We Want the Funk Festival: Loose Ends ft Jane Eugene & Average White Band

The fifth annual We Want the Funk Festival, will celebrate the rhythm-driven musical genre that evolved from the R&B, soul, and jazz scenes of the 1960s and that continues to influence today’s artists, featuring a dynamic host and lineup that will include a variety of performers from chart-toppers to R&B-fusion groups to solo vocalists.

LOOSE ENDS

Loose Ends is a successful British R&B band formed in 1980 and signed to Virgin Records in 1981. Many urban contemporary hits followed, such as: “Hanging on a string” reaching no.1 in the U.S charts and no.13 in the U.K charts, and “Slow Down” reaching no.27 in the U.K charts and no.1 in the U.S charts. Loose Ends are the first British R&B band to have a no.1 gold selling Album in the U.S going on to sell millions. After Jane Eugene and Steve Nichol left the group, Carl McIntosh went on to create and produce the “Look How Long” album released in 1990, with the hit single “Don’t be a fool” reaching no.13 in the U.K charts and no.10 in the U.S charts. Laying to rest the assumption that the group had broken up.

The album features many of the UK’s top vocalists, Laurneá Wilkerson, Linda Carriere, Christine Levin, and Sunay Suleyman. Carl McIntosh’s musicianship, singing, songwriting & production can also be heard on songs by Caron Wheeler, Ruth Joy, 5-Star, Phylis Hyman, D’angello, Angie Stone and Leon Ware to name a few.

Carl’s work can be heard throughout early releases prior to 1980 right up to the present. And he is currently in the studio writing new songs for the new singles and album to follow with his current band members, Linda Carriere, and Christine Levin.

AVERAGE WHITE BAND

AWB are widely regarded as one of the best soul and funk bands in the history of music. Though perhaps best known for their timeless instrumental mega-hit ‘Pick Up the Pieces’ the band’s strength actually lay in their consistently accomplished song-writing, stretching across several gold selling albums and multi- grammy nominations for the legendary Atlantic Records. Somewhat incongruously, given their Scottish roots, the six piece took the influences of their R&B heroes – people like Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Donny Hathaway and others – and developed their own ‘authentic’ sound which was eagerly adopted by black audiences in the US and elsewhere.

Whilst a good number of cuts – ‘Cut The Cake’ and ‘Let’s Go ‘Round Again’ to name but two – attracted chart action as hit singles, many other album tracks, like ‘Schoolboy Crush’ and ‘Person to Person’ became much sampled and turn-tabled ‘rare’ grooves. Many more tunes, such as ‘Cloudy’, ‘A Love Of Your Own’ and ‘Nothing You Can Do’ – amongst many others- stand alongside some of the finest soul ‘album tracks’ ever recorded.

The current lineup of the band, with noted US musicians alongside founding members Alan Gorrie and Onnie McIntyre, continues to delight audiences and critics alike in its wide – ranging touring. The musical energy and trademark sound are remarkably true to the original, and with constant revisitations and re-workings of AWB’s, and others’ classics in the mix, it is no surprise that the Average White Band is now a multi – generational attraction, and a perennial fixture with so many of the top music venues.