Chantel McGregor recently released her highly anticipated second album, Lose Control, on independent label Tis Rock Music. The new album is the follow up to her critically acclaimed debut album, Like No Other.
Lose Control not only salutes contemporary rock, but shows her gradual transition from conventional Blues to a harder, bigger and bolder rock sound with progressive influences.

For Chantel McGregor the blues came calling first, but rock was always waiting around the corner. A female guitar prodigy, Chantel was told by a major label that she had a "great voice, but girls don't play guitar like that!" Wisely ignoring their comments, she enrolled at the Leeds College of Music and became the first student in the college’s history, to achieve a 100% pass mark with 18 distinctions. Chantel then pursued further education and left with a First Class Honours degree in Popular Music and a coveted prize, the college’s musician of the year award.

The Stevie Nimmo Trio
As one half of Scotland’s highly respected ‘Nimmo Brothers’, Stevie Nimmo has been a well known and respected figure throughout the blues and roots world for over 2 decades.
Now, having toured extensively with the critically acclaimed blues rock outfit over the last few years, as well as taking to the road in a stripped back, acoustic format to promote his debut solo project ‘The Wynds of Life’, Stevie is now in full stride with his full-on, electric, no-holds-barred trio format.

Stevie says that, although the acoustic project is extremely satisfying and allows him to showcase his voice and song writing talents in the perfect environment, sometimes “…you just want to break out the Les Paul or strat, crank up the old orange amp and make some noise!” Which is exactly what he is going to be doing at Chelsea Rhythm and Blues Festival.

Last year, Stevie broke his arm - pretty devasting for a guitarist, but following an operation - he's back at full throttle. This will be one of his first gigs since the operation and he's really up for it.

Deep Blue Sea
Deep Blue Sea create new shoots from the old roots. Taking the blues out for a walk in the sun and the rain. Telling tales from the lives we are all living - playing music for the moment we are in. Deep Blue Sea is a London band - but London's a big city!
From the wild west London.. the London Borough of Los Angeles, an astonishing vocalist - Dregas
From the frozen north London.. the London Borough of Stockholm, a funky master of rhythm and groove - tougher than an IKEA manual - Amanda Dal on drums
From sunny south London.. the London Borough of Santiago De Compostella, a master of so many guitar styles he leaves audiences dumbstruck, the amazing Iago Banet on guitar
And from inner London.. the Royal London Borough of Hartlepool, Graeme on bass - he played bass with Tenpole Tudor back in the day and is an established song writer.

A few highlights from the last 12 months have been
Signed a 3 album deal and recorded the first album in 2017 - this is for an internet based graphic novel Blues In Buckle - DBS is providing the soundtrack for the stories.
Started their own club – Xroads Blues Bar - which is also streamed live on social media - hitting 75,000 views on a Facebook Live Event.
Recorded a live album (CD & DVD) - the band released "Live It Up" in July. The album reached the top 10 in the IBBA radio playlists for July and August 2018.

Weird little fact - this festival isn't the first time Graeme from Deep Blue Sea has played with Martin Barre. A few years ago, when Graeme was the bassist with The Blue Bishops, they were playing at a charity gig in Devon close to Martin's home and he got up with the band and played half a dozen numbers - much to the audience's delight.

Bourbon Street Revival
Bourbon Street Revival describe themselves as a Blues / Soul Collective that has been on the scene in South and West London for some 20 years and is still going strong. They state their line-up expands to fill the space as required!! And Chelsea's Under The Bridge is a pretty great space - so expect a full on show from these seasoned and experienced musicians playing what the love to play.

JFK Blue
Hot on the heels of their 2017 debut album, 'Rough Round The Edges', London collective JFK BLUE have returned with their second release, entitled 'Out Of The Blue'.

Rough Around The Edges received great reviews including this one from Pete Feenstra on his radio show "Get Ready to Rock" -

‘Rough Around The Edges’ is an impressive debut album with plenty of depth. It’s born of 11 strong and original tracks that jump out the grooves on the back of emotive vocals and fine band interplay, topped by tasteful solos.

Their live performances have received similar praise - everywhere they go:

JFK Blue are no doubt a force to be reckoned with exciting music played with both gusto and professionalism , it was great to see how they interacted with each other and kept things fresh. Woodlands Blues Club

JFK Blue tore through numbers from their debut album, ‘Rough Round The Edges’ and some new songs. This was, it seemed, a band on a mission....with the frantic pace they set there really was no time for chat or introductions between songs - as one finished they were all ready to launch into the next. It was all over before we had a chance to grab a breath… and once again that queue at the merch stand grew. Tuesday Blues Club