Gig Review: Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra plus support Nell Bryden - Royal Albert Hall ✭✭✭✭✭

Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra

+ support Nell Bryden

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to the Royal Albert Hall to witness, quite frankly some amazing vocals from Jools Holland's support act - Nell Bryden.

Accompanied by a pianist, Nell plays guitar beautifully, and when the voice belts out... well I never! She reminds me of a powerful yet smooth Annie Lennox, with a catalogue of original tracks to boot, one of my favourites being Shake the Tree. Nell also sang a lovely poignant track called Sirens, written with the 9/11 events in mind. With a sold out venue at her disposal, the audience were loving it, nice mellow tones, meaningful lyrics, and a vocal range to be envious of. It was the start of a great night of music.

Nell Bryden

Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra are becoming very iconic, and selling out everywhere they go. Why? Because they are damn good that's why! A twelve piece horn section, all doing solos here there and everywhere, Gilson Lavis on drums also doing a solo (in suit and tie) and a plethora of special guests made it a wonderful night of a mixture of styles.

Jools was joined on stage by KT Tunstall, Roland Gift and Ruby Turner amongst others, each doing their own take of their songs with the added Jools twist. I lost count of the number of horn solos amongst songs, I enjoyed them far too much.

A fabulous evenings entertainment - and keep an eye out for Nell Bryden who is currently supporting Gary Barlow on a UK tour.

5 stars ✭✭✭✭✭

www.nellbryden.com