ALL-STAR LOCAL LEGENDS STEAM INTO PORT FOR 20TH BIRTHDAY CRUISE & EDINBURGH JAZZ FESTIVAL DEBUT!
With very special guests THE BEVVY SISTERS
EMBARKATION 10PM, JULY 21, THE SPIEGELTENT, GEORGE SQUARE
ONBOARD DRESS CODE – NAUTICAL / FANCY
“This crème-de-la-crème Edinburgh collective has only pleasure in mind. . . lavishly-arranged period classics and craftily customised pop covers – truly the voyage of a lifetime” TTTTT (Scotsman)
A legendary legacy from the famously creative crucible of Edinburgh’s 1990s music scene, The Love Boat Big Band delivers the classiest musical cocktail of shipboard-style swing, show-tunes and hand-picked pop gems – served with a uniquely scintillating twist – a full two decades after first setting sail.
Its 20th birthday spectacular and Edinburgh Jazz Festival debut marks a rare hometown port of call for the full 13-piece complement of exceedingly able seamen and women – many of them original recruits from that 1997 maiden voyage, now seasoned into very salty sea-dogs indeed.
Authentically Edinburgh-built, forged by the city’s festivals, the band first launched amid the fabled late-night maelstrom of the Bongo Club Cabaret. Then as now, it musters its star-studded musical crew from myriad current Scottish acts, with the 2017 manifest including past and present members of Brass Gumbo, Mike Kearney’s Ka-Tet, Hidden Orchestra, Horndog Brass Band, Orkestra del Sol, Peatbog Faeries, Swampfog, Jacob’s Heep, Thunkfish, Eliza Carthy Band, Blazin’ Fiddles, Banjo Lounge 4, Sprocket, String Sisters and Babelfish.
Splicing A-list musicianship and ambassador-class sophistication, sewn together by sly maritime allusions, the Love Boat repertoire – as featured on 2012’s debut album Songs In The Sea Of Life – spans such diverse classics as Little Feat’s ‘Sailin’ Shoes’, Sidney Bechet’s ‘Hold Tight’, early Sinatra hit ‘”World On A String’, Louis Prima/Benny Goodman’s ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’ and The Harptones’ ‘Life Is But A Dream’, together with brilliantly reinvented cuts from the likes of Donna Summer, Queen, Michael Jackson, Eurythmics and The Bee Gees.
In keeping with the band’s inception, their lavish 20th birthday excursion builds on a long and illustrious line of Edinburgh Festival success, following past headline shows at The Famous Spiegeltent, the Queen’s Hall and Summerhall , which scored sellouts and rave reviews alike.
On chief vocal duties for this glittering occasion – is Heather ‘Little Miss Leod’ Macleod abetted by her suitably fabulous Bevvy Sisters, whose own 10-year celebration was a major hit of 2016’s’s Edinburgh Jazz Festival. Their sublime three-part harmonies and incorrigible sass form the figurehead of an unsinkable instrumental powerhouse, with Andy ‘Admiral T’ Thorburn (piano) boldly at the helm, and the heavyweight (fog)horns of Tom ‘Pirate’ Pickles, Chuck ‘Overboard’ Dearness, Tim Lane, Ben Molleson and Greg Molleson matching cast-iron prowess with barrelhouse buoyancy. Stoking the rhythmic engine-room are Demus ‘Deep-Sea Diver’ Donnelly (guitar), ‘Captain’ Conrad Molleson (bass) and Willie Molleson (drums).
Barney ‘Captain Barnacle’ Strachan (storm warnings, muster-station signals, foghorn alerts and Mayday calls) remains on watch throughout, while all hands on deck – aptly attired in naval garb or vintage cruisewear – pitch in on breezy, sun-splashed backing vocals. And from the moment of embarkation, the Jazz Festival Spiegeltent’s luxurious onboard accommodation – glamorous décor, cosy seated booths, sprung wooden dancefloor – will transport you on the musical cruise of your dreams.
