Hamburg Blues Band
The Hamburg Blues Band is a German rock blues group and was founded in 1982 by singer and rhythm guitarist Gert Lange , among others .
The HBB plays a hard blues, which lives especially through the voice of Gert Lange and the guitar riffs of Alex Conti and often includes elements of hard rock in the music. The two protagonists Lange and Conti dominate the band, especially when they perform live.
The current line-up of HBB consists of Miller Anderson on lead guitar (formerly with Keef Hartley and Savoy Brown ), before that it was Clem Clempson and Alex Conti, Gert Lange (vocals and rhythm guitar), Hans Wallbaum on drums, Michael “Bexi” Becker on bass (also Lake ) and formerly Adrian Askew on keyboards (also Lake). The renowned British saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith (formerly Bluesbreakers and Colosseum) was an integral part of the HBB from the beginning, but died of cancer on December 17, 2004, shortly before the release of the last album "Live - On The Edge of A Knife". On this album, he was given a special monument with his 18-minute track “Woza Nasu” ( Bring Home The Goods ). The "sixth" member works behind the scenes and is the lyricist Pete Brown , who wrote for the Cream group and is jointly responsible for classics like "White Room" and "Sunshine Of Your Love".
In summer 2006 the "Herzberg Blues Allstars" were put together for the "Burg Herzberg Festival". The HBB formed the base band here, opened the concert and was reinforced by many stars of the European blues scene in the course of the evening. In particular, these were: Chris Farlowe , Clem Clempson , Mike Harrison and Pete Brown. This was recorded on a double DVD produced by the WDR-Rockpalast.
After lead guitarist Alex Conti left the band in spring 2008, the former Humble Pie and (still) Colosseum guitarist Clem Clempson was presented as a permanent member of the band. This left the band in 2012 and made way for Miller Anderson . Also in 2012 the keyboardist Adrian Askew Lake left the band to support Clem Clempson in his solo career. Both already play on the studio album "Mad Dog Blues", which was produced in 2008 and was only delivered in mid-January 2009. In 2011 they went on tour with Arthur Brown and Chris Farlowe .
During the "Friends for a LIVEtime" tour in winter / spring 2013, the Lange / Becker / Wallbaum trio continued to perform together with the guitarist Miller Anderson . The ex- Stone the Crows singer Maggie Bell was on tour as a guest singer .
In 2015 the band hired the young guitarist Krissy Matthews at the music festival "Musik am Noor". Since then, the band has been touring with him as a permanent lead guitarist.
Discography
- 1989 Live Feat. Dick Heckstall-Smith
- 1996 Real Stuff
- 1999 rollin '
- 2001 Touch - Mike Harrison Meets The HBB
- 2005 Live - On the Edge Of A Knife
- 2006 DVD: Burg Herzberg Festival 2006 (WDR-Rockpalast)
- 2008 Mad Dog Blues
- 2013 Friends For A LIVEtime Vol. 1