Benefit Night For Jim Mullen Feat. Hamish Stuart, Claire Martin, Tony O'malley, Noel Mccalla, Gareth Williams...

A multi-award winner, Jim Mullen is widely regarded as one of the finest jazz guitarists in Europe. Originally from Glasgow he made his name working with a number of seminal bands through the 70’s and 80’s including Brian Auger’s “Oblivion Express”, The Average White Band and his own highly acclaimed jazz/funk band “Morrissey Mullen”. A highly prized sideman as well as leader Jim also includes work with the likes of Mose Allison, Jimmy Witherspoon, Georgie Fame and Gene Harris on a stellar cv. And as well as all of that he is also a very old friend of the Club and one of the best loved and most respected jazz musicians around. Unfortunately, in recent weeks Jim was hospitalised and had to have a series of serious, but thankfully successful, operations which, although leaving him able to continue playing and performing in the long term has meant that he will be unable to work for at least the next 4/5 months. This is obviously a major issue for him and his wonderful wife Zoe (see Sunday 19th), and so a host of his friends have got together tonight to not only raise some well deserved money to help them through this difficult time, but to also express their appreciation for everything Jim has done and continues to do for the UK music scene. Not surprisingly the line up is one of the finest you could imagine, including: singer/guitarist Hamish Stuart from the original Average White Band, iconic UK jazz vocalist Claire Martin, singer/pianist Tony O'Malley from Kokomo, Noel McCalla, the original vocalist from Jim's 1980's trailblazing band "Morrissey Mullen", award winning jazz pianist Gareth Williams, two of the country's finest and most respected musicians, sax player Stan Sulzmann and trumpeter Henry Lowther. Jim's old friend guitarist Alan Darby (Eric Clapton, Van Morrison) has also promised to drop by for a play along with a host of other fine musicians. The whole evening has been put together by the wonderful organist from Jim's Organ Trio, Mike Gorman, and it promises to be quite a night. All monies collected tonight will be passed on to Jim so make sure you book your place now, as they are already going fast!