So, you may ask, what are we doing reviewing a blues act which has been on the scene for the last twelve years and has four albums (the latest recorded by a commercial record label) to their name?
Well, if you have to ask such a question, you haven't heard the band play, and therein lies the problem for many bands. ABB have their fans and are quite well known in certain parts of the globe through local airtime, but like many artists they have yet to turn the corner into worldwide recognition. Which is a shame, really!
ABB is Chris Williams and John Holmes on lead guitar, Dave Christopher on bass, Mark Skerritt on Keyboards and Geoff Jasper on drums. The former three also find time to provide the vocals, and Chris does the song writing. The band are making their name known through airtime in Hong Kong (where we first encountered Springboard), Germany, New Zealand and France. Springboard Media now hope to make them widely known in the UK, which can only be a good thing for blues fans across the nation!
"Endless Journey" genuinely sounds as though somebody has taken the sound of a live pub performance and wiped it onto a CD, removing the sounds of background chatter in the process. Even with the volume control on my stereo turned virtually to the off position, the rich sounds of ABB - formally the Average Blues Band - could be heard far and wide! Turn the lights off and invite two hundred friends around to try and fit into your living room, and you could really imagine you had a blues band playing exclusively for you.
I should say that true blues fans will be a little surprised by this offering. It certainly fits into the genre, but perhaps a little loosely - ABB have attempted to move into a slightly different area, here, while keeping the old fans on board in a sort of "Hmm, that's a bit different" kind of way.
Many of the guitar riffs on "Endless Journey" are so reminiscent of Eric Clapton and Michael Kaman's outstanding and haunting score for the TV series "Edge of Darkness", I just had to get the DVD out immediately afterwards - and this is a show which won a BAFTA award for best Television music. "Out of the box" bands just don't cut these types of tracks anymore, it really takes musicians with years of experience to play like this - it's the stuff new bands should aspire to.
The band know how to hob-nob with the right company, anyway. John, for example, has gigged with the likes of Victor Brox and Dick Heckstall-Smith - and Dave is in the process of recording an album for Springboard with ALL the right people!!!
Check out the springboard Media site at http://www.smltd.net for more info as it becomes available. You won't be disappointed, as they say!
