Book a Table in the Moldy Fig - Open for Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch & Dinner

KING PLEASURE & THE BISCUIT BOYS

About this event

Member ticket only - £15
Non-members ticket only– £20

Member Dining + Ticket - £40

Non Member Dining + Ticket - £45

Hotel Deal - Dinner Bed & Breakfast plus tickets just £139 per couple

Doors Open 7.30pm

On Stage 8.15pm

KING PLEASURE & THE BISCUIT BOYS

Dazzling musicianship,​ riveting stage performances, more than 50 TV appearances (including, somewhat bizarrely, five episodes of Teletubbies) and 75 radio broadcasts have established them as the Kings of Swing.

​What does the title ‘King Pleasure’ evoke? In this context it suggests eating, drinking, spending money, chasing chicks, having a good time, overdoing it more than somewhat and explaining the events of the night before to the judge on the morning after. All apt topics for song and celebration, especially in these grim times. So much pop music nowadays is full of anger and violence on the one hand, and slack-jawed stupidity on the other, and so much contemporary jazz is excessively earnest and glum, that we are in urgent need of music that comes with a cheer-up guarantee. That is exactly what King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys unfailingly deliver.

​Sounds easy when put like that, but it isn’t - not to do it properly at any rate. Any bunch of fools can don zoot suits and pointy shoes that you could climb a chain-link fence in. It doesn’t take a lot to learn a few riffs and strike a few poses. But to create the kind of easy swing you hear on The Wrong Door, the precision and attack of Big Girl, the blend in Bring It On Baby takes talent, focus and a lot of working together. And when you experience it live you discover what a real show can be - wholehearted, full-on, exhausting and unforgettable.

​But what kind of music is it? Well, if you’ll kindly lay aside that list of runners and riders once more, I’ll attempt a brief historical sketch. Ahem! When the great Swing Era ended, in the mid - 1940s, it broke apart and the various bits started growing into styles of their own. One of these dance-hall rhythm and blues, as performed by such names as Lucky Millinder, Buddy Johnson and Louis Jordan, at places like Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom. This, I think, is the root of the Biscuit Boys’ style, although their own distinctive approach has by now developed quite a long way from there.