Features

FOZ : How are things in the NBZ camp?

DENNIS : We've got the festival season coming up. We've been to Norway where the sun didn't go down for three days which was a bit disconcerting!. We've also done France, Italy and Spain so it's all systems go.

FOZ : And I hear your harmonica player Mark Feltham has been especially busy.

DENNIS : Yeah, he's been to Las Vegas for some session work. He's also been out to Russia with Chris Farlowe. One thing I'm miffed about is that he hasn't been asked to teach a celebrity how to play harmonica. There's a new celebrity programme where they're learning to play instruments. There must be a star out there who'd like to learn from the master! He's certainly the governor and although there are a few around the world not many can touch him. I feel very privileged to play with him. He keeps pulling different rabbits from the hat.

FOZ : And like you he's a blues man at heart.

DENNIS : Yes he is but he also thinks he can play country and he loves his Charlie McCoy. I do have to remind him he is one of the best blues player around and he's like a lot of people in that he doesn't seem to know his own talent. You constantly have to remind him what he's good at and what he's best at. He's like all of us really. We all need to be motivated and told we're good at this and that.

FOZ : Your most recent CD "Hats Off" saw NBZ paying tribute to the Chicago blues greats.

DENNIS : We'd never done that before. We were travelling with our Norwegian agent and he suggested we do an album of Chicago blues. We'd touched on it on "Live At The Marquee". It was a project we really enjoyed. We went to Ray Davies's Konk studios in Islington, North London. It's all analogue which means we did it all on tape. It was live takes from the floor, just like the old days. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to perform rather than do overdubs afterwards and disguise what we were up to. It was very much putting ourselves on the rack really.

FOZ : Any plans for the next album?

DENNIS : Yeah, we're writing at the moment and will be spending some of the summer in the studio to lay the foundations for a 10 or 12 track album of original material. There's a live DVD in the offing too. We're going to record an acoustic show and an electric one. There are one or two other things in the pipeline so I hope one or come off. It's lovely because there's a great buzz out there for us.

FOZ : You couldn't have imagined when you first got the band together you'd still be doing it more than a quarter of a century later.

DENNIS : - No I didn't. When I left school and me and Mark formed NBZ I had no idea we'd make a living out of our music. The nice thing is that as you get older I think you get better. You know Clapton made that "Journeyman" album and it's very much that. I would hate to be the flavour of the month and because we never had a hit single we've retained that cult status. It's enabled us to form our own record company and perform and release stuff as we want to. It's a nice position to be in.

FOZ : What can we look forward to at Bures?

DENNIS : Well, we have been taking keyboards player Pete Wingfield out on the road with us but for the next few months we're coming back to our four piece line-up with a very punchy, energetic sound. It's going to be very much in your face really. Pete produced our first single "Homework" funnily enough and we've had some great times. But the keyboards can make NBZ sound like a different band so for Bures we're back to basics for a punky sound but still very much the blues.

Opening For Nine Below Zero at Bures will be Suffolk acoustic blues outfit The Back Porch Band who did such a good job at last year's blues night that they were the obvious choice as support. Tickets are priced at £13 but get in quick as all four previous blues nights have been sell-outs. Further details visit the links to the right of the page.