Bearing in mind the newspaper, website and video based publiciy that had gone on before this event, we really hoped to do better than the 50 paying punters and 70 plus people being in the room for this show .  As usual we decked out the tables with candles and food to give the place both a Blues Club and party feel…

Support came in the way of a great acoustic set from Ramond Goose…A bit of a closet Roadhouse fan, he ellicited a great response from the crowd.

It was our 20th-21st anniversary depending on who’s stats you read and interpretation of events you believe. We launched our new DVD (Limited Edition) Centre Stage, featuring our live set on the main stage at this years Butlins Skegness Blues Rock Weekend to around 2,ooo plus people.

A massive thanks to all who came out on this Sunday night…. how many times can you see your fave (or one of your fave bands ) play, has now become a bit of an issue for us old timers. If you were not there you missed some classic material, ‘Slip Away’, Voodoo Queen’  and others interlaced with the best bits of the Dark Angel tour. My personal fave was a killer version of ‘Dark Angel’ itself. Our new Singer Ria Hallwood did a great job and received a terrific response from the crowd.

At the end Pete Feenstra was up on stage making us take a bow and that has not happened before. The Band were very, very good on the night. A massive thanks to Pete (Feenstra) and Eric (Harvey) for believing in the quality of Bands and songs and not selling their souls totally to the  false gods of Tribute……

Thanks to all

Gary

  Were there a shortage of sincere, hard-working, rockin’ blues outfits Roadhouse would easily stand head and shoulders above the pack. But if there’s one thing the western world has in abundance it is sincere, hard-working, rockin’ blues outfits – as a random sample of live music bars on a Friday or Saturday night in Anytown USA, UK or Europe will sweatily attest.

Danny and Gary at Abbeyfest

Which means Roadhouse have to add something extra to their blend of supreme musicianship, memorable vocals and sympathetic production to stand out as well as they do. And that something extra comes in the form of dark and twisted blues lyrics, dramatic delivery and enough confidence to climb into the back seat of the blues and still command attention. The opening cut, Too Tired To Pray shakes its tail feather over six action-packed minutes and still only serves as an hors d’ouevre for the main attraction – the Bible black Southern Gothic bluescapes of the title track and its rollicking companion piece, Working Class Gospel Drinking Blues.

Singer Gary Boner conjures the kind of Dantean reverie that both seduces and repels, his incessant rhythm guitar only adding to the gumbo, before giving way to blessed relief courtesy of co-singers Mandie G, Kelly Marie Hobbs and Suzi B who ease the songs into their lead vocal passages with meticulous care. This is Roadhouse at their best and the mix continues to work well on the more conventional Swamp Girl, but starts to wear thin in the stringy lead guitar passages of Rainmaker and Play With Fire, bottoming out on the reedy version of T-Bone Walker’s Stormy Monday.

But if dark-hearted, richly coloured blues is your thing, you’ll have to go some to find a more charismatic vessel than Roadhouse.

Nick Churchill

Roadhouses’s sleeve notes look a little odd, with a line up built on 4 grizzled gigsters and spiced up with a trio of glamourpus female singers in black strappy dresses. It’s a decent blend in practice though and adds a nice blend of sweet and sour on the superior stuff like ‘Swamp Girl’.

'Mandie.G - How Dark is your angel?'

Pete Feenstra interviews Gary Boner (Roadhouse) 14/10/11 for www.getreadytorock.com. It’s the 20th anniversary of Roadhouse who celebrate with the release of a limited edition collectors item DVD of their performance at the Skegness Rock & Blues festival to go alongside their current ‘Dark Angel’ cd.

Thanks to Eric Harvey for filming.

There can be no better occasion than a 20^th anniversary and a packed festival stage to film a band in its pomp.  And this DVD does the trick. Filmed simply as a one camera shoot of Roadhouse’s record breaking 8^th appearance at the 2010 Skegness Rock & Blues Festival, ‘Centre Stage’ is a live document of one of the UK’s hardest working rock/blues band. The camera angle looks down over the front ranks of the packed crowd to catch the essential connection between the band and an enthusiastic crowd as Roadhouse work their way through the meat and potatoes of their current ‘Dark Angel’ album.  

There’s a nice balance between the sparkling solos of the mighty Danny Gwillum stage left – who mixes his scintillating attack with dirt sounding slide – and Gary Boner, stage right, whose fiery licks kick start an impressive succession of self penned songs. And centre stage (no pun intended) is the three girlie triumvirate of Mandy Graham, Kelly Jo Hobbs and Suzie D, who during the course of a high octane performance, dance their way through a frisky routine while shifting between fine harmony singing and backing vocals to singing one lead vocal each.

Roadhouse 'Rock out'

And while the video provides plenty of slinky glamour and showcases a dependable festival band at their best, it is Gary Boner’s songs that hold sway. Most of the material comes from the current ‘Dark Angel’ album, of which ‘Too Tired To Pray’ features the sharply contrasting Boner vocal growl and the female bv’s, neatly offset by some  beautifully nuanced slide from Danny

The following ‘Rainmaker’ is one of their very best efforts with Gary’s whispered vocals over a very strong melody and gospel style backing with a country hue. The slow burning title track ‘Dark Angel’ features an expansive solo from Gary but is ironically slightly hampered by some indifferent camera work.

Suzie D gets her chance to shine on the sleazy ‘Lying Game’, while Kelly shimmies up the mic to make the most of another Boner classic ‘The Big Easy’, complete with twin guitar lines. And just when you’re marvelling at the substance of several superbly arranged songs and great playing, up steps Mandy G to steal the limelight with a raucous version of ‘House of the Rising Sun’. It may not be the most original cover but she brings real raunch and an undoubted visceral edge to the song to grab the audience by their collective lapels and generate real excitement in the packed hall.

It’s left Gary Boner to kick into start a big two song finale with more fiery licks on the dynamic call and response lines of ‘Tellin’ Lies’ and the Skynyrd  meets Classic rock steal that is ‘Preacher Man’

‘Centre stage’ is a fine limited run dvd for the fans but if it should fall into the hands of unsuspecting rock fans they won’t fail to be impressed by a fiercely independent band whose quality material, rock solid rhythm section, consummate playing  and rock blues crossover style will surely win over many more festival audiences in the future. 

**** (4/5)

© Pete Feenstra www.getreadytorock.com

Gary will be interviewed by the acclaimed promoter and journalist Pete Feenstra on the 13/10/11. This will be available on video on youtube and via various websites. the Sutton DVD launch gig (book now or diary date!) and all things Roadhouse wil be discussed in depth….

'Gary is a windmill'

Gary will be interviewed live on the Simon Jones Show on Moorlands Radio, on Sunday night at around 8pm. Songs from Dark Angel will be featured on the show..tune in !!!!

Voodoo Blues = Roadhouse

11th Album from the highly regarded South London blues band.

The Band comprises of the wonderfully named Gary Boner on guitar and vocals, Bill Hobley on bass, Roger Hunt on Drums, Danny Gwilym on guitar and Mandie.G on vocals, they are aided by a quartet of sizzling female vocalists Suzie.D, Rachel Clark, Kelly Marie Hobbs and Samantha Richards. Their influences include Lynrd Skynrd and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

They are very much a blues rock band but with a cluster of vocalists they have a very soulful sound. It is also quite a dark album. The title track ‘Dark Angel’ paints a dark picureof vunerability to outside forces Of the song ‘Too Tired To Pray’, Boner says “It’s about loss of hope, death of dreams, inertia, exhaustion of the soul, meltdown”. He has a facination with voodoo and gothic moods thats comes from visits to the the large graveyards in New Orleans, the so called ‘Cities of the Dead’. The cover art is by the legendary designer Vaughan Oliver, compliments the music perfectly. A passionate slice of dark delights for troubled souls.

Lee Edwards

We returned to Gary Mears great large room/big stage in Norfolk after a break of around 2 years. We were well looked after at this lovely venue (good sound engineer and PA). Well we may not have pulled as big a crowd as Nine Below Zero, but our crowd figures were up 20% on our last visit.

This was also hopefully a historic night, as it marked the first full gig of our new female vocalist, Ria Hallwood. Bearing in mind that it was her first full show, she did an awesome job. Mandie is a hard task mistress and she has put a lot of work into getting Ria ready. Ria herself is a perfectionist with a great temprament and her voice is very strong. This was a good gig and we have high hopes for the future.

Roadhouse 'Rock out'

Thanks to Gary for having us and all the great friends and Skegness regulars that turned up and gave us their support.

Hopefully we should be back in here in about 18 months a highly recommended venue.

Thanks to Danny, Bill and Roger  for playing their arses off and then driving half the length of the Country to get the whole Band and the equipment home by about 4 in the morning…….

The two encores made it all worth it

Gary

In the 2011 Blues Matters Writers Poll, Roadhouse achieved the following remarkable results:

– Best UK Studio Album – 4th Place – Dark Angel

–  Top UK Band – Finshed in the Top 10 (placings not announced after 5th place)

–  Lifetime Achievement Vote – Gary Boner, shared 5th place along with Robert Plant & Georgie Fame