Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix? Voodoo Room will give you both

They are delighted to be returning to the Chichester Inn in Chichester for an up-close-and-personal intimate gig on Saturday, January 28. The band are Pete Orr, John Tonks and Jevon Beaumont, and Pete is pleased to say that things are pretty much back to normal now post-pandemic: “Actually in 2022 we were been exceptionally busy. It's been about catching up. A lot of gigs were rescheduled from the year before . There was a bit of a false start (in 2021) and then Covid came back so lots of shows have been rebooked. People were still very tentative about coming out at first but the tail end of (last) year was great for us. We had a few sell-outs and I now think that people are just thinking, well, they have got to go out. I know that Covid is still around and that it's very unpleasant to catch but life has to go on. And now we've got the cost of living crisis. It doesn't seem to have impacted us as yet as far as we can see. I think the crunch time will be January but our first official gig of January has actually already sold out. That's down in Cardiff.”

The band has been going around ten years now “In the first couple of years there were probably only a handful of gigs. Getting something launched like this always takes a little while to get off the ground but actually we were really, really taking off just before Covid hit. We had just done a tour of Germany and that had gone down very well and the agent was really excited about booking us back again. Obviously it is only really (last) year that things start to get back again.”

The origins of the band lie in that frequent Melody Maker debate of 50 odd years ago, who was the better guitarist, Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix: “One time they would say it was Jimi and then another time they would say it was Eric but we thought really it was both of them. Jimi and Eric were really good friends. Obviously they had very different styles. I think Eric was attracted to Jimi because Jimi had studied with the blues masters. He was this guy who had actually worked with them. I guess that of the two Jimi was the wilder with all those antics on stage but I just loved both of them. The first album that I really dug was Disraeli Gears (the second studio album by Cream, featuring Clapton, released in November 1967). And then not long afterwards you had Electric Ladyland (the final studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the final studio album released before Hendrix's death in 1970). I just don't think you can possibly choose between them. I have only ever seen Eric Clapton play once and that was three years ago in Hyde Park. He was just so perfect. When you see Eric play, you just cannot fault it. And I just can't think of anybody else like that. His guitar work is just perfect. He doesn't talk much at gigs but then he doesn't really have to!”