It is said that a change is just as good as a rest and that is precisely what guitarist Kris Dollimore, the 2014 runner-up in European Blues Awards, did back in 2002.

Realising that the career of the rock band Del Amitri was, as he put it, ‘fizzling out’, and becoming ever more despondent about the whole music industry, he decided it was time to head in a different direction.  With a complete disregard for his financial future he turned his back on the corporate machine to continue his musical journey as a solo artist. Continue reading…

Award-winning guitarist Robin Bibi has experienced both the embarrassing and the thrilling in this interview tells more about a career that has seen him share the stage with some of music’s greats.

As any aspiring guitarist would acknowledge, a thumbs up from Jimmy Page is no bad thing.

“That has to have been the most thrilling experience of my life so far, “said Robin. “Before I had my own band I was a session musician which I really enjoyed. I worked with several singers, working the S E London circuit of clubs. Unfortunately some of those singers, including two Kings, BB King and Ben E King, are no longer with us. Continue reading…

Heading to Kettering Arts Centre for the first time is quirky comedian Dave Thompson who has been making people laugh for many years on the comedy circuit. For full event details please click here.

Dave, who will be appearing at the June Rolling in the Aisles comedy club night on June 18 along with Mitch Benn and Sarah Callaghan, is also an author and a TV star. If you are parents or grandparents the chances are that you will have seen him in his most famous role, but maybe not recognised him. He starred in one of the world’s most popular children’s programmes, The Teletubbies, in which he played many people’s favourite character, Tinky Winky. Continue reading…

Rarely do I get the opportunity to speak with my ‘victims’ with a face to face interview but there are, happily, exceptions to the norm. When the Pantaloons visited Kettering Arts Centre in May with their take on Oscar Wilde’s, The Importance of being E(a)rnest, fortuitously for me, if not the actor, Chris(topher) Smart was with the touring theatre company but not actually taking part in this production.

Chris, or Gulliver as he will be in June when the company returns with Gulliver’s Travels, snuck away from the cast members before the show began (in E[a]rnest) to tell me a little about being – A Pantaloon. Continue reading…

Simon Evans is a busy man. When not touring the comedy clubs he is in much demand on the after-dinner and corporate circuit, appearing on the television screen or making his opinions heard on the radio. Not for the faint-hearted, Simon excels in routines that are adult in the best sense of the word, and his current show, which is called In the Money, will leave few stones unturned as he explores the world of high finance. Aspects of French, American and British lifestyles all get the Evans treatment which you can experience yourself as this tour is stopping off at Kettering Arts Centre on Saturday, April 30. Continue reading…

 An exclusive interview with: Peter Donegan by Pete Austin

By following in his father’s footsteps and playing again with original band members of the Lonnie Donegan Band, Peter Donegan is definitely putting on the style.

Growing up in the home of the man responsible for changing the musical direction of popular British music it was inevitable that the son of Lonnie Donegan would also find himself equally at home on the stage. His entertainment education started at the age of five and by the time he was 18 had not only achieved Grade 7 for piano but was also proficient on harmonica, banjo, mandolin and guitar. It was at this age that he joined the Lonnie Donegan Band as the keyboard player, on what was to be his father’s last tour. Continue reading…

By Pete Austin

Pete Austin has had the pleasure to interview Robert Habermann anticipating our first event in 2016 “I Got Gershwin” who never in the proverbial million years did  believe he would be living the world as penned by a Russian lyricist 1946.

Growing up in London during the 50’s Irving Berlin’s words ‘There’s No Business like Show Business’ were far removed from his everyday life. For him the business orientated family background offered little encouragement for the young lad who enjoyed singing in the school choir. At the age of nine he remembers having to stand up in front of the headmaster and sing (a situation I also experienced so know how nerve-racking that can be), but at that time thoughts of making a career in show business were nowhere on the agenda. (Actually I was picked out by the headmaster from my school choir as the only boy that looked as though he enjoyed singing. I was consequently given free singing lessons by a Miss Kane, who sang with The Bach Choir and who also worked with the composer John Taverner). Continue reading…

Just in time for our very popular and sold out event Comedians & Carols, here is another one in the series of exclusive interviews by Pete Austin.

Event Date: Tuesday 22nd December – Tickets £10 (Concessions £7) – Sold Out!

Doors open 7pm – 7.30pm start

An exclusive interview with Paul KERENSA or (in a turn of phrase) – A Portrait of a Comic as a Young Dog, all will be explained later

On December 22 the comedian and writer Paul Kerensa will once again be hosting the Comedians and Carols event at Kettering Arts Centre. It is a gig he has been doing now, pleasurably, for more than five years. He has also organised many of the acts who have appeared at the monthly Rolling in the Aisles Comedy club nights. He is relinquishing this role at the end of December to allow him to concentrate fully on an increasing number of projects. Continue reading…

It would be fair to say that for the co-founder of the (virtually) all-female brass band, Boobs and Brass, music has always been a way of life. From the age of 11 years, the then school girl at Wollaston Secondary Modern School (as it was formerly called) answered an appeal made during a school assembly for pupils to join the school band. Along with a couple of others, Jane responded, and went along to rehearsals where she was first given a baritone horn. As the school had a policy of swapping things around to give pupils the opportunity to try other instruments she was soon holding the one that would decide her future musical career. Continue reading…

Peter Knight is the founder of the trio Gigspanner and he spoke to me from his home in France ahead of the upcoming UK tour which takes in Kettering Arts Centre on November 5th. For the many people who love folk music Peter is known for being the fiddle player in the… Continue reading…