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The FortyFours

This site has information about the Forty Fours, a fiery Mississippi delta blues band from Leicester.
There are articles about the blues which I made up from information I half remember.
There are videos and mp3s you can download, information about the band and the places we've been, and links to other sites

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The 44s are two Leicester musicians who have a mission to play the kind of delta blues you can hear if you go to the Mississippi delta today. The music is basic and elemental, and you can, in fact you must, dance to it. It helps if you're a little bit drunk, too.

I play slide guitar and Mr Paul plays drums, that's it. Primitive American guitar and the world's first drum pattern. Again. And again. And again.

And some attitude, it's a pretty forceful show with definite parental advisory - may contain strong language!

We've played The Spitz Festival of Blues in London, promoted by Not The Same Old Blues Crap, the BEST blues festival in the UK. We've also played Leicester's City Blues and Acoustic Festival, and Nottingham's Blues on a Boat Festival. We had a great time at the Cockroach Club in Peterborough promoted by the Surgens, sadly no longer running regularly but good luck to the Surgens in future. We've supported Arthur Brown, T Model Ford, Kenny Brown, John Otway and Tony McPhee's Groundhogs. If you think we might fit your bill, we'd love to hear from you.

How it come about Mr Paul and the Doctor met in several Leicester bands before deciding to go out on their own. Tours with Kenny Brown (RL Burnside's guitarist) and T-Model Ford, as well as UK force of nature Tony McPhee have only increased their determination to get Mississippi disco across to a wider audience.	Where we at I've quickly realised we are alienating a lot of traditional blues fans, and getting a lot of converts from the non blues audience. We try and play ordinary rock venues. For sure, the 'supper club' is a waste of time - there's no space to dance, even if anyone had the inclination, and respect and appreciation are the order of the day, neither of which I want.
The Doctor's story I grew up a punk, falling in love with John Lee Hooker at the age of 15. However, after trying and failing to understand the attractions of more recent blues artists such as John Mayall, I just began to think of JLH as an aberration, maybe not really blues at all. A few diamonds in the coal pile such as Them's Baby Please Don't Go, and George Thorogood's Who Do You Love seemed notably at odds with the 'true' blues records. Following feeble JLH records later in life such as the glossy commercial album the Healer, I began to think that maybe I'd imagined it all.	Fellow travellers We're grateful for the opportunity the internet affords to realise that we're not alone. Beacons in the darkness are Fat Possum Records, Not the Same old Blues Crap, The Black Diamond Heavies and Kenny Brown. Also worthy a mention are the White Stripes, the Two Timers, the Black Keys. I'm not sure the door in the UK would be even half open without these people. We've had a lot of gigs and help from Darren at the Musician Pub in Leicester, and get strength from messages of support from Leeds, France, Cornwall.
Want to know more If you want to know more about the kind of music that turns us on, then check out the links. We have a lot of friends on myspace but we'd love to have more, so meet us there and we can argue the toss about blues and generally have a laugh. We're marketed rather poorly through Preachin Blues, a label of friends, so check them out in case you like them too/ instead.	Mr Paul's bedtime book for boys and girls.. With a stateside crewcut and skinny jeans I sat at the back of a covers band playing those classic hits of the 60's, it was the 60's and I was a nipper and it was fun, thanks Dad. Pink Floyd were cool, Hendrix came and Cream and we scribbled their names on our school books. Onwards through prog rock and into rock n roll I bashed. Sessions, tours, clubs then 'enough', a long break til I met some local dudes playing covers, here we go again! Then PigIronJoe and James & Tris who opened my ears and mind to all the music I missed, I sort of knew it was there but somehow it passed me by. So on I go into the next exciting chapter of my life guided by the good Doctor...

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