The Globe Brentford, West London ANDY CORTES BAND, July 1st 2001

The Globe saw, and so did I, the Andy Cortes Band for the first time last Sunday night. You, if you are like myself, may have times that you go through in your life, you know will stay in your mind till you meet your maker. Well; Sunday night (July 1st) was one of those times.

The Blues is littered with classic names of artists from the early years of the last century to this present day, and it seems there are even more to follow. Andy Cortes is a young man to prove it. I heard about Andy Cortes a few years ago, and have now, for the second time in a couple of months witnessed this young man's "exxpurrtease". The first time was around six weeks ago when he played as a guest with a another band at The Globe, then last Sunday saw Andy Cortes perform a whole gig with his own band, The Andy Cortes Band, again at The Globe.

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ANDY CORTES

It was an exceptionally hot evening for the 1st of July, and when the band kicked off with Rock n Roll X 2 there was no chance of things cooling down. Crosscut Saw came next to warm it up some more, I think the band were starting to raise the steam pressure by now, they were definitely raising the temperature. Gary Brewer puts his vocals to S Long Years and the audience starts to melt. English summers as we know can be unpredictable, but we were being blessed with a good one this evening.

More Pictures

Andy Cortes stepped upto the mike and introduced his first of three guests for the night, and the first was a young lady to take the vocals, by the name of Rowena, the first number; guess what? Summertime. How such a full voice comes out of such a small frame I just don't know, perhaps my eyes were starting to melt. Rowena has so much feeling in her voice, as well as her body language, but guess what the next number Rowena was going to perform would be, how about; FEVER. Now I know you can have barmy summer evenings, but what's this, Sunday Night Fever, Phew! Rowena finished her performance with Hideaway (I could have hid in a fridge) then the band finished the first set with Blues Shuffle. Time to get some liquid and move to the garden.

The second set kicked off with Rock n Roll and the helicopter blades on the ceiling were going full blast. The next two numbers, Annie Lee, followed by Blues Shuffle 2 saw the band running with the throttle wide open. Andy Cortes was playing a blinder, eyes closed and fingers dancing, I'm sure there were a few souls going into overdrive, if only I was that ag! Oh well your never too old to Rock, and Cortes proves your never too young.
Rowena returns for the next number, Long Train, with another guest Jules Fotherington on guitar. How much hotter was it going to get, well I Wish was the last number with almost everybody was up there. were they going to get away? well of course not. After Charlies vocals the band wound the night off with, go on have a guess. How about Let's Dance, I was in orbit, well done Andy, hope to see you again.

See below for line up

Band line up
Andy Cortes -- Guitar
Gary Brewer -- Guitar and Vocals
Foxy -- Bass
Paul Atkinson -- Drums
Rob Millis -- Keyboard
Noel Brown -- Guitar and Vocals
Guest Artists
Rowena -- Vocals
Del Mandel -- Guitar
Jules Fotherington -- Guitar