Oli Brown Band G Taranaki Show

Barely out of his teens, Oli Brown is being hailed as the great white hope of British blues, with glowing reviews for his live and recorded work. Uncut magazine describes his guitar-playing as a cross between Rory Gallagher and Steve Cropper.

Since 2007 the Oli Brown Band has playing up and down the UK. A major highlight for 2007 was recording a live session for BBC Radio 2 for the Paul Jones Blues Show which was transmitted 14 May 2007. Other notable events that year included supporting acts like Walter Trout, Aynsley Lister, Devon Allman and Ian Parker, as well as performances for various local radio stations.

2008 was exciting and extremely busy: In January Oli signed to Ruf Records and went to Germany to record his first Ruf Records album, titled Open Road, released that June to great reviews.

In February 2008, whilst in America, The Oli Brown Band were invited to record at the legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis, by John Fry himself (Ardent Studios have been involved with the recording of albums by artists such as REM, The White Stripes, Led Zeppelin, Isaac Hayes, ZZ Top… the list goes on and on). Oli and the band recorded a couple of tracks and then performed a live session for The Ardent Sessions. The hits on the website for The Oli Brown Band set exceeded 1.4 million in three weeks.

Oli went back to the States in August 2008, where he performed with Blinddog Smokin, Sherman Robertson, Miss Blues, Billy Branch - and did his own Oli Brown set too!

The Oli Brown Band secured support slots in 2008 with artist such as Jon Cleary, Johnny Winter, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Robben Ford, Walter Trout and Devon Allman, as well as having Oli Brown Band headline gigs. All of the gigs saw them playing in larger venues and increasing their rapidly growing fan base.

Early 2009 saw Oli perform as a member of the legendary Blues Caravan Tour of Europe, an annual event put on by Ruf Records which visits many countries including Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Norway, Lithuania and Poland. 2009 was also when The Oli Brown Band carried out their first major UK tour. This was the Open Road Tour, presented by HMV in association with Rhino Agency and was a great success.

The rest of 2009 had the band performing at various festivals both in and out of the UK and ended, following requests from fans, with a further UK tour.

The eagerly awaited follow up to Oli Brown's critically acclaimed debut Open Road is Heads I win, Tails You Lose and features that unique Oli Brown sound; clean guitar, great riffs and a vocal honed by two years of touring that squeezes every emotion from the lyrics. This album was produced by the legendary Mike Vernon (Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton, Ten Years After), who was keen to come out of retirement to work with the talented Oli after hearing his debut CD.

With the blues baton now firmly grasped in Oli's hands, he's just completed his biggest gig yet with two appearances at Glastonbury on 25 and 26 June 2010. His appearances at one of the world's biggest music festivals cements his place as a rising star and comes in the middle of a hectic 2010 for Oli, who lives at home with his dad and manager Graham, mum Sue and sister Charlotte, 23.

Event listed by Simon Vare

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