The Big Town Playboys are a six-piece acoustic

Acoustic music

Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...

 British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

 revival group. Founded by Ricky Cool and Andy Silvester

Andy Silvester

Andrew Frederick 'Andy' Sylvester is a bassist and multi-instrumentalist. Sylvester has played in various bands during his career, most notably as co-founder of both Chicken Shack and Big Town Playboys as well as a tenure in the British blues band Savoy Brown and Los Angeles based soft rock...

 in 1984, they covered American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 music from the 1940s and 1950s, such as that of Amos Milburn

Amos Milburn

Amos Milburn was an African American rhythm and blues singer and pianist, popular during the 1940s and 1950s...

 and Little Walter

Little Walter

Little Walter, born Marion Walter Jacobs , was an American blues harmonica player, whose revolutionary approach to his instrument has earned him comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix, for innovation and impact on succeeding generations...

.

The Big Town Playboys have released a series of studio

Recording studio

A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...

 album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

s, as well as a collaborative project with Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck

Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...

 (entitled Crazy Legs

Crazy Legs (album)

Crazy Legs is a studio album by Jeff Beck and the Big Town Playboys, released on June 29, 1993. The recording is an album of Gene Vincent songs...

), re-creating the songs of Gene Vincent

Gene Vincent

Vincent Eugene Craddock , known as Gene Vincent, was an American musician who pioneered the styles of rock and roll and rockabilly. His 1956 top ten hit with his Blue Caps, "Be-Bop-A-Lula", is considered a significant early example of rockabilly...

. Several of their song

Song

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

s also appeared on the soundtrack

Soundtrack

A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

 of the film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

, The Pope Must Die

The Pope Must Die

The Pope Must Die is a 1991 comedy film starring Robbie Coltrane, Adrian Edmondson, Annette Crosbie, Alex Rocco and Peter Richardson who also directed.-Plot:...

. They have performed as a backing band for Robert Plant

Robert Plant

Robert Anthony Plant, CBE is an English singer and songwriter best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the iconic rock band Led Zeppelin. He has also had a successful solo career...

, who contributed guest vocals on their album Roll the Dice They also performed together at the Birmingham Heart Beat 86

Heart Beat 86

Heart Beat 86 was a benefit concert staged at the National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham, England, on 15 March 1986 . It was organised by Bev Bevan to raise money for Birmingham Children's Hospital....

 charity concert. Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton

Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...

 has expressed admiration for their work, arranging for them to open for him during his two week long stint at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1996.

Mike Sanchez

Mike Sanchez

Jesus Miguel "Mike" Sanchez is a rhythm and blues singer, pianist and songwriter of Spanish-English heritage. Sanchez is known for his work with the Big Town Playboys and Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, and also for his solo career...

, who fronted the band from the start, left the band at the end of 1999 to pursue a solo

Solo (music)

In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...

 career. Presently, Ian Jennings is the only remaining original member of the band. After Sanchez's departure, the Big Town Playboys were fronted by another local London artist, Big Joe Louis, of "Big Joe Louis and his Blues Kings."

In May 2005, the band teamed up with Gary Brooker

Gary Brooker

Gary Brooker, MBE, is an English singer, songwriter, pianist and founder of the rock band Procol Harum. Brooker was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours on 14 June 2003, in recognition of his charitable services.-Early life:Brooker was born in...

 and Andy Fairweather Low to give a charity concert

Concert

A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...

 called "Aftershock" in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, with all proceeds to benefit victims of the tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...

.

Discography

• Playboy Boogie (1985 - Making Waves)
• Now Appearing (1990 - Blue Horizon)
• Crazy Legs
  Crazy Legs (album)
  Crazy Legs is a studio album by Jeff Beck and the Big Town Playboys, released on June 29, 1993. The recording is an album of Gene Vincent songs...
  
  with Jeff Beck (1993 - Epic
  Epic Records
  Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...
  
  )
• Hip Joint (1994 - Blue Horizon)
• Off The Clock...Live! (1997 - Eagle)
• Six Pack (1998 -BTP)
• Western World (2001 - Indigo)
• Now Appearing (2002 - Blue Horizon)
• Roll The Dice (2004 - Mi5)

External links

• Official website
• Mike Sanchez's website
• [ Big Town Playboys entry] at Allmusic