The Hexmen at Dundee Blues Bonanza, Scotland

The Hexmen featuring RTYD member Colin Guthrie on guitar.

Introducing rock/pop/blues covers band, Gunrunner, from Essex

Gunrunner is an Essex-based classic rock, pop and blues covers band. Recently, their lead guitarist of eight years, Chris Campbell, decided to pursue an alternative blues path and the band are currently auditioning for a replacement.

The band has a large repertoire of over 150 rock, pop and blues songs covering four decades, and lines up as follows:


Spencer Pratten (rhythm guitar and backing vocals), 
Barry Eaves (drums)
Del Stoton (vocals & harmonica). 
Rich Raymond (bass)
Vince Leatt (occasional Hammond organ) 
Jay J "Daddy Cool" Downs (VERY occasional sax) 


Check the RTYD Gig Calendar for details of upcoming shows.

Introducing London's Mingus Elastic Band

A ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP-WELCOME to London's Mingus Elastic Band. Can't find a helluva lot about them on the internet, or on their ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP profile page, but listening to them on DeadSpace they sound like are a very good acoustic blues/country band, that is led by vocalist/guitarist and songwriter, Tony Mingus. They play regularly around London, and the rest of the band lines up as follows: Dian - Vocals / Percussion. Mitch - Mandolin / Fiddle / Banjo / Guitar. Nick - Sax / Vocals. Wayne - Bass / Vocals. Rob - Guitar. Tom - Drums / Percussion.

Looking forward to hearing more about them on RTYD!

Introducing Patrick Begley of the Dipsticks

Welcome to first time member/long time friend of ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP, London-based singer and guitarist, Patrick Begley.

Patrick drives an ambulance for the Patient Transport branch of the London Ambulance Service by day and plays in 3-piece original blues(-ish) rock band, The Dipsticks, that you may have already discovered on the ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP network, and which features stalwart ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROPPER, Mark McKendrick, on bass guitar. Patrick can also occasionally be seen performing solo at open-mic nights in London. Watch the RTYD gig guide for details of these, and the next - long awaited, much anticipated - Dipsticks gig.

Welcome to new RTYD member Steve from Birmingham

A ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP welcome to Steve, a drummer/percussionist from Birmingham.

Steve, who is 55, enjoys rock, blues and soul, and is looking to join a band. He plays acoustic drums and cajon, congas, bongos, maracas, guiro, claves and cabasa. He has mostly played in pubs and clubs; he has good kit, transport, and he is very reliable.

Introducing new RTYD member, 'Billy'

A ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP welcome to Billy, a guitarist, based in London, who plays in a variety of blues and country styles but specialises in electric slide. He is currently looking to join a band, and is also looking for a writing partner.

Introducing Chobham Surrey based musician Keith Chilvers

A ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP welcome to Chobham, Surrey, based musician, Keith Chilvers.

Keith plays plays slide guitar, mandolin, flatpick guitar, and sings in a blues duo with Tony Barker who plays slide dobro, harmonica and sings.

Keith also plays in an old time quartet called the Surrey Old Time String Band, which is appellation style music, and features fiddle, banjo, guitar, mandolin, double bass and vocals. He has a small home studio suitable for recording up to a trio, and a big interest in bluegrass music. He is also available for session work.

Jon Owen and the Known Unknowns at the Lunar Lounge, Leytonstone, Sat 18 February

Introducing new RTYD member Andy Lawrence

Welcome to ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP, bass player Andy Lawrence, from Teignmouth in Devon.

He and a guitarist are currently looking for a singer and drummer for a band they are putting together to play rock/blues/R&B cover songs from the 60s and 70s. They would like dedicated musicians who are prepared to work hard and practice regularly.

‎#RIP #RTYD Etta James

Legendary blues singer Etta James has died aged 73 after suffering from leukaemia: http://bit.ly/vZDppo

Welcome! Groundhogs vocalist Joanna Deacon to ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP

Photograph: Laurence Harvey

ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP would like to welcome Groundhogs vocalist Joanna Deacon from the Groundhogs to the network. Joanna lives in Wellington in Shropshire and sings with the band, which continues to perform its classic original music, along with early blues material that influenced them.

For those who aren’t familiar with The Groundhogs, Joanna supplied these words about singer and guitarist Tony McPhee who named the band back in the early 60s after the John Lee Hooker song, Groundhog's Blues; as well as few words from Julian Cope's Head Heritage website on the band:

'Tony McPhee may be the godfather of grunge - ask Nirvana producer Jack Endino; he may have been playing with blues legends (Hooker, Dupree, Wolf) in the British Blues boom - check out BBC4's 'Blues Britannia' and 'Blues in Britain' footage;  he may have been voted 4th best British guitarist by Sounds magazine. He is certainly still featuring in Classic Rock, Mojo, Uncut & Music Maker magazines -  you will have to buy those to see; and yet he remains one of the business’s more enigmatic guitar legends, choosing to just get on and play rather than jump on the music biz bandwagon.'

And this, from Julian Cope:

‘In the very early 1970s, the Groundhogs were an ultra-hip, Utopian musical force playing their Top 10 album songs on Top of the Pops and recording alongside Can, Hawkwind and Amon Düül 2 for Andrew Lauder’s groundbreaking Liberty/United Artists record label. The Groundhogs’ albums were housed in supercool gatefolds or triple-gatefolds or even 12” x 15” unfolding comic books which portrayed the individual group members as superheroes. The Groundhogs referred to themselves as ‘Men of Destiny with secret thoughts of saving the world’, and gave their albums titles such as Thank Christ for the Bomb, Split and Who Will Save the World? The Mighty Groundhogs!

...the Groundhogs music was something else entirely. It was a frantic and unresolved post-blues played at breakneck speed with a hard non-hippy idealism and drumming that sounded as though the god Thor was using the gasworks as tom-toms… Their frantic songs of alienation would piledrive along only to disintegrate into whoops of feedback and sonic wah-distortion. As a 15-year-old, I’d sit in the living-room of local axe-hero and watch him mime ecstatically to the guitar freakout in which T.S. makes his Stratocaster sound like the flushing of an electric toilet!’

Video: She's Still Got It by Mark Handley

Singer/songwriter and RTYD member Mark Handley's song She's still got it, from the album The boy who never grew up. ©Mark Handley 2012

Bassist Wanted: Staffordshire

4 grey haired old farts who wont lie down in Biddolph Staffs are looking a mature blues/rock bassist: http://bit.ly/dOde2w bass

New RTYD Member

Derby-based Blues Bass Player Neil Fox is a new member of ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP's Mature Musicians & Bands Network http://bit.ly/n8UlPb

Electric Jam tonight @ Fox's pub 150 Kirkdale, Sydenham London

Electric Jam tonight @ Fox's pub 150 Kirkdale, Sydenham London SE26. Bands welcome, all instruments, and gear supplied inc. drumkit blues

New RTYD Member: Woking/Surrey-based Blues/#Rock/#Folk Guitarist

Woking Surrey -based Blues/#Rock/#Folk Guitarist Tony Carson is now a member of ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP: http://bit.ly/mLTSaO

New RTYD Member

Nottingham-based vox/harmonica-player with The Great Blues Hijack, Dave Dickson, is now a member of ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP: http://bit.ly/kgyy9Z

Southport Blues guitarist Marc Knight

Southport Blues guitarist Marc Knight is looking to join a band on ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP's Mature Musicians Network http://bit.ly/gYhz5a

New RTYD Member

Lancashire Blues/#Rock guitarist, Jeffery Clapton is looking to join a 60s-inspired rock band on ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP: http://bit.ly/dLEWOb

The Ditchdwellers are a new Suffolk-based blues/rock band looking for gigs in Suffolk, Essex, and Cambs: http://bit.ly/hNUuWI RTYD