Southend's rockabilly king, Steve Hooker, will be playing a thespian ladened gig with his band, the ST's, at the Palace Theatre bar in London Road, Westcliff on June 18.

Steve, who is frequently popping over to Europe to tour with his rock and roll and rockabilly rebel style of music, said he was looking forward to playing at one of his favourite local venues with his new band.

Clearly getting into the groove of the acting world, Steve said: "If you miss us at the Palace you might just abut catch me in the Dave Stewart movie Honest - if you don't blink.

"Along with a handful of other rockers I was called up to hang around in black leather looking mean and moody for a day. Quite an easy brief, except the filming was done in the heat of August last year!".

Unfortunately for Steve, and three-quarters of the All Saints band, Honest has been pulled by dozens of cinemas after the punters gave the film the big thumbs down.

Regardless, you can catch Steve and the STs on Sunday night at 8pm and the entrance is free.

Leigh's Little Wonder

Bowie tribute band Little Wonder are playing the Grand Hotel in the Broadway, Leigh on Saturday, June 10 and a good night is pretty much guaranteed.

The Grand is like the band's second home in many respects and the turn out is always a good one. They play the whole classic range of the Thin White Duke - from the early to the late, Ziggy to China Girl.

Tony Perry, lead singer, said the band had a ramming night last week the Horn Reborn in St Albans which he describes as a "right tidy little venue".

He said: "What a great corwn - and on a Thursday night. Our new drummer - Dave Allen of Frantic Teabag fame - has slotted in nicely and with a few gigs in the book venues are even starting to phone us."

I've been given personal recommendations of this band's "fun and pleasure" quota by friends and family and (finally) this time I'm going to check them out myself - well, I can then gauge them against Bowie at Glastonbury this year.

Why not take a gamble on a mere £4 and pop along at 8pm for a night of joy.

Little Wonder's Tony Perry - guess which one he's meant to be!

Need to see a doctor?

The Groove Doctors have returned to continue their practice - in both the medical and musical sense.

The top East Anglia four-piece blues band will play Riga Music Bar in London Road, Westcliff on June 24.

Fronting the band is Norwich's own Luke Arnold on harmonica and vocals, Ipswich's Zippy Nicholson on guitar and the rhythm section of Fergie Fulton on bass and John Butters on drums captures a truly spectacular array of talent from the East Anglian Delta.

Don't be misled - East Anglia may not be the Mississippi as such but to many musicians there is the same magical quality of the quiet flatlands as the deep south of the USA.

They were last down this way in January and played a sell out gig at Riga. The band has been lauded on the blues festival circuit for a while and have had nice stuff said about them in their home region press and rightly so.

They were kind enough to send me their first CD - Crazy Mixed Up World - which was released in February 99 and it's 14 tracks of good old urban blues.

It's fair to say it would impress anyone from our part of the world who love the Dr Feelgood sound, but appreciate some additional twists and turns.

Songs like She's Gone (not the Hall and Oates version) is a perfect on-the-road rolling blues track, as is Too Late, while Riding In The Moonlight is a cracking tune with vocalist Luke Arnold sounding very Paul Jonesish.

The album was voted best CD of 1999 by BBC Radio's Stephen Foster and the band had the great honour of recording a live session for BBC Radio 2's Paul Jones show, which was broadcast last December.

Bright Dawn

The musician's workshop is going from strength to strength and will have two top bands at the Club Dawn in Southchurch Road, Southend on Friday, June 9.

Sweet Things are a rock/dance guitar led four-piece outfit based in London. They've done the London circuit and are not coming to Southend for a one-off performance to promote their new album She Blew My Mind, and new single release Skyrocket.

The manager of the band is an ex-Southend man himself - Ian Henderson - who is now based in London. Those of you who can remember back to January 1968 will remember Ian from his days in Love Affair and their number one single Everlasting Love.

Ian is now involved in producing up and coming bands. Both the single and album will be available in at the club and, obviously, in record stores.

If that's not enough for you, on the same bill on Friday is Dolphin Smile. They are purveyors of perfect melodic guitar and are currently gigging both locally and in prestigious venues in London.

A mini two-week tour of Holland, France and Germany follows soon.

The band are apparently being pursued by a top management company and will be recording demos within the next two weeks, so we hope to keep you all posted via the Live Music column - assuming the band wants to talk to us when they become rich and famous. It happens you know.

The band are also looking to expand their current three-piece line up to make a nice round four-piece. If you are either a guitarist or keyboard player (or even both) then contact the band on 07989 689431.

Don't forget, the Musician's Workshop runs each and every Sunday from 7.30pm and anyone of a musical bent can go along to play and learn.

This Sunday, June 11 you have the band Budo. Full PA and backline if supplied by Club Dawn so you have no excuse not to try it out. For more information, contact them on 01702 316771.

Happy blues...

Blues at the Belvedere club is still doing well. Resident band the Heaters are a delight to the senses and they have a to line up of blues and rock for June starting with Bad Town Blues on June 8, tickets £3 and Texas Thunder on June 15, tickets £4.

Members of the Bad Town Blues have played with bands such as the Gerry McEvoy Band, the Worrying Kynde, Queen Bee and the blues Revue Band as well as supporting the likes of John Mayall, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Rogers, Larry Garner and Peter Green.

Their main claim to fame, however, is that keyboard player Ray Bartrip, never saw the Beatles paly - but they came to watch him! Expect Chicago style blues of a quality nature. Texas Thunder, the following week, hail from Bishops Stortford and have a formidable reputation for energetic stage performances and great music.

In constant demand they have played the Guinness Dublin Blues festival in 1998 and 1999. They are fronted by Terry Wisbey on vocals and lead guitar, who is inspired by the volcanic guitar playing of Texas blues legend, the late Stevie Ray Vaughan.

And they cover a few of his blistering tunes in between blues, rock and rhythm and blues.

Texas Thunder's album Lonesome Highway will most likely be on sale so you can take a little bit of them home with you.

The Crawdaddy Club at the Belvedere is difficult to get to at Pipps Hill Road North in Basildon, but well worth it so give it a try.

If you get a bit lost call them on 01268 522828 and I'm sure you'll be given pin-point directions.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.