Express & Star

King King to play Birmingham Town Hall

They’ve been described as the highpoint of classic rock music. King King’s hot blues and rock is to music what Real Madrid or Barcelona are to football.

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King King. Photo by: Rob Blackham

The band released their debut album, Take My Hand, in 2011 and the following year secured success at the British Blues Awards for Best Album. They have since released four more studio records and won a raft of awards.

The band are back on the road and will headline Birmingham’s Town Hall on Thursday, with support from Rhino’s Revenge.

The multi-award winning rock/blues band have an astounding back catalogue. The highly talented bunch have a reputation for a chemistry that lies, not only between band members, but also between band and audience. They work the audience like stadium pros, yet there is also an intimacy to their performances that makes the whole crowd feel part of the show.

Having scored three radio hit singles on Planet Rock with the songs; Crazy, Hurricane, and most recently, Rush Hour, King King received a nomination for Best New Band at the 2015 Classic Rock Awards. They followed that up with an UK arena tour supporting Thunder.

What makes them way above average is the powerhouse rhythm section of Wayne Proctor on drums and Lindsay Coulson on bass, coupled with the dazzling fingers of Bob Fridzema on keyboards. Frontman Alan Nimmo, meanwhile, is a virtuoso possessed of an almost impolite level of charisma and the talent to back it up. His full-blooded style, technical brilliance and impassioned vocals are infectious and instantly recognisable. There’s no smoke and mirrors behind this group’s rise: just killer songs, performed with true passion, by a fist-tight line-up.

Nimmo is looking forward to being on the road following the release of the band’s most recent record, Exile and Grace.

“I suppose with each album and with everything that comes along with it . . . the PR and media and things, it comes with all that pressure, but I try to not let any of that get in the way of the musical process, the recording, and writing process. If you get bogged down with all that you tend to lose focus on the music.”

The band have enjoyed huge success in the UK and Europe and are hoping to crack America. And although there’s a long way to go before they make it big in the USA, it’s high on their list of priorities.

Nimmo added: “It’s always on the radar. We’re always in charts, but the unfortunate thing is when it boils down to reality and truth is sometimes getting to the States is just difficult at times, but we’re looking and we’re always trying to plan ahead, and we have every attention of getting there and it will happen for all our Stateside fans that we’re lucky to be in contact with on the social media side of things we will be coming at some point, trust us, just be patient.

“It’s a logistical nightmare at times and that can be very, very expensive to do it properly as well, so we don’t want to sneak in the back door. We want to do it right and make an impact when we do go there. An ideal situation is be to be playing larger venues, maybe on a support tour with a bigger band. That’s the kind of idea we’re trying to look at rather than playing the small kind of bars like that would prove a bit difficult at times.”

Exile and Grace has been described as a masterpiece and Alan is pleased that it’s struck a chord with fans and critics alike.

“Yes, I think it is a very proud moment for us. We’re very happy with the album and how it turned out. There is always a better song inside me though, so I relish the challenge of making the next album even better but right now these songs are the best we’ve written and we’re proud of that.

“The one thing we always try to do when recording an album is to try and see it the way the fans would. We never want to have filler songs on there that people end up skipping past. We want you to listen from start to finish every time. That’s one of the main reasons we don’t put too many tracks on either. Sometimes albums can be too long and you get bored.”

Alan feels the band has grown considerably in recent years. He believes he is writing better songs that have a stronger connection with fans. ‘