Sunday Special ｜Laura Collins and the Back Porch Blues Band and Bill Lake’s Slow Bake This Sunday Special will be a tasty mix of great song writing, soulful roots and swinging blues. Sunday 29th September at Meow, doors 3.30pm, show from 4.00 – 6.30pm. Guitarist, singer and songwriter Bill Lake is one of New Zealand’s most respected and long-serving practitioners. For more than four decades the singer and guitarist led the iconic country-blues band The Windy City Strugglers, as well as playing with pioneering rock group Mammal in the 70s and fronting brassy funk-rockers The Pelicans in the 80s. His songs have been covered by Midge Marsden, Darren Watson, Kokomo, Rag Poets and Marg Layton. Bassist Steve Hemmens played with Bill in Mammal. Recently returned from many years in the UK, he adds warmth and swing to the mix. Long time popular musician Alan Norman plays percussion. He is a member of both NZ’s seminal Country band The Warratahs, and Wellington band Rag Poets. Laura Collins and the Back Porch Blues Band will then bring their ‘show’ of high energy, cheek and vocal strength. Laura celebrates her band and giving them licence to shine and shine they do, Wayne Mason, of course also known for being one of our much-loved singer songwriters, here is the master of boogie ‘burning it up’ on the keys and adding his iconic voice to the vocal mix. Think Fats Domino, think Dr John, think Professor Longhair and you’ll be in the right honky tonk. John O’Connor will be ‘eating it up’ on lead guitar, never self-indulgent – just soulful and astonishing. He’s played with everyone along the way, from BB King to Kiri Te Kanawa. The rhythm section brings a warm acoustic volume with George Barris on tasty upright bass and Peter Cogswell on the ‘back porch’ drums proving that you don’t need to be loud to groove. The lads offer four-part vocal harmony to Laura’s lead, combining often for a lush gospel blues sound. Expect to hear a little Francine Reed, Catherine Russell, Fats Domino, Bonnie Raitt, Nina Simone, some of Laura’s own and others she can put her stamp on, all with their roots in the blues. This band are dynamic, masterful and all about entertainment. A Sunday Special with some slow baked and tasty blues on the menu, dished up by a combination of ‘old hands’ who have been making music a long time, absolutely revelling in the playing. Sunday 29 September at Meow, doors 3.30pm, show from 4.00 – 6.30pm. Tickets $25 from moshtix and on the door. We’ll have cabaret style seating, please come early to sit with a group.