Help needed from everyone remotely near to Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK

I've just received another heart rendering flyer from Steve Pitt, of The Cellars At Eastney, Southsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK.  He runs a really great, little live music venue, but due to the credit crunch, tickets for his marvellous gigs are just not selling as they should.

He's got THE TERRY READ BAND, JOHN COGHLAN’S QUO, HARPER, ALVIN YOUNGBLOOD HART and  HOWARD JONES  on very soon.

"Hi Everyone,

Now the football is over, it would be great to see some of you at gigs again. This is a tough climate for venues and we’ll soon be in trouble without your renewed support. I would like to add, that many of our artists regularly pull several hundred people to their gigs and when they come to Portsmouth as a favour to us and see a tiny crowd, they’re not inclined to return. John Coghlan in particular has appalling ticket sales, and only last month he nearly sold out a 700 capacity venue. Use us or lose us. This mailing list now has over 1200 members, so I’m not asking you all to support everything, I know things are tight and for those who come along regularly – a bit thank you!!

Hope you can make it along to one of these superb shows:

SUN 25TH MAY – THE TERRY REID BAND - £22 ADV – last few tickets remaining!! He played The Royal Festival Hall last week !!

TUES 27TH MAY 2008  - JOHN COGHLAN’S QUO - £16 ADV – BUY 3 GET ONE FREE TO MAILING LIST MEMBERS – initial reservation via e-mail reply

Classic Status Quo songs played the way the fans want to hear them! A must for all Quo fans!!

Quo's original drummer stunningly recreates his glorious twenty years with Status Quo. John Coghlan joined Francis Rossi and Alan Lancaster in their newly-formed band in 1962 and the group went through a series of names, including Traffic Jam, before meeting up with Rick Parfitt and becoming Status Quo in the late 60s. A long string of hit records, successful worldwide tours and television appearance followed for the next 20 years: the hits included Pictures of Matchstick Men; Down Down; Caroline; Rain; Rockin' All Over the World, and many more. John Coghlan left Status Quo in the latter months of 1981. He started working with his own band, John Coghlan's Quo, during the late 1990s. The band has since toured Europe and the UK successfully for several years with various line-ups, which include Paul Carr, Mike Grady and Jon Bowers - the band performs all the Status Quo hits and favourites from the Coghlan years: 1962 - 1982.

WEDS 28TH MAY 2008 - HARPER - £9 ADV – SPECIAL OFFER TO MAILING LIST – TICKETS £6 EACH – inittial reservation via e-mail reply

FIRST UK TOUR FOR AWARD-WINNING AUSSIE BLUESMAN & BAND WHO TORE APART MARYPORT FESTIVAL LAST YEAR AND ARE IN THE UK TO RECORD A SESSION WITH PAUL JONES FOR BBC RADIO 2 – THIS PROMISES TO BE AN ELECTRIFYING EVENING

Part harmonica wizard and part rhythmic explorer, Harper is a fiery artist who blurs the lines between rock, blues, soul and world music. His latest Blind Pig release, "Day By Day", displays his trademark virtuoso harp performances, distinctive instrumentation, deeply soulful grooves and instantly memorable songs and provides another prime example of why his unique roots music style occupies a category of its own. In 2003 he released "Way Down Deep Inside", for which he received two harmonica  awards and the “Album of the Year” honour from US Magazine Guide to the Best of the Blues Harmonicas & Beyond.  Over the years Harper has received multiple Australian Blues Awards for “Male Vocalist of the Year,” “Song of the Year,” and “Acoustic Artist of the Year.” He was a big hit with the crowd at last year’s Maryport Blues Festival, now he’s back to tour.

TUES 3RD JUNE 2008 - ALVIN YOUNGBLOOD HART - £12.50 ADV – WE NEGOTIATED A LOWER TICKET PRICE THIS YEAR!

GRAMMY AWARD WINNER RETURNS !!  One of the highlights of 2007 – don’t miss him

Alvin was influenced in early childhood by the Mississippi Country Blues, and is known as one of the world's foremost practitioners of that genre. Hart is also known as a faithful torchbearer for the '60s & '70s guitar rock of his youth, as well as Western Swing and vintage Country. His music has been compared to a list of diverse artists ranging from Leadbelly, Spade Cooley to Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy. Hart prefers to be described as a ’Hard Americana’ artist, representing his fusion of styles. In 2003 Hart's album "Down in the Alley" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. In 2005, Hart received a Grammy Award for his contribution to "Beautiful Dreamer-The Songs of Stephen Foster”. Bluesman Taj Mahal once said about Hart that "The boy has got thunder in his hands.""

WEDS 11TH JUNE 2008 - HOWARD JONES - £18.50 ADV – 2 thirds sold

There are few artists who came to prominence in the eighties who are as prolific and hard working as Howard Jones. He seems to be constantly out on tour or creating diverse and superbly crafted albums in his studio in Somerset England. In 2007 alone he released 3 albums and played over 60 concerts around the world including UK, USA, Australia, Denmark, Sweden, Italy and Dubai. In the early 80's Howard met David Stopps, promoter of the Friars Club in Aylesbury. Stopps became his manager and he secured a residency at the legendary Marquee Club in London. The rest as they say is history. Howard signed to WEA records and had a string of hits including 'New Song', 'What is Love', 'Hide and Seek', 'Like to Get To Know You Well', 'Pearl in the Shell', 'Things Can Only Get Better', 'Life in One Day', 'Look Mama', 'Everlasting Love' and 'No One is To Blame'. To date Howard has sold over eight million albums. Recently most of Howard's concerts are acoustic, when he uses his superb ability as a songwriter combined with his well honed skills as a piano player to great effect. At the heart of all this are his lyrics which usually contain, somewhat unfashionably, a positive message.  Steve Pitt of The Cellars at Eastney, Southsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK."

I'm going to try to get to the Alvin Youngblood Hart gig.  Which gig are you going to try to get to?   Please make a big effort to support the blues and live music in general.

This is the link to the website http://www.thecellars.co.uk/

Catfish Jane