2002 Artists

Louis gives his distinctive acoustic guitar and silky deep voice to this duo. Roger, one of the country's best slide guitarists, provides everything else a great blues duo needs including mandolin and backing vocals. They play some traditional blues; songs by Curtis Mayfield and Taj Mahal, even Dylan and Tom Waits songs feature in their set complemented by a smattering of their own poignant compositions. Louis has recorded at Sir Paul McCartney's Windmill Studio and has played at Sir Paul's home for him and his guests. He recognises talent when he hears it. Roger has all the blues styles from Son House to Charley Patton. Robert Johnson seems to have been another great influence with his innovation which spawned R & B and rock 'n' roll, his adaptation of piano bass lines to guitar. As Roger says 'He was the first to take piano boogie and play it on guitar'. Roger has all the technique and insight of those past greats and rates alongside any contemporary Blues picker or slide man. Top local drummer and percussionist, Liam has played with many top musicians and bands including Paul Brady and Steeleye Span.

The Elevators are a four-piece band of experienced and competent musicians with a distinctive and convincing collection of electric blues. They have a wide and compelling collection of songs and riffs in their repertoire, deeply rooted in the sounds and styles of the 1950s and 60s, and cover a wide range of blues from Cray to Johnson taking in Otis Rush, Charles Brown, Buddy Guy many others. Their fans have described their music as sounding a bit like 'early Fleetwood Mac'. The quartet plays with energy, accuracy and enthusiasm for their material. The passion they have for this music is obvious but not surprising as John Whippy, the band's lead singer, (he also plays guitar), guitarist Phil Greaves, bass player Martin Robinson and drummer Michael Fowlie-Hill started to learn their craft at the birth of the first Blues boom of the 1960s. Phil's guitar playing is slick, with 'iron' control, spitting forth sounds not unlike, and demanding the same attention as, 'Bluesbreaker-period' Clapton. Even the press kit for The Elevators tells us that Johnny W., who is a pretty good blues singer, is probably best described as a 'risk taker' with his guitar playing!…However he plays with a sweet 'blues' tone when the song calls for some restraint. They play guitar-focussed blues with exciting solos as Andy Woods said recently in a review for Blueprint Magazine 'For intensely played distillations of electric blues, they come highly recommended'.

A first appearance in this country, the band comes from across the USA, and creates cross-cultural music with elements of Celtic, Middle Eastern, Scandinavian, Russian, African, Greek and Galatian cultures. They are truly a non-traditional, multi-ethnic modern group looking for new contemporary styles for their acoustic-electric mix. They play a variety of instruments: guitar, shawm, bombard, whistles, fretless bass, mandocello, drums, percussion, mandolin - and they sing!

The Tabs

Hastings' own celtic fusion rockers! The Tabs have been regular guests at the Black Horse ever since they were first formed, and Tab's fiddle player Garry Blakeley has probably appeared at the Black Horse more times than any other musician. Now with many festival appearances all over the country behind them, they return once more to get everybody dancing.

This band not only performs traditional music and songs from the British Isles, but also writes new and exciting numbers which are all their own. This in turn gives their performance a unique edge.

Zydeco Active impressed with their exciting sets at the Black Horse Festival a couple of times over the years. Z Funk are a reformed version of the band, playing Zydeco with Funk! Still led by the accordion playing of Gavin Lewery, and driven by the bass of Tommy Mills, the band also includes Dave Luke on guitar and Mick Hurst on drums. The most exciting addition is soul-singing diva and saxophone funkster Amanda Quigley.

The band's name comes from 'Que Passa', an ejaculation the enigmatic Flaco Jiminez interjected in his Tex Mex songs. He happened to be on the stereo when K-Passa was looking for a name for their new band back in 1988. They have been around a long time and are now one of the leaders on the roots scene. They have been 'wild' men and claim there were times when fans turned up to see if they would be sober enough to finish the gig! The line-up changed and some serious musicianship led to K-Passa supporting Duran Duran in Paris and Cardiff. Nowadays they play major festivals including the main stage at Glastonbury. K-Passa are a fiery grass roots rock band fusing Celtic Folk and hard rock into a formidable hybrid driven by the squeeze box playing of Simon Edwards and the madcap fiddling of Mark Knight. Their seventh album should be available at the festival.

Achanak

Achanak were introduced to the Hastings' area by the Black Horse Festival last year. They were part of a packed afternoon, and there set was unfortunately too short. However, they were one of the most popular acts last year - we just had to have them back!

Leaders of the new-wave Bhangra explosion, Achanak fuse traditional Indian vocals and energetic western dance rhythms. Bhangra is currently the fastest growing World music format; brought to the UK by the earliest Indian immigrants, it has been transformed by third generation South Asians into the most explosive British music phenomenon. With relentless percussion from dhol, tabla and dholak, the uncompromising wall of sound has stunned and exhilarated new audiences worldwide.

Achanak enjoy a hyperactive lead vocalist, an energetic dance crew, a spectacular light show, pyrotechnics and onstage video. In Britain they have been on DEF II and Bhangra Girls (BBC2), Central TV, Network East, Sky TV, MTV, S4C, Channel east, B4U. They were S4C's main band on "Y Sesiwyn Hwyr", their live Hogmanay show on New Year's Eve 2000. Live, they have performed at venues throughout Europe, in Canada, Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia and Japan, and at a wide range of festivals with appearances alongside The Manic Street Preachers, the Levellers, Boney M, Mica Paris, Dreadzone, African Headcharge, Apache Indian, Incognito, MN8 and Damage.

Of their 7 albums, five have gone platinum and one "double" platinum. Other awards during the past 10 years include Best video and Best live band - APNA awards; Best band - Sidhu awards; Best album - Media awards.

Another act that impressed last year - "promoted" to an evening spot. Hopefully, the fading evening light will show off there costumes far better than the bright sunny afternoon did last year!

Wild Asian, Celtic and Gypsy tunes, reed splitting horn lines, ragga chant and furiously energetic dance beats collide in a manic east/west mix of music. This is how Horace X's music is described and their "full on" U.V. lit explosion of sound energy and visuals also features a classical Egyptian dancer.

Horace X are Mark Russell responsible for the bands composition, programming, percussion and keyboards. He grew up in underground Dance and reggae acts, supporting Toots and the Maytalls and Lee Perry. He cut vinyl with Ewan MacColl and Denis Bovell. Mark crosses various style boundaries drawing from years of experience playing and writing with reggae, hilife, funk, experimental and hip hop line ups. The NME described his work as "sensational". Hazel Fairbairn plays electric 5 string fiddle and has studied and played Irish, Cajun, Gypsy and Indian music in London, Cork and Cambridge. She has played with Sharron Shannon, Laurie Anderson, Brian Eno, and "the mighty Chandru". The unique style combining slapping and finger bass with large effects is how Jenny Hopkins adds bass to the band. She is a Tackhead, Chemical Brothers, Reggae, Hip-hop and tequila fanatic. Hot horns are provided by "the blue monk" Pete Newman on baritone sax and clarinet. Also appearing with Horace X at this years Womad Day at Telham at the end of May providing ragga chat are Terminator Bones and Poor White Trash mixed by the mad professor.

The band has featured in two sessions by Andy Kershaw. It has been together since 1993 combining Funk, Reggae and Dance rhythms with Eastern fiddle tunes They have played in venues from London to Lublijana including Glastonbury, Sidmouth, Towersey and many other prestigious festivals. They were a huge hit at The Cambridge Folk Festival where Folk Roots described their act as "Frantic thunderous, entertaining stuff...Beat box roots, with several kitchen sink loads of ethno and not-so-ethno input". The Glastonbury programme said they were like a cross between James Brown and Ivo Papasov. John Peel summed the band up with a simple "Damn fine".

They have recorded three CDs, one of these was put forward for the 1995 Mercury prize and are recording a fourth CD at the moment. Their earlier CD, M = EC2 was a hit with the university magazine Varsity. They described it as a gem of a record and weirdly wonderful. The band has come a long way since then but their latest album "Burst Peacock" is still wonderfully weird!

Lion Train present a tribute to Bob Marley and his music. Their performance will be a full two hours from a fifteen piece reggae troupe. Lion Train is the brainchild of T Carthy the long-standing bass player of the now extinct E2. When E2 split in 1999, the Rastafarians in that band embarked on their millennium mission to retrace their roots. T went on to initiate The Lion Train project, a collective of black musicians dedicated to the memory of Bob Marley. The eight piece core of the new group includes legendary artists Chris Campbell, who played guitar with Finley Quaye, performing on his No 1 hit CD, "Maverick, a strike"; Finley's drummer Delroy Morgan, also Sons of Arqua; on keyboards, Barry Lawrence out of Sweet Sensations and Macka B's guitarist, Basher Roberts. Sax, a second keyboard and percussion complete the line up. The three harmony singers have backed numerous reggae bands and were recently seen on Later With Jools Holland in Craig Cash's band. The lead vocals come from a team of three, all superb singers. Alternating to provide a spectacular focus, each introduced by the bands colourful front man and MC. There will never be less than 12 of the 15 piece band on stage. Late news - we now expect a 20 piece band!

No Offence

Compos Mentis

Lazy Creek

Beverly

Ripchord

Evolving from the perennial Black Horse Festival favourites the Blackman Brothers Band, the Sect are a stripped down, harder edged affair replacing soul standards with more contemporary pop/rock covers in addition to a smattering of original material. The Sect feature a line up of locals fronted by the powerful vocal talents of Dave Blackman, ex Teenbeats, Bewildered and currently popping up all over the place in '2 wheels good' and the Popular Beat Combo. Additional ex-Blackman Brothers are Martin Luckhurst (guitar) Ashley Pepper (Keyboards) and Grant Young (Bass). Fresh from touring with Midge Ure is usual drummer Russell Field, ex-Dharmas, and currently on the brink of success with Steadman. Formed in 1999, the Sect have mainly worked out of town but will be appearing more frequently in the town this summer, based a round a string of dates at the Yelton. Expect a punchy opening set featuring songs by U2, REM, Bowie, and Bruce Springsteen peppered with Dave's trademark irreverent commentary…

Finishing the festival in party style and specially assembled for the Black Horse Festival. All your, and their, favourite songs. Organised by Phil Gill and featuring many of Hastings' best musicians - but not all, we are lucky to have so many!

Vocals: Pete Prescott, Claire Hamill, Donna Terenzi, Pete Martin, Madeline Milla.

Guitars: Phil Hudson, Eric Roche, Phil Gill, Roger Flack.

Keyboards: Rick Pentecost, Jez Gillett.

Bass: Roger Carey.

Drums: Pete Shaw, Any Knight.

They sing like angels - they play down home and dirty too. Enjoy the party - with pop, rock, soul, anthems, ballads and a barrel load of surprises.

And last but not least - YOU! A picture from 2001.