Saturday 25th February 2012
MIKE WHELLANS
Doors 7.15 £9 
(tickets will go on sale by Monday) 

Mike Whellans is a one-man-blues-band explosion, the real thing, in fact the best 'solo blues band' any side of the Forth, and a keeper of the flame that burned so passionately in the work of this highly specialized form’s masters, including Doctor Isaiah Ross, Jesse Fuller and Whellans’ great British forerunner, Tony ‘Duster’ Bennett. 
  
Like all true bluesmen and women, when Whellans sings and plays, he means it & sings straight from the heart. His high energy show is a masterclass in good time blues, played without compromise. Not only is he his own man as a singer, guitarist and ace blues harpist, but he’s also his own rhythm section, too, noted for his show-stopping beatbox vocal percussion.
 
Mike is a consummate bluesman and a brilliant songwriter and the joint will be jumping!
  
"Jimmy Reed or Willie Dixon transplanted from Lake Michigan to the shores of Loch Lomond” (Utne Reader)

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BIOGRAPHY
Born in the Scottish Borders, Mike Whellans began his musical life in the late 1950s/early 1960s playing his father's drum kit. By age 14 he was playing in local dance bands before turning professional in 1969. 
  
In the early 1970s, he teamed up with Aly Bain and for four years toured the UK, Europe, USA, and Canada, playing his amazingly clean and crisp flat-pick guitar behind Aly's fiddle. 
 
He was also a founder member of the Irish/Scottish line-up of The Boys of the Lough, but he was always drawn towards the blues and he left the band after a year to forge his own musical path. 
  
In the 1980's and 1990's, Mike lived in Denmark and toured all over Scandinavia, Germany and the Low Countries, as well as working back home in the UK touring solo and turning out with those madcap Scottish musos, The Vindscreen Vipers Skiffle Group (Tich Frier, Bill Nolan, Malky McCormack and the late Danny Kyle) and the Block Bros Blues Band from Edinburgh. 
  
Now, Mike's back home again in Scotland Mike has released three successful records for the Temple Records label. The most recent release, 2008's 'Fired-Up & Ready' had a fantastic reception from public & press alike. 
  
 http://www.mikewhellans.com