Since their debut gig at The Half Moon Putney on the 8th March 2014 The Boom Band – featuring the four guitar line-up of Jon Amor (The Hoax/solo), Marcus Bonfanti (solo/Ten Years After), Mark Butcher (solo/former England cricket star) and Matt Taylor (Snowy White/The Motives), plus keyboard player Paddy Milner (Tom Jones/Jack Bruce/solo) – have developed something of a reputation as an awesome live band. Their studio work has had praise indeed with their debut album receiving rave reviews across the board prompting descriptions such as “hugely refreshing”, “rousing songwriting” and “a special record” from the music press. It was perhaps Van Morrison who described them most succinctly, declaring “this band is great – they’re on the money!”, after the Booms had backed him at Paul Jones’ Charity Show in December 2014. There have been several descriptions of The Booms as “one of the highlights of the festival” both in the UK and in The Netherlands, including a memorable performance at one of Europe’s biggest blues festivals Moulin Blues, and they have appeared at many other festivals in the UK and beyond.

The Boom Band is not like other bands. For a start every one of the front line is not only a great player but also a fine singer and talented songwriter. To say nothing of the contributions from former bassist Scott Wiber; his songs Sweet Alberta and Waste My Time were bashfully put forward for consideration and ended up being key tracks on the album. Everybody brings something to the party, there are no weak links. And, perhaps remarkably, at the same time there are no egos. Everyone has the experience and temperament to be able to sit back and let others shine and then step up and shine themselves when the time is right. Vocals and guitars blend in harmony and then one guitar or another, or perhaps Paddy’s Hammond organ or piano will find itself at the fore.

Oh… did we mention the four guitarists? Count’em, FOUR! With four guitar players in a band they have to know how to make space for each other. And don’t by any means get to thinking that the Boom Band is just about endless guitar solos. Yes, there are solos of course, but in The Boom Band the song is king, be it the joyful southern rock of We Can Work Together, the dirty blues of Diamonds in the Rust, the cool soul of Under the Skin or the restrained epic Moonshine. Unless you consider the craziness of the instrumental Monty’s Theme, where the guitars communicate by weaving around each other in harmonies and solos, though the piano actually wins the day and the Hammond organ gives them all a run for their money.

With bass and drum duties now carried out by John Noyce of Gary Moore and Jethro Tull fame and Evan Jenkins of The Neil Cowley Trio and Matt Schofield Band, The Boom Band are a force to be reckoned with on the live stage, something they were keen to capture on record, so their show on Friday 4th September 2015 was recorded and the album ‘The Moon Goes Boom – Live in London’ is out now. Also available now is a limited edition (100 copies) acoustic CD ‘The Boom Guitars – The Fortress Session’, 9 tracks on a gold vinyl-effect CD, each one signed by Jon, Marcus, Butch and Matt (now sold out). The band is currently in the process of writing new material for their second studio album, due 2017.

Bio and photo source: https://www.matttaylor.info/the-boom-band