Music:
Member Since: 03/09/2007
Band Members: The Magnetos are:
MAGS SHAW Vocals. Influenced by the Great American Songbook and classic blues singers such as Billie Holiday and Big Mama Thornton, Maggie brings her own magnetic twist to the Magneto's music...mmmm... Heckle at your peril!
KEVIN THORPE Guitar/vocals. Winning writer of Best British Blues Song two years running ('94/'95) kick started the influential UK band Out of the Blue. Kevin has toured Europe and played and produced in the US. Playing and writing influences range from West Coast bands such as Little Feat, country rebel Steve Earle and the City blues of Ronnie Earl.
DAVE TRENT Guitar. Dave describes himself as a 'Strat player inspired by telemasters!!'. Amongst his influences he cites Jeff Beck, Roy Buchanan and Danny Gatton...but has developed very much his own style.
BRIAN ROBINSON Bass. Brian played with Kevin in the band Gregory Peccary and before that with Frank White. He has played blues, country, rock'n'roll and all bits in between.
TONY MARCHETTA Drums. Tony has played with The Crying Game's legend Dave Berry. He is the rock in rock'n'roll. The perfect platform for The Magnetos.
Influences: The Blues of course, but not necessarily Magneto's.
Sounds Like: The Winter Blues Party THE DRILL HALL, LINCOLN Feb 2008
The Winter Blues Party attracted a good sized audience and got underway with Maggie and the Blue Magnetos, a new name to me, but any band that features Out Of The Blue main man Kevin Thorpe within its ranks has got to be worth a look in my book. Trading licks with Kevin on lead guitar was the consumate Dave Trent. Graham Claire (drums) and Brian Robinson (bass), neither flashy performers, generated a perfect foot-tapping tempo, whilst the unforced vocals and immaculately neat appearance of main singer Maggie Shaw put me in mind of Peggy Lee.
The set outlined, yet again, what an adaptable and skilful songwriter Mr Thorpe is. 'Time To Move On', a classic slow blues, as only Kevin can write them, was his only appearance in the main vocal spotlight and contained the killer lines " You're the life and soul of the party baby, the talk of this town. You gave a low life less life and kicked me when I was down". The song was delivered with a resigned gritty bitterness and featured outstanding flourishes from both guitarists. In stark contrast, Delbert McClinton's 'Monkey Around' was cheekily playful, allowing Maggie to show off her most raunchy vocal on this Country and Western tinged number, whilst 'Santa Cruisin' was almost pure Rock and Roll. Both titles benifited greatly from Kevin's effective backing vocals.
Maggie's husky tones were at their best on two Helen Hulmes classics - the sexually metaphoric 'Airplane Blues' and the gold-diggers anthem'Million Dollar Secret'. The latter featuring a blistering solo from Dave that elicited whoops of delight from certain quaters of the audience. 'Million Dollar Secret' and the band concluded with John Lewis' 'House Straight', for which Dave switched his Fender for a Gibson SG (allegedly purchased off Ebay for the princely sum of 20p) to contribute some serious slide guitar. Although short in length, this had been a swingingly relaxed performance from seasoned musicians that simply oozed class.
MARTIN BYROM for BLUES IN BRITAIN MAGAZINE
Record Label: Unsigned
