The City Blues Band

The City Blues Band was a British blues outfit based in Canterbury, active in the late 1970’s and throughout the 1980’s. They started out as the British Lorries with Prune (? surname) on bass, Steve Wyse (guitar), Richard Raine (guitar), Glenn Kill (slide and rhythm guitar) and Bob Fridd (Vocals). Alan Clarke (harmonica) joined later, followed by Neil Brunton (bass). After Prune left they changed their name to the City Blues Band. They played mainly blues standards with some R&B and Rock and Roll. A few original songs came along from Glenn and Neil. Line-ups were quite fluid with many well-known guest artists such as Richard Sinclair and Pye Hastings. Dave Alberry sponsored them to go into the studio to record for their loyal fans (most of whom would see them at Alberry’s Wine Bar) and stumped up the costs for pressing 1000 copies. The single had some radio airplay, not least on Portsmouth local radio. Their “biggest” gig was support to Hawkwind. At their peak, this was a phenomenally good live band with superb musicianship and authentic sounds. Things fizzled out around the late 80’s, early 90’s but members can still be seen performing around the Canterbury/Kent arena. An interesting offshoot were The Feeble Three with Glenn and Bob at the core and a very fluid third (guitar, harmonica, violin - whatever) playing more traditional blues than the increasingly rocky CBB.