John James in Concert
Friday 17th September 2010
at the Jubilee, Wattsville
Support from Alan Coles
The Islwyn Acoustic Guitar Club is delighted to announce that the legendary Welsh acoustic guitarist John James will be making a rare live appearing in concert at the Jubilee Bar and Events Room, at Wattsville on Friday 17th September.
Born in Lampeter in West Wales, John James is a guitarist with an international reputation. He has recorded more than 15 albums, presented and guested on BBC TV and Radio shows, written theme music for ITV, produced guitar books for Ry Cooder and Rory Gallagher, In the nineteen eighties he was hugely influential as the ‘Ragtime guitar’ columnist for ‘Guitar International’ magazine.
He has produced teaching cassettes for Homespun Tapes and produced a top selling Guitar video for Virgin Vision. John James has toured worldwide performing solo concerts with plus successful collaborations with fellow ‘giant of the guitar’ John Renbourn and the renowned British blues sax player Dick Heckstall-Smith.
In addition he has worked with performers as diverse as Led Zeppelin, Ralph McTell and Jools Holland.
John James is a hugely entertaining and accomplished performer with a sense of humour and repartee that has been likened to Billy Connolly. The Melody Maker once dubbed him ‘the human side of guitar wizardry’.
John is right up there with John Renbourn, Bert Jansch, Wizz Jones, Stefan Grossman and Jimmy Page as one of the true acoustic virtuosos of his generation.
Support comes from Newport based singer-songwriter Alan Coles.Doors open at 7.00pm for an open mic at 7.30 followed by the concert with the John James from 9.45.
Tickets cost just £6.00 (with concessions for members/students/OAPs at £5.00) and will be available on the door on the night.
Thomas Leeb and Jon Gomm in Concert
Friday 15th October 2010
At the Jubilee Bar and Events Room, Wattsville
The Islwyn Acoustic Guitar Club is delighted to welcome Jon Gomm and Thomas Leeb, two of the world’s most innovative acoustic guitarists, to the Jubilee Bar and Events Room at Wattsville on Friday 15th October from 7.30pm for a double bill concert that promises to be the highlight of the year.
Jon Gomm is a singer-songwriter and acoustic solo performer, with an incredible virtuoso guitar style. He uses one acoustic guitar to create drum sounds, basslines and sparkling melodies all at the same time.His live performances have been consistently leaving audiences amazed and delighted.
His debut CD Hypertension captures the live experience perfectly.
He recently released a new CD called Don’t Panic which shows a more refined style and added finesse to his playing.
He has been likened in style to Tommy Emmanuel, Preston Reed, Michael Hedges and Jimi Hendrix.
In live shows, in addition to his own original material, you can expect some Marley and Hendrix covers to name but two of Jon’s immaculate homages to his greatest musical heroes.
On leaving school Jon turned down a place at Oxford studying English to attend The Guitar Institute in London.
While there he paid his way through college playing jazz in café-bars, recording as a session guitarist, and playing Country & Western in working men’s clubs for line-dancers!
Eventually he heard the call of the north and moved to Leeds, where he is now based.
He decided to try his hand at performing solo, and discovered all kinds of new sounds he could make with an acoustic guitar – hitting the surface of it to make snare drum, bass drum and bongo sounds, re-tuning the strings to get bass sounds, and teasing high harmonics from the guitar for synthesizer-like effects.
He worked all these techniques into his own songs, and put his years of singing blues into use.
He began to get high-profile gigs supporting some of the most-respected names on the acoustic circuit such as Tommy Emmanuel (Australia), Nick Harper and Woody Mann (U.S.)
Austrian born and LA based Thomas Leeb plays a style he calls 'the bastard child of acoustic fingerstyle'. This style owes as much to percussive techniques as traditional fingerstyle guitar as his tunes are usually punctuated by slaps, pops and beats. Adding to the overall effect is his frequent use of ringing harmonics. The resulting blur of busy hands and fingers has to be seen to be believed.
His repertoire consists of self-penned numbers, traditional tunes and occasional covers of Guns 'n' Roses, Bjork and Bob Marley songs..
Leeb released his first album, the now out of print Reveller, as a precocious 17 year old. However, his unique style didn't come into full force until his 1999 album Riddle. He has since released four further albums and toured Asia, North and South America and Europe.
Along the way he has picked up a number of influential fans such as Eric Roche who was his guitar teacher, "for about five minutes and then I heard him play" and Guthrie Govan who thinks that "what Thomas does on an acoustic guitar probably shouldn't be legal".Doors open at 7.30pm. The concert commences promptly at 8.00pm.
Tickets cost just £8.00 (£7.00 concessions) and are available from the organiser on 01495 270078.
This is a double bill concert with no support or open mic.
The evening is supported by the Arts Council Nightout Scheme and Caerphilly County Borough Council
Videos and sounds at: http://www.myspace.com/thomasleeb http://www.myspace.com/jongomm
