Sponsored by Shure Best Live Band AWARDS 2011 B
lues bands are often guilty of serving as the backing for a local guitar hero obsessed with being the next Stevie Ray Vaughan but cast the net wider and the blues scene encompasses plenty of bands whose professionalism, lively performances and inventive music stays trues to their blues roots whilst leaving your typical three chord plodders well and truly in the shade. South London band Little Devils is an energetic six piece formed by a
collective of well seasoned professional and semi-professional musicians, most of whom have trodden the boards with an impressive roster of music legends including Richard Thompson and David Gilmour. Little Devils’ vast wealth of experience shines through in their light hearted yet skillfully crafted approach to entertaining the crowds on the UK blues circuit. Mixing their own original tunes with a couple of covers, Little Devils are a deserving winners of the Playmusic Unsigned Awards Best Live Band category. The band recently ventured into Europe at the behest of a Dutch
promoter, a trip that Little Devils bassist and main songwriter Graeme Wheatley says was well worth the effort. “We played a gig in Amsterdam to escape the Royal Wedding! We played on one of the canals on a barge, but ended up lining up about eight dates in the space of a week, it was pretty frantic but it great fun! The Dutch are very friendly, it was such a nice place to play. The last gig we did was in Rembrandt Square and we had a great night. Everywhere we played they asked us back, so it was very good.” The huge popularity of blues in Europe means that the successful Dutch tour could be the tip of the iceberg for Little Devils. Best keep those passports up to date then, guys! “We’d like to continue” Graeme concurs, “If Holland goes OK we’d
like to move into Belgium and Germany. Blues music is alive over in Europe it seems and there are lots of blues festivals that we’d fit into very well.”
Little Devils’ powerful horn-based sound and fun image recalls the halcyon days of the UK pub rock scene during the early 1970s, a scene that spawned the likes of The Clash, Dr Feelgood and Ian Dury. Graeme
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Little Devils
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Meet the cool London blues band who are currently taking the Continent by storm…
agrees whilst insisting that his band is firmly focused in its blues roots, “Personally I think that some of the best pub rock bands back in the late 70s were people like Ian Dury and Elvis Costello & the Attractions, they were steeped in the traditions of the Rolling Stones and people like the Yardbirds. I also think that we also share the same roots. We try and look pretty slick and there would be a rivalry between guys like Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf. We like our hats in our band! Our singer Yoka sometimes wears devil horns on stage and when we were in Holland people kept coming up and giving her horns. We ended up with a huge collection of them!” You can download the band’s current double A-side single Head in the Clouds/Last Orders, which is backed by a very convincing semi- professional video shot amidst the elegant wilderness of Nunhead Cemetery, near Southwark in South East London. “It’s on iTunes but we had to tread very carefully with iTunes”,
Graeme explains, “We wanted to make a double A-sided single for the price on one download but iTunes weren’t too keen on the idea of us calling it a double A-side. You can still get both tracks for 0.79p! I wanted to call it a BOGOFF (Buy One Get One Free) but they weren’t to keen on that, either!” With a new album in the pipeline and a diary chock full of gigs at home and overseas, things look good for this highly entertaining band, but as Grame says it doesn’t come easy and the band’s extensive experience notwithstanding, maintaining a full schedule still requires plenty of networking skills.
“I think these days that you need as many contacts and links with people as possible. It’s working with other bands, maybe doing joint gigs, it’s working with radio stations – all sorts of people. We’ve found that the best way to do it is to build up friendships, contacts and relationships in all sorts of places. Deuce management syndicate a radio station all over the world, which is really useful; I’ve got a publishing deal because I write songs for a living and Deuce has been very helpful to us. Just play as much as you possibly can and if people like your music they will generally want to help you.” PM
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