Tuesday Night Music Club Coulsdon
Thanks Ken Jackson
6th May 2025
The Dirt Road Band delivered a powerhouse performance to an enthusiastic audience at the Tuesday Night Music Club this week , treating them all to an electrifying night of rhythm, blues, and raw talent. This seasoned trio—featuring legendary musicians Steve Walwyn (Guitar), Horace Panter (Bass), and Ted Duggan (Drums) and proved that experience and chemistry are a recipe for musical magic. From the opening chord, Walwyn’s guitar work took centre stage. Steve is best known for his long tenure with Dr. Feelgood, he brought fire and finesse to every solo, his tone sharp yet soulful. He led the band with charisma and a tight grip on the blues-rock dynamics, weaving slide licks and melodic runs that had the crowd egging him on and encouraging him throughout his performance . Horace Panter, famously of The Specials, anchored the set with his confident groove-laden bass lines that were both understated and essential, he interacted throughout with Steve to provide the stage theatricals which were both a joy to watch and to photograph. His playing provided a deep, steady pulse that allowed the band to move fluidly between gritty blues, boogie, and rock ‘n’ roll and it was a joy to watch him adapt his ska-rooted sensibility to the band’s rootsy sound. Meanwhile, Ted Duggan brought the heartbeat. With a career spanning prog rock and electronic music, his drumming was precise, powerful and nuanced—always driving the band forward but never ever overpowering . His interplay with Horace formed a rhythm section as tight as any you’ll hear on the circuit. The setlist mixed originals and blues standards, delivered with swagger and sincerity. Each song built on the last, culminating in a rousing finale that brought the crowd to its feet three times in total and generated a two song encore. In short, The Dirt Road Band’s performance was a masterclass in live musicianship. These are three players who clearly love what they do—and when they do it together, it’s something special. Many thanks to Ross and Martin on the sound desk ensuring that what we heard was a good as it was meant to be ,the fabulous bar staff and Richard Dunning for once again ensuring a superb band was available to entertain us .
DRB & The Milk Men
Mark Anderson’s review of our Darlington show 14/03/25…. I recall Horace starting the show by saying “Hello everyone we are The Dirt Road Band and this is what we do” They instantly launched into ‘Never got over losing you’ and it was like someone switched a hairdryer on full blast in your face. Great 3 piece assault
French review
Nice review from France
January 2025
Translation DIRT ROAD BAND Righteous
Self-produced - Franck Deschamps
Dirt Road Band is the new power trio group of Steve Walwyn, an English guitarist who started playing guitar at the age of 17, mainly listening to Rory Gallagher. In his professional career Steve has also played with Eddie And The Hot Rods, Steve Marriott and The Dts.
Steve is best known as Dr Feelgood's longest-serving legendary guitarist (32 years in the band). During this time he has built a solid reputation as a guitarist in the UK, Europe and beyond.
Steve has called upon Horace Panter on bass, known as a founding member of The Specials, and Ted Duggan on drums, a professional since the 60s, who notably worked with Badfinger, a dream rhythm section to support Steve. His groove is swing on the title Been So Long all sublimated by a Hammond organ. Pub rock atmosphere with the songs [Never Got Over] Losing You and Worry No More where the Feelgood touch is very present when listening to these titles. On You Steal My Heart
Steve shows us perfectly that he is indeed one of the great British guitarists.
Righteous is a pure pub rock album tinged with blues that you absolutely must discover.
DRB with Special Guest The James Oliver Band
The Musician Leicester 15th November 2024
Rich Wakefield
What a night that was at The Musician Pub... two of the best rock bands on the circuit delivering an hour of magnificent music.
First up was the wonderful James Oliver Band. They opened with a bang rocking like crazy, James clearly on top of his game, Chris pounding the bass and Mark drumming up a storm... the band are all superb musicians and their talents come together to make something special. The set was a mix of original material much from the new album and great covers... early on the first cover was "American Cars", an absolute favourite... from there we slowed down for some blues before picking up the pace again...
The band play fluent high energy rock'n'roll and blues... maybe more 50's style R&R with I feel a hint of country/americana in there at times... and the pace doesn't slacken... this is music to love and with James' larger than life personality shining throughout you cant help but love the band...
As the show progressed the band rocked harder and climaxed with a stunning version of Dick Dales' "Misirlou" which had the audience cheering the band to the echo... an absolutely magnificent set delivered with energy, good humour and a real sense of joy... superb
During the interval the thoughts were along the lines of "How the hell do you follow that?"
A short break, and up stepped the superb DIRT ROAD BAND to show exactly how you follow it... they cracked into their set with gusto and huge energy, Steve Walwyn is another superb musician and the pedigree and quality of the band beyond question, with the legendary Horace Panter on bass and Ted Duggan on drums.
The band have the same line up as James' band, but the two are totally different in approach and style... DRB are a more modern power trio style rock band, with elements of one of Steve previous bands, Dr Feelgood, and the legendary Rory in there...
They also deliver a mix of originals and covers in their set, and no Steve Walwyn/DRB gig would be complete without something by Rory and something by Dr Feelgood... and true to form we got glorious versions of "Laundromat: and "Down to the Doctors" both of which were ecstatically greeted... the set continued with originals, including a fine song by Horace Panter and blues standards... a fabulous set ended with a piece associated with Rory, (though not written by him... but the Rory version remains definitive in my eyes) "Bullfrog Blues"... all delivered with tremendous power and virtuosity... an inevitable encore... which Steve introduced as an old southern folk song... so a rip-roaring "Route 66" closed out a second superb set of the evening.
To see them both on one bill... two absolutely superb sets by two very different but equally superb rock'n'roll bands, each set leaving the audience awestruck and on a high... and leaving on a high with the music of both bands filling the consciousness...
Absolutely superb night... rock'n'roll at it s very best... loved every second
Keep music live... keep music real... support your local venues
Vive Le Rock Interview 2024
Page 1
Click to expand
Vive Le Rock Interview
Page 2
International /UK Reviews, Click on Image to open full Reviews
2 Tone-Before, During & After
