Blues Irregulars/Andy Wales Band

BLUES IRREGULARS/ANDY WALES BAND

IMV 11TH April 2026

Saturday night at the The International Music Venue gave us a double dose of rock and blues, and a great night it was...

First up was the Andy Wales with his superb band... Andy's music is clearly evolving and the emphasis appears to have slid away from the blues towards rock... They kicked off with an original instrumental piece which skittered around gloriously before going into the rest of the set, which as ever contained some originals, some blues pieces and some covers, including the familiar "Tainted Love" and a surprising "Down in the Tubestation at Midnight"

Throughout the set Andy demonstrated ably why he is seen as one of the very best guitar players around... whether playing delicately melodically, rocking out or playing bluesy he is spot on... a great guitar player on top of his game.

Andy is superbly aided by one of the best bass players around, CHRISTIAN DEZELU, who plays full tilt bass and is a total bundle of energy and the the great Nick Murphy. on drums. Christian and Nick set a solid powerful basis for Andy's superb guitar... a really class band!

One small point though... for me the set lost some of its impact by Andy's vocals being way too low in the mix, at times barely audible... Andy is a great singer and should be heard!

Following Andy's great set came the The Blues Irregulars, a band I hadnt seen since their days of the residency at the Salmon... but after line up changes this is a new band... and a hell of a good band.

Led by PJ Baker on guitar, harp and vocals and surrounded by a great bunch of musicians... Tony Alles on guitar, Nick Whitfield on bass, Matt Lacey on Drums and Andy Price on keyboards... 5 great musicians blending together into a really great whole unit.

The set was all blues, from the very familiar to some very obscure (to me at least) deep cuts... but each one played in great style.

Throughout the set Tony's guitar sound was superb and his playing top class... Nick and Matt drove the band with their high quality bass and drum playing powering along while Andy's keyboard work was absolutely superb.

PJ himself played guitar and harp, and all the vocals... and proved to be a quality band leader and musician.

For me the set started disappointingly, it took a few pieces to get me totally engrossed, but i was enjoying the show more and more as the set developed and built up... by the time they came to the final stages the band were absolutely flying and a superb sound it was!!... they ended with the familiar "Got my Mojo Working" on which PJ really blew up a storm on harp and the band powered along with him to make a quite scintillating conclusion... overall a terrific set by a top class band, a set which built and built beautiffully throughout...

However... the quality of the harp playing in the latter part of the set made me wish that PJ had made more use of it during the set... he showed he is a great harp player!!

Wonderful night of music!!

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