+ Robot Elvis

 

After the gig ....

Just one of those very special nights when everything works. Two superb bands, very friendly audience, excellent ales in a fabulous pub. Robot Elvis started the proceedings with a 45 minute set of covers which hit the spot perfectly. They are packing out pubs throughout the region and its no wonder why on this performance. Popa Chubby sat at the merch desk during RT's set and was also very impressed. "Those guys are rockin ...." Then it's bandana on, guitar over the shoulder, foot on the peddle and whoosh we're off for a two hour extravaganza of blues to rock. He's brilliant! Lots of his own compositions which demonstrated the quality of Popa's new album, "Deliveries After Dark." He chucks in some wonderful standards - he loves his Hendrix. He's [hopefully] going to be back next year, so watch out if Popa Chubby gets you, you will know about it!

 

Popa Chubby really is a sensation. As his name suggests, he is not a little lad, but wow can he swing that guitar. On the rock side of blues, Popa played his first Northeast gig about four years ago and we have been trying to get him back ever since. It was originally intended to play Newcastle, but we could not get an available venue for the date we were offered. So it is a big thank you to the Magnesia Bank for coming to our rescue. The support band are also a bit tasty - Robot Elvis no less! The lead guitarist is the excellent Baz Warne from the Stranglers, the superb Joss Elliott is on bass and metronome like "Little Baz" is on drums. The Magi Bank has of course a big reputation for being one of the leading real ale pubs in the Northeast and it goes without saying it's going to be a cracking night!  Numbers limited, so order your tickets now!

 

Born Ted Horowitz in the Bronx, NY, Popa Chubby was the son of a candy store owner.

At 13, Popa Chubby began playing drums; shortly thereafter, he discovered the music of the Rolling Stones and began playing guitar. Although he grew up in the 1970s, Popa Chubby took his cue from artists of the 1960s, including Sly & The Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton, among others. By the time he was in his early twenties, he enjoyed and played blues music, but also worked for a while backing punk poet Richard Hell.

Popa Chubby's first big break was winning a national blues talent search sponsored by KLON, a public radio station in Long Beach, CA. He won the New Artist of the Year award and opened at the Long Beach Blues Festival in 1992.

In 1994, Popa Chubby released several albums on his own Laughing Bear label, It's Chubby Time [so that's where that Chico guy got it from] and Gas Money, before landing his deal with Sony Music and Okeh Records for Booty & The Beast, his major-label debut, released in 1995 It was produced by longtime Atlantic Records engineer, producer Tom Dowd, whose recordings by Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, and others are legendary.

In 1996, the 1 (800) PrimeCD label released a live recording of Chubby's, Hit The High Hard One. Two years later, One Million Broken Guitars was released on Lightyear Records; Brooklyn Basement Blues followed in 1999.

In 2000, Chubby signed with the Blind Pig label and released How'd A White Boy Get The Blues? in 2001. The disc turned out to be a slight departure, incorporating elements of contemporary pop and hip-hop. 2002's The Good, The Bad & The Chubby showed great development in the artist's songwriting and included the 9/11 commentary "Somebody Let the Devil Out."

Blind Pig released a collection of early Chubby recordings, The Hungry Years, in 2003. Troubled by the war in Iraq, Chubby released his most political album, Peace, Love & Respect, a year later.

Two albums previously available only in France -- Live at FIP and Wild -- were compiled by the Blind Pig label and released as Big Man Big Guitar in 2005, followed by a new studio set called Stealing the Devil's Guitar a year later.

Electric Chubbyland, a two-disc set of Chubby covering Jimi Hendrix songs, appeared from Dixie Frog that same year, and then was repackaged and issued as two single discs by Blind Pig in 2007. ~ Richard Skelly & Al Campbell, All Music Guide