Worcester Music Forum

Thursday 12th

Bap Kennedy

Bap's initial flush of fame began in 1990 with the release of "Energy Orchard" by his group of the same name. Energy Orchard were a legendary live band, all from Belfast and highly regarded on the tough London gig scene. A young Brian Kennedy was the original singer, departing for a solo career before the fledgling band began to perform live. As the reputation of the band - now featuring big brother Bap on lead vocals - gathered momentum, they signed to M.C.A. records - mainly thanks to friend and bad behaviour enthusiast Steve Earle - and began to tour extensively in Europe and America, including support slots with Van Morrison - a major musical influence on Kennedy and the band (in 1993 Bap joined Van on stage at three gigs to sing 'Gloria.')
Bap's next album "The Big Picture" (4 out of 5 MOJO ) was recorded with the help of Van Morrison -a long standing friend and mentor. Van also co-wrote one of the songs on the album (Milky Way) with Bap - a very rare thing indeed and a measure of Bap's standing in the song-writing community. Shane Macgowan appears on another of the songs (On the Mighty Ocean Alcohol) and following the release of The Big Picture, Shane played several secret gigs with Bap and his band at the notorious Boogaloo bar, a celeb hangout in north London. Other musical guests included Pete Doherty and David Soul of Starsky and Hutch fame.
A tour of the US and Europe followed, as special guest of Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) who is now a convert to the Bap back catalogue. The tour included five nights at the Royal Albert Hall, London.
Bap has also been involved in the Belfast / Nashville twin cities song writing festivals and has contributed to song writing workshops over the festival period. In March 2009 he formed part of a Belfast contingent of singer-songwriters who performed in Nashville and Austin.
www.bapkennedy.com

£8.00 ticket and £10 on the door

Friday 13th

Matt Schofield

In his relatively short career Matt's prowess as a blues guitarist has taken his band to twelve countries; seen him playing with iconic guitarists like Robben Ford; and brought him high praise in the Penguin Book of Blues Recordings as one of only two living British artists in recording history to gain a maximum four-star rating.
Schofield's third studio recording "Heads, Tails And Aces" is an album with a greater focus on blues. Gone are the interspersed instrumental funk tracks that characterised previous albums and led some commentators to label Schofield as much jazz, as blues. In their place is an entirely song-based album, with nine of the eleven tracks written or co-written by Matt.
www.myspace.com/mattschofield

£10 a ticket and £12.00 on the door

Saturday 14th

The Mood Elevators

The Mood Elevators have been gigging since June 2007 and have already gained a reputation as a band with attitude and presence. Martin and Charlie, from the successful 3-piece Razooms, and Mark and Graham from Zen Archeray, joined forces to create a punchy Rock and Roll outfit. The band has a very solid rhythm section driving two highly individual guitarists who complement each other in some songs and harmonise twin leads in others. Mostly covers in the repertoire, plus a few of their own powerful songs, they are influenced by Dr Feelgood, The Stones, and any music with balls. The Mood Elevators will be playing good-time Rock and R & B, music you will want to listen to as well as dance to. Recently the band members tried to strike a deal with the Devil for eternal youth, but he believed that they were already energetic enough. Instead he awarded the deal to Funky Skunk.

£4.00 ticket and £5.00 on the door

Sunday 15th

Edwina Hayes

Edwina Hayes is a singer/songwriter who has been a regular performer on the UK acoustic scene since 1999.
In March 2003 Edwina signed as a writer with Warner Chappell. Her influences include Mindy Smith, Ray Charles, Carole King, Van Morrison, Nanci Griffith, Richard Thompson, Patty Griffin and Bob Dylan.
In 2005 Warner Brothers released Edwina's debut album 'Out On My Own' produced by Clive Gregson and John Wood, and her song 'I Want Your Love' from the album was included on the No.1 bestselling CD 'Acoustic Love'.
Since then Edwina has opened several shows for Van Morrison, twenty-six shows for Jools Holland, toured the UK four years in a row with Nanci Griffith and performed twice for Michael Parkinson at his Maidenhead pub The Royal Oak. She has also toured the UK with and supported shows for Gretchen Peters, Ricky Ross, Loudon Wainwright III, Roy Harper, Tommy Emmanuel, Sam Baker, Julie Fowlis, Sandi Thom, John Tams, Daniel Beddingfield, Chris While, Julie Matthews, Tom Baxter, Boo Hewerdine, KT Tunstall, Clive Gregson, Chris Difford, Ruby Turner and Lulu.
Edwina appears as a guest vocalist on recent albums by Alastair Artingstall, Christopher Holland, Kate Bramley, Jimi Alexander, Shane Lynch, Joan Coffey and Dan Webster.
In 2008 Edwina released her second album 'Pour Me A Drink' on her own label Twirly Music. Much more acoustic and reflective of Edwina's onstage style, it continues to attract an increasing number of sales and excellent reviews.
Nanci Griffith's June 2009 album 'The Loving Kind' features Nanci's recording of Edwina's song Pour Me A Drink and Edwina's version of Randy Newman's Feels Like Home features in the New Line Cinema major motion picture My Sister's Keeper (June 2009) starring Cameron Diaz and Alec Baldwin.
Also in June 2009 Edwina supported Roger McGuinn on his UK Tour and her 3rd album Good Things Happen Over Coffee will be released later in the year.
www.edwinahayes.com

£6.00 a ticket and £8.00 on the door