The Sensational Blues Burglars - Chicago Blues at its best
About the band members
MARTIN FLETCHER - harmonicas
Martin is the last man to join the band - replacing Paul Lamb who has been touring his Kingsnakes for some years now. Martin started practising and playing harmonica at 17, failing his A-levels in the process. He claims to have learned to play in a week, after telling a school friend he could and being made to prove it!
At college he kept practising and was encouraged by visiting Chicago bluesmen like Big John Wrencher, but he played only occasionally in public. Martin emerged onto the Tyneside blues scene in 1985 with a Sunderland-based band, Mean Mr Mustard. After a year Martin moved to The Moonlighters, and over the next few years worked with a wide range of blues bands and styles. At one point he played harmonica, ukelele and percussion in a jug band!
In 1995/6 Martin established his own Texas/California style blues band, Martin Fletcher's Usual Suspects, working with Burglars P.J. and Ed and also Northumbrians Bruce Campbell and Les Young.
This band was popular in the Tyneside area and beyond, but after Ed left (citing musical differences i.e. "Martin's a twat!") the band decided to make a sharp left turn by importing a DJ and MC and becoming MFUS, a hiphop/blues fusion band. Over four years MFUS delighted and annoyed audiences all over the UK and Ireland (how annoyed you were depended on how 'purist' and 'knowledgeable' you thought you were about 'blues' and 'hiphop'). Martin delighted in upsetting preconceptions about how the band should sound by constantly changing things, eventually peaking with 12 band members and no set list, arrangements or standards!
Martin plays Hohner harmonicas as he still thinks they are better than any other model after 30+ years of playing. His mic is a Shure Green Bullet, his amp is a Fender Bassman '59 reissue and his industrial strength XL underpants are bought at ASDA (2 minutes walk from his house).
Martin's harmonica hero is Little Walter Jacobs, closely followed by George Smith and Kim Wilson. Martin's favourite harp player is Alice Coltrane! For anyone who thinks the harmonica is a limited instrument or a toy, Martin recommends a listen to 'Echoes Of The Last Stampede' by Norton Buffalo.
P. J. WHITE - bass guitar
P.J. was an original member of the
Blues Burglars and has backed artists
of the stature of Phil Guy, Lowell Fulson, Eric Burdon and Louisiana Red,
appearing at major venues in the U.K. and beyond. Musically P.J. has been described as the blues equivalent of ASTON ‘family man’ BARRETT,
never using two notes where one will do, but is equally adept at a driving shuffle or a slow, minor blues - as well as proving his funk credentials with the superb drumming of Graeme Hare in MFUS. He is also known as 'The King of gin' due to fond and frequent consumption of a particular juniper infused spirit!
P.J. plays his trusty MusicMan bass and would recommend you do likewise! He has recently switched to using the admirable Ashdown amplification gear, keeping the venerable Acoustic amp (as used by the late, great Jaco Pastorius and built back in 1978) as a backup. He'd like to make it clear to Martin that he passed his A levels, despite taking up the bass at the same age!
JOHN WHITEHILL – guitar
John was an original member of the band in the 1980’s, his returning to Tyneside after 15 years of international playing time with Paul Lamb and the Kingsnakes was the catalyst for a rebirth of the Burglars unique brand of Chicago Blues.
This is hardly surprising, as John has been voted Best British Blues Guitarist 4 times and is one of the few British blues guitarists since Peter Green to convincingly capture the tone and the phrasing (many players get the tone but are defeated by the need to know where and how to place the notes or vice versa – John understands both) of Chicago style blues guitar, as heard through the late 50’s and early-mid 60’s.
John began playing guitar at 17 (having learned to play blues mainly from records, but having a music training at college), and soon began to work around Ashington, Northumberland, with Bill Sharp and many other locally well-known musicians in bands such as Smokestack Lightnin’ and Barfly.
In 1984 John joined the Blues Burglars, a band which had developed organically but eventually fixed on John, Bill Sharp, Ed Bowman and Paul Lamb with the final addition of PJ White. The band quickly became the definitive north east blues band, quite a feat when having to compete with the likes of The Junco Partners and The East Side Torpedoes, who both had strong reputations across the UK.
John’s role in this achievement was critical – the authenticity and emotion of his guitar playing made it clear to even unfamiliar or uncommitted audiences that blues was relevant to them and needed to be heard. Blues Burglars sets would almost always have at least one guitar solo so muted, and yet so intense, that the strings could be heard rubbing on the frets – audiences would collectively hold their breath until John broke the tension by leading the band into a thunderous conclusion which emphasised the power of the quiet which had preceded it.
Apart from 15 years of touring with Paul Lamb, John has written and released a solo album, “Guitarslinger”, and has played with many well-known names of US and UK blues including Lowell Fulson, Louisiana Red and Eric Burdon.
John plays a Fender Stratocaster and his guitar heroes are B.B. King and Peter Green.
His favourite food is ‘food’!
BILLY SHARP - vocals / slide guitar
Like John Whitehill, Bill Sharp began his singing career at 17, although his first few outfits were rock and (reflecting the times…work it out for yourselves) jazz-fusion bands until he began to work with a 10-piece soul band (Sidekick) in about 1973.
Bill was born and bred in the Byker area of Newcastle, and assures us that Byker Grove it was not! He describes himself as an ageing hippie, and claims to sing in a blues band only to give him an excuse to wear a suit.
Eventually Bill met John and began the process of forming and establishing the Blues Burglars. The association continued until 1989, when after a year of living in London while attempting to establish the band on a bigger, better-paying circuit, Bill, Ed and PJ decided to go home while John and Paul formed the Kingsnakes.
Once back in the north-east, Bill led bands such as Saints or Sinners and The Smokehouse Boys, while continuing his association with PJ, Ed, and Martin Fletcher in regular blues revues organised by Martin around the extremely skilled and experienced nucleus of past Blues Burglars.
The most important thing about Bill is his voice – it is unique among British Blues singers of the modern era. Why? First, and most important, Bill can sing blues….not just mouth lyrics in a fashion which imitates a style while forgetting melody. Second, he has the ability to sound uncannily like Howling Wolf, something which has left many audiences open-mouthed when Bill has stepped up to the mic and begun to deliver ‘How Many More Years’.
Bill’s favourite singers are an interesting mix. He loves Elmore James (and plays a very similar style of slide guitar) and T-Bone Walker, both known primarily for instrumental skills, and Jimmy Witherspoon.
Nowadays Bill lives in Amble on the east coast of Northumberland and is happy to have left the urban nightmare behind. However his semi-rural lifestyle has not dulled his ability to deliver the urban blues of Chicago and Tyneside with passion and conviction.
ED BOWMAN - drums
Drummer Ed first performed publicly in 1965, having been taught to play by his father.
He joined his first band (Island) at 14, playing Free and Rory Gallagher material, and played mainly in rock bands until he met John and Bill in Smokestack Lightning. Ed also played pop material in club bands until he joined the Blues Burglars in 1984 and stayed with them until 1989 when the band dissolved.
In 1990 he became Tour Manager for 60’s popsters Herman’s Hermits on their 25th Anniversary World Tour. Shortly after returning from the USA Ed became seriously ill and did not play again until asked to join Martin Fletcher’s Usual Suspects. After leaving the Suspects Ed did ‘bits and pieces’ until the chance came to reform the Burglars.
The most important thing about Ed is that he is a blues drummer pure and simple – he avoids rock drum cliches and plays blues rhythm as it should be played. Shuffles shuffle, swings swing, and unnecessary fills and frills are scrupulously avoided. This natural blues ability is helped by the drums/bass dynamic which Ed shares with PJ – no extra notes are added by either, in fact it is more likely they will play less and appear more powerful for it. Lowell Fulson described Ed as “the best blues drummer in the UK” and that kind of compliment was always hard-won from demanding 50’s/60’s blues originals using British musicians for their UK tours.
Ed’s other claim to fame is that he pinched Simon Kirke’s kick drum beater from The Mayfair in 1970 – however he has lived in fear of Kirke’s retribution ever since, and only told us this story if we promised not to use it! Hee, Hee….
Ed also claims to be a sex object i.e lots of women object to having sex with him.
Ed Bowman plays Yamaha drums. He is 74.
