{"id":379,"date":"2019-03-01T15:58:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T15:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrybands\/2019\/03\/01\/soul-express\/"},"modified":"2019-03-01T15:58:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-01T15:58:00","slug":"soul-express","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrybands\/2019\/03\/01\/soul-express\/","title":{"rendered":"Soul Express"},"content":{"rendered":"

 Soul Express<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Circa 1966 – R&B \/ Soul outfit – Source Broadgate Gnome.<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

From the Coventry Telegraph – by Pete Chambers Feb 27th 2007 <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Line Up –  John Warwick – vocals, Mick Keel – bass(also played in Bitter Suite<\/a>), Kevin Dempsey guitar (later with Dando Shaft<\/a>)<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.coventrytelegraph.net\/lifestyle\/nostalgia\/cov-kid-whos-king-blues-3116624<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Cov Kid Who’s a King of the Blues.<\/b><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“WHEN I hear a great musician I get excited, when I find out he’s from Coventry, well I<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

know it’s truly Backbeat time.<\/p>\n

From time to time, up comes a hidden gem, and today’s “gem” is none other than London-based blues singer John Warwick – London based but Coventry born.<\/p>\n

JOHN is a big man with a big voice, it’s a treat to behold, full of character and yet always smooth on the ear, a prefect blues voice.<\/p>\n

John was born on January 10, 1949, and lived in Broomfield Road, Earlsdon, Coventry.<\/p>\n

His fledgling association with the world of music began at school, with guitarist friend Roy Butterfield.<\/p>\n

“There used to be a youth club in Tile Hill,” reveals John.<\/p>\n

“I was about 13 and I used to go down and watch and play the harmonica and sing a little with Roy who was a great blues guitarist, we started playing together as a duo in the local jazz clubs.”<\/p>\n

From there John joined the Earlsdon band The Rare Set<\/b>, and continued to learn his trade in The Ravens<\/b> playing in and out of Coventry.<\/p>\n

Time was right then for John to spread his wings and London was calling and a nine-month stint in the capital saw him heavily involved with session work.<\/p>\n

It was now 1968 and John was back in Coventry, London had taught him well and he began making plans to form a soul band.<\/p>\n

A little later The Soul Express<\/b> emerged, and began making a great reputation for themselves in the area.<\/p>\n

This eight-piece had the soul power of a brass section.<\/p>\n

Now if you are talking Coventry, 60s and soul, there’s one name that invariably pops up, Pete Waterman.<\/p>\n

So as to be expected, when The Soul Express played, Pete Waterman was usually the DJ.<\/p>\n

“I bumped into Pete a while back and had a good chat, about those days,” said John. “I don’t think he remembered me, but he surely remembered the band.”<\/p>\n

The band played the Locarno, The Orchid, The Lanch, The Co-op Hall Nuneaton, and they were voted the best band in Britain by none other than Melody Maker.<\/p>\n

The Soul Express had performed well for nearly three years, but the blues was in John’s blood, and it was time to try London once again.<\/p>\n

Another 12 months in London saw John mess around with various bands, forever honing his trade.<\/p>\n

On his Midlands return he joined guitarist Chris Jones in the band Chris Jones Aggression<\/b>.<\/p>\n

“That never really went anywhere,” admits John. “After that I went solo for the first time, this was about 1975. I had just got fed up with all the travelling with bands and all the equipment.<\/p>\n

“So this way I just went and sang with the house band, doing popular songs, in clubs, Majorca, holiday camps and on cruise ships.<\/p>\n

“I was living in Binley at the time, but I hated every minute of the playing, because this wasn’t the kind of music I wanted to play.<\/p>\n

“In 1984 I went back to London once again and worked with Long John Baldry and later former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green.”<\/p>\n

John was finally playing the kind of music he loved, with real blues people. The next natural step was to form his own band.<\/p>\n

The John Warwick Blues Band was formed around an exciting line-up of musicians who went under the name the sixties all stars.<\/p>\n

These included former Kinks drummer Mick Avory; John Dee, once bassist with the Foundations; Del Mandel, a guitarist who worked with George Harrison; and Crispin St Peter and Charlie Lancaster.<\/p>\n

John, always a working musician, is happy in what he is doing, he doesn’t crave a recording contract and has little desire to bring an album out.<\/p>\n

He was good enough to give me a sample CD of just what he is capable of.<\/p>\n

Take track one too cool, screaming guitars punctuate John’s incredibly soulful vocals, a match made in heaven.<\/p>\n

I make no secret of the fact that I can’t stop playing it!<\/p>\n

John doesn’t often play in his home-town, feeling his type of music is better promoted in the London area, where there are custom blues venues.<\/p>\n

That’s a shame because Coventry folk should be aware of this huge talent.<\/p>\n

Britain’s finest blues god John Mayall has enjoyed working with John, as has the great B B king.<\/p>\n

And in case you don’t believe how good Mr Warwick is, I’ll leave the last words to B B king: “John Warwick is the best European blues singer I have ever heard.”<\/p>\n

Enough said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“<\/span>Vampire Squid Blues. John Warwick & Del Mandel”<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Now that the magic has gone- John Warwick<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

……<\/span><\/div>\n
Gigs<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
“Ray King Soul band 10 February 1967 \u2013 Nicholas Chamberlain Hall, Bedworth, Warwickshire with Ronnie Jones & The Blue Flames, The Soul Express<\/b> and The Dynamics (Nuneaton Evening Tribune)”<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
“Ray King Soul Band 4 July 1968 \u2013 The Walsgrave, Coventry with Soul Express (Coventry Evening Telegraph\/Melody Maker)”<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
BACK TO THE BAND INDEX<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 Soul Express Circa 1966 – R&B \/ Soul outfit – Source Broadgate Gnome. From the Coventry Telegraph – by Pete Chambers Feb 27th 2007  Line Up –  John Warwick – vocals, Mick Keel – bass(also played in Bitter Suite), Kevin Dempsey … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrybands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrybands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrybands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrybands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrybands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrybands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrybands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrybands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrybands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}