The band started out as the ‘house band’ playing at Bob’s Goodtime Blues at the Station Tavern, Latimer Road, London W10 in the mid 90’s. A regularly Sunday lunchtime spot turned into a long-term residency at the venue and the ‘house band’ simply became ‘Station House’. The band was billed as a ‘Blues-Soul fusion featuring the classy vocals of Root Jackson and 1999’s Blues Drummer of the Year, Sam Kelly’
The current lineup is SAM KELLY (drums/bv's), SPY (bass/lead vocals), PAUL JOBSON (keyboards/lead vocals), TONY QUNTA (guitar/lead vocals) and JEROME MARCUS (percussion/bv's).
In February 2007, the band formed the 'house band' for the Soul Britannia All-Stars Review at the Barbican, London, playing with Madeline Bell, Linda Lewis, Carol Grimes, Hamish Stuart (AWB) and original members of Gonzalez, FBI and Cymande (Sam being the original drummer with the group). The performance was recorded by the BBC as part of the Soul Britannia season.
Station House play at private functions, festivals, blues weekends, clubs and bars in the UK and in Europe.
The band released their first CD "Sunday Best" in 2006 and this has been followed by a live album (live at crawley) which was released in October 2007. Both CD’s are available at gigs and by mail order (see bottom of page)
Reviews
Sam Kelly could well be described as the UK’s answer to Sam Lay; a consummate blues drummer who has “paid his dues” backing the cream of American blues artists touring the UK, whilst also leading his own blues aggregations.
‘Sunday Best’ features him with Station House – the band and the CD taking their titles from the fact that they were the house band at Bob’s Goodtime Blues jams, held Sunday lunchtimes at the Station Tavern, London.
Apart from the aforementioned Kelly, Station House comprises Dave Clark (bass/keys), Root Jackson (vocals/percussion) and T.J. Johnson (guitar), playing what Fowokan George Kelly, in the sleeve notes, describes as a band that “reverberates with a uniquely British Caribbean flavour that throbs with an earthiness that evoke a sense of distant places”. This is an apt description for music that is a tough, uncompromising, compelling melange of down-home Blues and Jamaican R&B liberally laced with African and low-down funky influences.
Kelly’s unerring sense of rhythm and Clark’s pulsing bass lines are the perfect foil for Root Jackson’s raw and impassioned vocals, and Johnson’s gutbucket, funky wah-wah embellishments as they take Bill Withers’ ‘Lonely Town, Lonely Street’ skittering into the gutter, and Albert King’s ‘ (I’ll) Sing The Blues (For You)’, replete with haunting organ, and low-key vocals (T.J.Johnson) way down into the deepest shadows of blues alley.
Allen Toussaint’s ‘Happiness’, is a slab of funky and evocative, gutbucket Crescent City R&B laced with elements of Jimmy Spruill; Root Jackson’s anguished vocals and Johnson’s feral guitar fire the compellingly intense ‘Unreal Values’; whilst ‘Too Much Trouble’ demonstrates Kelly’s credentials as the new “shuffle-meister”, as the band mines an earthily hypnotic groove.
Highly recommended – but beware – these blues are not for the faint-hearted! (www.sam-kelly.com)
6 bottles
…Mick Rainsford
To order CDs:
"LIVE AT CRAWLEY" 1 Were Gonna Make It 2 Unreal Values 3 Treat A Dog 4 Train That I Ride / Goin Back To Luca 5 Red Baron 6 People Say 7 Ain't No Love £10.00 @ gigs or £13.00 by post (inc. p&p)
"SUNDAY BEST" 1 Too Much Trouble 2 Treat A Dog 3 Happiness 4 Unreal Values 5 Sing The Blues 6 Lonely Town, Lonely Street 7 Big Bird 8 Too Much Trouble (remix) £10.00 @ gigs or £13.00 by post (inc. p&p)
***SPECIAL DEAL*** BUY BOTH CD'S BY POST FOR JUST £23.00 To order your CD by post, please send a cheque payable to S.J.Kelly to: STATION HOUSE, PO Box 617, Harrow, HA1 9BU DON'T FORGET TO INCLUDE YOUR POSTAL ADDRESS WITH YOUR ORDER
oye oye thanks for joining the recent world of Phat Tucker, Dont forget we are down the Six Bells in Chiddingly tonight and this isn't gonna be that frequent in this neck of the woods ;-)
Saturday 8th August - À Go-Go presents SOUL & FUNK night
SOULFUNK SECRET plays cool, funky grooves with a hint of Jazz, Soul Funk and Latin flavours. Fronted by the talented vocalist James B. Coleman who worked for Paul Weller, Carleen Anderson, Push, London Community Gospel Choir, Michelle Gail & George Michael. The rhythm section is well experienced and performed for Jamiroquai, Brand New Heavies, Galliano, JTQ, Tom Jones, Channel 4, Emirates Productions & too many to mention.
Downstairs@The Comedy Pub, 7 Oxendon Street, Piccadilly, London
Honoured and a privileged to meet you at The Blackhorse Festival.
A KILLER SET.
From my camera,Sam Kelly's Station House Recorded at The 21st Black Horse Festival on 22nd May 2009 at The Black Horse Inn, Hastings Road, Telham, East Sussex,
THE BACK TO WAX REVUE Tom Rodwell, Madame Pamita, the Borough Cat VS the Vulcan Cylinder Record Co.
*** Wed May 20 - The George Tavern, 373 Commercial Road, Stepney, London E1 0LA - 8pm £6 / £4 concessions *** Sun May 24 - The Luminaire, 311 Kilburn High Road, London NW6 7JR 7.30pm £10 door / £8 adv from www.wegottickets.co.uk
Weep not for the CD! Presenting the Back to Wax Revue, live onstage primitivist soundclash featuring genuine wax cylinder recording sessions. Witness performers battle with the original medium of recorded sound, Edison's wax cylinder, state of the art circa 1877. Ponder how recording mediums affect music; what changes in in the midst of form and content?
FEAT: Tom Rodwell (NZ) - gospel-blues primitivist Madame Pamita (LA) w/ K. Boogie - the world's foremost euphonious prognosticatrix Borough Cat (London) - London's doe-eyed dude of dolorum VS The Vulcan Cylinder Record Co. of Sheffield, UK - one of only two studios in the world with the capacity to acoustically record cylinders in the Edison fashion, Vulcan is also the world's only cylinder pressing plant and label.
Hi guys - many moons no see - welcome to my little space - hope you enjoy your visits!! Have a great Easter and hope I can catch up with y'all soon - bluesy best - Bron
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