Night after night. Regular as clockwork. Walking offstage after every firecracker gig, Ben Poole found himself fielding the same backstage enquiry from another breathless fan: ‘When are you going to release a live album…?’
You asked for it. And now, by public demand, Manhaton Records presents Live At The Royal Albert Hall: the long-awaited live snapshot that finds Britain's brightest blues-rock talent blowing the roof off the nation's best-loved venue. ‘I'm first and foremost a live performer,’ says Ben. ‘The energy, adrenaline and excitement you can conjure up live is near-impossible to capture in a studio environment. I feel like I come into my own on stage.’
As the stamping-ground of legends from Cream and Led Zeppelin to B.B. King and Joe Bonamassa, it's fair to say the Royal Albert Hall is not a venue for lightweights. Though still in his mid-twenties, Ben has surely earned his shot. Starting out as a blues-obsessed teenage gunslinger in Bedfordshire, Ben fused the influences of Eric Clapton, SRV, Jeff Healey and Jimi Hendrix into his signature style. Having toured the planet and traded licks with Jeff Beck, Gary Moore and Richie Kotzen, the Albert Hall held no fears.
And so, it came to pass that on October 31st, 2013, Ben and his crack band of Craig Bacon (drums), Mat Beable (bass), Sam Mason (keys) and Amy Eftekhari (backup vocals) pulled into London to play the first day of BluesFest 2013. It s a vintage performance. And yet, as anyone who caught the original broadcast on BBC Radio 2's Paul Jones Show will remember, this show was not just about fist-tight execution, but also the light-footed setlist. It's a testament to Ben s songwriting talent that his own originals like Let s Go Upstairs and It Doesn t Have To Be That Way stand shoulder-to-shoulder with all-time classics like Otis Redding s Mr. Pitiful and Billy Myles Have You Ever Loved A Woman. Stick around for the encore, too: a studio version of Ben's latest track, Starting All Over Again, that's sure to whet the fans appetite for his next album.