THE Blues Band will be at Cheltenham Town Hall on Thursday, February 7.

In 1979 Paul Jones, ex front man of chart-topping 60s UK band Manfred Mann, was working mainly as an actor. He missed playing his favourite music, the blues, and decided to contact his old Manfred Mann colleague, Tom McGuinness, to discuss the idea of forming a band, just to play some blues . It was intended to be simply a part-time occupation around London's pubs and they expected just beer money and to have some fun.

Jones and McGuinness recruited ex John Mayall drummer Hughie Flint and bottleneck guitarist Dave Kelly and Dave took along his bass player friend, Gary Fletcher.

Within weeks these masters of R&B were packing the pubs in and around London.

A band formed by guys itching to get back to and play their musical roots for that beer money had much more to offer than anyone imagined.

By 2004, the band's 25th anniversay, 17 albums had been recorded and countless tours completed .

They have inspired numerous other blues bands, many of which have come and gone, whereas The Blues Band have remained a constant, increasingly popular fixture.

Such successful musical mavericks are fairly rare and are borne more from word-of-mouth than promotional hype. Paul Jones has devoted much of a creative career spanning almost 40 years to the blues - the very base and roots of rock & roll Dave Kelly, with his late, great sister, Jo-Ann, introduced a whole generation to the works of Memphis Minnie, Son House, Robert Johnson and Mississippi Fred McDowell The Blues Band continue to be Britain's finest, most skilled practitioners in the art of the blues.