Ralph McTell & Wizz Jones at The Redgrave Theatre in Bristol on 1 September 2017
Ralph McTell & Wizz Jones will be at The Redgrave Theatre in Bristol on Friday 1 September 2017
Best known for his international hit, Streets of London, Ralph McTell has been a stalwart of the British acoustic music scene for over 50 years. A career that has spanned street busking across Europe, to solo shows at the Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall and The Sydney Opera House, McTell has a fifty year, 350 song career. Tonight he is accompanied by long term friend, early influence and co-busker Wizz Jones. Originally inspired by seeing Big Bill Broonzy and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Wizz learnt his guitar licks whilst playing in the coffee bars of London’s Soho in the late 1950’s. He then followed the time-honoured buskers’ trail from the streets of Paris to the markets of Marrakech during the early 1960’s and returned to Britain with a unique acoustic guitar style, and eclectic repertoire and “right hand worthy of Broonzy”! Clapton, Keith Richards and the late John Renbourn have all named him as an important early influence and Bruce Springsteen opened his Berlin concert in May 2012 with Wizz’s song “When I Leave Berlin”. After more than 50 years “on the road” and now in his late-seventies Wizz shows no signs of slowing down and continues to tour on the Acoustic Folk and Blues circuit. With over a century of writing, playing and performing between them, Ralph and Wizz will be showcasing songs from their first album together, About Time, as well as favourites from their early busking experiences together in Cornwall in 1965.