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Whether blowing the blues with Eric Clapton, adding lustre to the latest pop hit, or helping a young band on a budget give life to the sound in their heads, the Kick Horns bring a unique passion and commitment to every project they take on. In the early days they worked with Walter Becker on the China Crisis album Flaunt the Imperfection, with Bob Ezrin on David Gilmour’s About Face, and went on to supply the driving riffs on Pete Townshend’s Face the Face, later appearing in Townshend’s White City film and the legendary Deep End live shows at Brixton Academy. Telephones started ringing, and they soon built up a reputation with producers as the hippest horns in town. The next few years brought tours of America and Europe with The Who, The Waterboys and Deacon Blue as well as sessions for The Rolling Stones, Primal Scream, Spiritualized and the influential Stereo MCs album Connected. In 1993, they joined Eric Clapton’s band for his blues-only concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall, the start of an exhilarating ride that took in From the Cradle and three and a half years of touring and recording in the company of heroes like Steve Gadd, Richie Hayward, Jim Keltner, Duck Dunn, Nathan East, Chris Stainton and Andy Fairweather Low. In the same period Kick Horns made a huge contribution to the sound of Britpop, recording Modern Life is Rubbish, Parklife and The Great Escape with Blur, as well as playing on hits by Supergrass, Suede and Dodgy. Not to be typecast, they also worked with Finley Quaye, Gabrielle and Baaba Maal. There were two number ones with the Spice Girls, while German star Westernhagen called them in for three albums and tours. By the turn of the century, the Kick Horns had achieved a wide-ranging body of work including the funk of Jamiroquai, the Algerian Rai of Khaled and Faudel, the New Orleans grooves of Dr John (Anutha Zone) and the cool club beats of Groove Armada. In 2005 Eric Clapton called them in again to play and arrange on eight songs on Back Home, followed by tours of Britain and Europe in 2006. Recently, they have been a part of Baaba Maal and Damon Albarn’s Africa Express collective for shows in London, Glastonbury and Liverpool, while studio highlights have included Rufus Wainwright’s Want One, Hard-Fi’s Once Upon a Time in the West, Beyonce’s Greenlight and new albums for Michael McDonald, Ben Taylor and David Ford. More than two decades of dedicated teamwork have created a European horn section of world class. |
The first Kick Horns album