PORT ANGELES — Upstage Presents and Studio Bob will host a performance of the blues group Band of Friends at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Tickets are $20 at www.newupstage.com and at Harbor Art Gallery, 114 N. Laurel St. for the concert at Studio Bob, 118½ E. Front St., (upstairs).
Band of Friends, winner of the 2013 European Blues Award, will present a celebration of Rory Gallagher’s life and music, said Bob Stokes, Studio Bob owner.
Gallagher‘s music reached a massive audience from Norway to Japan to the U.S., producing some of the greatest rock and blues albums of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s until his death in 1995, according to Stokes.
The band consists of Gallagher’s original rhythm section, band members George McAvoy and Ted McKenna. They are fronted by a young blues guitarist, Davy Knowles.
Band of Friends’ current tour takes them from California’s Ramona MainStage and iconic clubs such as Blues and Biscuits and Moe’s Alley, to Portland’s Aladdin Theater, and Vancouver, B.C.,’s Fox Stage.
Their performance at Studio Bob is their last in North America before finishing their tour in Athens, Greece.
Knowles is originally from the Isle of Man and now lives in Chicago. Highlights from his career include playing live to astronauts on the International Space Station from NASA Mission Control in Houston — one of only a handful of artists invited to do so.
He’s toured alongside the likes of Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani, Chickenfoot, The Rhythm Devils, and Gov’t Mule. Knowles also toured with Buddy Guy, The Who, Warren Haynes, George Thorogood, Peter Frampton, Joe Bonamassa, Kid Rock, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
McAvoy, who plays bass guitar, played with Gallagher for 20 years and on every album he ever made. He’s also known for time spent with blues legend Champion Jack Dupree, Deep Joy and Nine Below Zero.
McKenna, on drums, played with Gallagher from 1977 to 1981 and with numerous rock legends such as Greg Lake, Gary Moore and The Michael Schenker Group, just to name a few.
