In the early nineties, from a tiny village in deepest darkest Wiltshire, UK, there came a band with fire in its belly and blues in its heart, and that band was called The Hoax. Their high-energy stage performances gave the UK blues scene a much-needed shot in the arm, and with a string of highly-acclaimed albums, the band went on to dominate the Blues world in the UK and Europe. In 1991, former school friends Hugh Coltman, Jesse Davey, Robin Davey and Jon Amor discovered a shared love of the American Blues greats like Albert King, BB King, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and formed The Hoax.

After gigging solidly around the UK for two years with drummer Dave Raeburn, establishing a reputation as one of the most exciting live acts on the circuit, they signed to Code Blue Records in 1994 and released their debut album Sound Like This to rave reviews: The last time Englishmen played blues-rock with such flre and conviction, they had names like The Yardbirds, John Mayall s Bluesbreakers and The Rolling Stones Q Magazine **** Following the success of this album, the band embarked on a worldwide tour, including an extensive tour of the United States, where they opened shows for Blues legend Buddy Guy. In 1995, the British Blues Connection presented them with the award for Blues Band Of The Year and Blues Album Of The Year. A second album, Unpossible , was released on Code Blue in 1996, before the band founded their own record label, Credible Records, and released arguably their finest album Humdinger in 1998 with new drummer Mark Barrett. As this album rode a wave of critical acclaim and commercial success, the band hit the peak of their powers on stage too, performing sell-out shows all over Europe, and opening for the great BB King, among others.

With the blues world at their feet, The Hoax disbanded at the end of 1999 to pursue their own individual projects, but this year they are reuniting to play a handful of live shows around Europe. The Hoax: Hugh Coltman (vocals and harmonica) Jesse Davey (lead and rhythm guitar) Jon Amor (lead and rhythm guitar) Robin Davey (bass) Mark Barrett (drums)

No introduction necessary. An exclusive, intimate show in the Attic. Simone will be performing two sets. Tickets from www.railwaylive.co.uk

Celebrating ten years of sxsc: September 8.

Electric Room:

Chris T-T Band

Peter Bruntnell Band

John Parish Band

John Murry Band

Acoustic Room:

Ryan O’Reilly

Small Town Jones

plus a VERY SPECIAL GUEST

This year, we aren’t doing “early bird” tickets because the Railway now has its own online ticketing system with minimal booking fees, so please go to www.railwaylive.co.uk for your tickets or call in at the Railway. Thanks. Tickets are already on sale.

Happy 2013 from sxsc. If you would like to join our mailing list, just send your email address to oliver@revilolang.com

Almost all our events are at the Railway, Winchester, which has a simple new ticket selling system. Go to www.railwaylive.co.uk and head for the listings. Tickets are also available direct from the venue.

The Chuck Prophet show is at the Cellar in Southampton. Tickets from www.southamptoncellar.com

with special guest JACK DAY

In 1999 Stiv Cantarelli and his band Satellite Inn signed their first record deal with MoodFood Records of Cary, North Carolina. Funnily enough, they’d been asked to replaced Ryan Adams’ Whiskeytown who were moving to Outpost Records and already bound for glory. After months of hard Stateside graft, MoodFood got the roots rock classic Cold Morning Songs out of the deal; Stiv gained firm friends in Portland, Oregon band Richmond Fontaine, who wound up backing him on his 2011 solo album Innerstate (released on RF’s El Cortez label), mixing the raw edges of punk rock with border stories that could have come from both sides of the Atlantic.

Fast forward to 2013 and Stiv has reconvened with the old Satellite Inn rhythm section of Antonio Perugini and Fabrizio Gramellini to record Black Music / White Music in and abandoned church in Tuscany’s Romana hills. Drawing on the influences of Delta blues and post-punk, from Son House and Chris Whitley to the Scientists and Neil Young, get ready for post-apocalypse blues….

We are pleased to announce that the 2012/2013 Season has been christened The Uncut Sessions and is presented in collaboration with the excellent UNCUT magazine. This is UNCUT editor Allan Jones announcing the collaboration:

Regular readers of these missives may recall a couple of years ago I wrote about accepting an invitation to go down to Winchester for the day to see Richmond Fontaine at a funky little venue called The Railway, where promoter Oliver Gray regularly puts on terrific shows. Oliver had booked Richmond Fontaine basically on the strength of the Uncut review of the band’s landmark album, Post To Wire, and they’d been back several times since.

The Saturday I went down to Winchester to see them, they played two sets. The first, in the afternoon, featured Post To Wire in its entirety. The second turned into a four hour epic, during which the band, who’d had a few by then, played virtually every song they knew, and a few they didn’t. They were back at the Railway last September, when Oliver launched the SXSC festival at the venue, supported by Uncut.

Willy Vlautin from Richmond Fontaine will be appearing there again on May 1, with RF guitarist Dan Eccles, playing a special acoustic set as part of a series of shows called the Uncut Sessions, the first of which, featuring the excellent Lucky Strikes, is tomorrow. The Lucky Strikes are followed by Peter Bruntnell (March 7) and Simone Felice and band, with special guest Simi Stone from the Duke & The King (April 6), Chuck Prophet And The Mission Express (who’ll be following Richmond Fontaine’s earlier example and playing two sets, at 3.00pm and 8pm, on April 14) and Alejandro Escovedo And The Sensitive Boys (July 1).

For more details you can go to www.sxsc.org and for general enquiries email info@railwaylive.co.uk. Tickets are also available at the venue or call 01962 867795.