Jools Holland and his 19-piece Rhythm & Blues Orchestra play the Hexagon Theatre in Reading.
Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra play the Hexagon Theatre on Thursday 5 November, bringing their blend of jazz and blues to Reading. It's a big band on the stage, nineteen pieces in total, so there's a fair bit of brass and reed to fill the room.
Most of us know Jools from Later... with Jools Holland, which he's hosted on BBC2 since 1992, but that's only one side of it. He's been a working musician long before that. Born Julian Miles Holland in Blackheath, south-east London, in January 1958, he could play the piano by ear from the age of eight and was playing in south-east London pubs and East End docks by his early teens. At fifteen he met Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford, who formed Squeeze, and was later joined by drummer Gilson Lavis, who still plays with him. The Big Band he formed in 1987 eventually grew into the nineteen-piece Rhythm & Blues Orchestra that tours now.
He's kept up a prolific recording career since signing to Warner Music in 1996, with the multimillion-selling Jools Holland and Friends series. He was awarded an OBE in June 2003 and has shared a stage with friends including Sting, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Bono, Joe Strummer and Peter Gabriel. The orchestra is the vehicle for that same jazz and blues fusion he's built his reputation on, and with nineteen musicians on stage, it's a full-band sound rather than a small combo.
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The show is at the Hexagon Theatre on Thursday 5 November, starting at 19:30. It's a mid-week date, so if you're heading in from across town, you'll want to plan for a Thursday night out. The set is Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, nineteen pieces on the stage, and the music is the jazz and blues they've been playing for years.
